Jeffersonian 2nd Jacob

--------------------Chapter 1--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 1

1 55 years have passed since my father Lehi left The Great City.

2 Nephi gave me, Jacob, instructions regarding these small plates upon which these lessons are written.

3 He told me that I should write the things which I considered to be important upon these plates and I that should only write a little bit of the history of our people, which are called Nephites.

4 Not much history should be written here, because the history of our people should be written on his other plates

5 Nephi told me that I should keep these plates safe and hand them down to my descendants, from generation to generation.

6 If there was anything that especially helped everyone learn how to be moral, I should write it on these plates and teach as much as possible for the sake of our people.

7 We taught these good lessons diligently among our people so that we could persuade them to be moral.

8 We did all we could to persuade all men not to rebel against morality.

9 I, Jacob, promised to fulfill the instructions of my brother Nephi.

10 Now Nephi began to be old and knew he would soon die.

11 For that reason, he anointed a man to be a king and a ruler over his people in his stead.

12 The reign of kings over the Nephites had begun.

13 The Nephites loved Nephi. He was a great protector for them.

14 He wielded the sword of Laban for their defense and worked all his life for their welfare.

15 That is why the people wanted to retain a remembrance of his name.

16 Those who would reign in his stead were called by the people, 2nd Nephi, 3rd Nephi, and so forth, according to the reigns of the kings.

17 This is the title that the Nephites gave their kings, despite whatever the king's name was.

18 And it came to pass that Nephi died.

19 There were multiple factions of people, called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites.

20 But I, Jacob, won't distinguish them by these names, but I will call those who followed Nephi as a leader "Nephites", and those that wanted to destroy the Nephites "Lamanites".

21 The Nephites, under the reign of the 2nd king, began to become more and more immoral.

22 They were very lustful towards one another and didn't regard the feelings of their spouses.

23 They began to be greedy and prideful.

24 That is why, I, Jacob, chastised them at the temple, where we meditated and taught lessons of morality.

25 I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph were respected by these people as teachers because of Nephi.

26 We felt responsible to help the Nephites live moral lives.

--------------------Chapter 2--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 2

1 This is what I said to the Nephites after the death of Nephi:

	2 "My beloved brothers and sisters, I, Jacob, want to help you through this difficult time because I feel responsible for you.

	3 You yourselves know that until now I have help many of you as a teacher.

	4 Today I am more concerned than usual about you, which is why I want to teach you here at our temple.

	5 I am concerned because many of you have been living immorally.

	6 Listen to me! You are not being moral!

	7 I am ashamed I have not been able to help you understand how to live a moral life.

	8 I am ashamed that I must chastise you so boldly concerning how you have treated your spouses and your children, many of whose feelings are very delicate.

	9 They likely came here today to hear words of comfort from the loss of Nephi, but I must honor Nephi's legacy and help lead you towards morality.

	10 I am sad that I need to chastise you because of what you have done.

	11 I am sad we have to talk about this at all, but it needs to happen in order for healing to take place.

	12 I am also sad that those who have not hurt their spouses and children need to hear these lessons instead of hearing more relevant lessons to themselves.

	13 I must do this, however, because it needs to be done.

	14 I do so plainly, as Nephi loved to do.

	15 I thought about what I would teach you for many days, and this is what I need to tell you:

	16 you have begun to be a greedy people. You lust after gold, silver, and other riches more than you want to help one another.

	17 We are lucky to live in such a good land. It is indeed full of riches and can provide plentifully for all of us.

	18 However, those who are rewarded by the land more than others think they are better than their brothers and sisters.

	19 Listen you: You are prideful and stubborn.

	20 Just because you have nice clothes doesn't make you better than anyone else.

	21 Do you think that acting in such a way is moral? No!

	22 Give up these practices or you will destroy yourselves like the inhabitants of The Great City.

	23 Be moral, my brothers and sisters!

	24 Treat others like how you want to be treated.

	25 Be friendly to each other.

	26 Help each other.

	27 When we do this, we are all rich.

	28 Before you seek riches for yourself, seek the richness of love.

	29 When you have love in your life, you are rich.

	30 You are rich when you do good, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, free the slave, and heal the sick.

	31 Now, my brothers and sisters, I have spoken to you concerning pride.

	32 Those of you which have wronged and persecuted your neighbor because of your pride in the things that the land has given you, what do you have to say for yourselves?

	33 Do you know that what you did was wrong?

	34 Every human being is just as precious as the other and one day we will all die.

	35 I have now spoken enough regarding pride.

	36 I do this because I have to speak about your worse immorality. My heart would be so happy if I didn't have to but you have burdened me to do so.

	37 You have begun to be an immoral people. You make excuses for hurting your spouses and children.

	38 We didn't leave The Great City to become just like them!

	39 We left The Great City to be better than it!

	40 Listen to me: Do not cheat on your spouse. Treat them with dignity and respect.

	41 Cheating is a terrible thing to do.

	42 If our people continue to cheat on their spouses, we will lose all morality and will suffer as a people.

	43 We need to be a moral people!

	44 Our ancestor Lehi taught these things as well.

	45 You all know these lessons! Since you know what you did is wrong, that makes it even worse.

	46 You are acting even worse than the Lamanites!

	47 You have broken the hearts of your spouses and lost the confidence of your children because you have been bad examples to them.

	48 Their hearts and love have deep wounds from your pierces.

--------------------Chapter 3--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 3

	1 I know that you can be a good people.

	2 Look to each other for comfort and forgiveness.

	3 Live a moral life, my brothers and sisters.

	4 If you do not we will lose our land!

	5 The Lamanites will come and take it away.

	6 If you don't stop now this will become a reality.

	7 Again, the Lamanites have been more moral than you.

	8 Even though they are an immoral people, they do not hurt their spouses and children by cheating on them.

	9 Their spouses love each other and their parents love their children, and their children love their parents.

	10 How are you better than them?

	11 The reason there is enmity between the Nephites and the Lamanites is because of how they were raised.

	12 Their fathers hated our fathers.

	13 We should be kind to them even if they are different from us.

	14 Remember that we are no better than them, and they no better than us.

	15 Remember that you set an example for your children, because they will live how you teach them to live.

	16 Wake up and listen to me!

	17 Stop being immoral and be moral instead!"

18 Now I, Jacob, spoke many more things to the Nephites, warning them against cheating on their spouses and telling them the awful consequences of it.

19 I spoke so much to my people that even one one-hundredth cannot be written upon these plates.

20 Many of the Nephite's actions, wars, fights, and reigns of their kings are written upon the larger plates.

--------------------Chapter 4--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 4

1 I, Jacob, have helped my people often. I can only write a very little of how I have, because there wouldn't be enough space on these plates. I need to save room for others to write.

2 We know that if we don't write down our history, the history will likely be forgotten.

3 That makes what we do write incredibly valuable.

4 We want this valuable history to be given to our children and our brothers so they will know their history.

5 It makes us happy to do this.

6 We hope that we can one day help the Lamanites also live moral lives and be thankful for these writings.

7 We hope that they read them so they will learn with joy, and not with sorrow or contempt, regarding their first parents Lehi and Sariah.

8 That is why we have written what we have: so that our descendants can remember the words of morality of their ancestors.

9 Many of our ancestors lived very moral lives.

10 That is why we read the history of our people.

11 We should learn from the successes and failures of our ancestors.

12 We all know that this is good advice.

13 My beloved brothers and sisters, read our history!

14 Read it so that you don't make mistakes that have already been made.

15 Don't be so surprised that I am repeating this simple lesson to you.

16 The past is one of the best teachers.

17 Those that know the past do not make the same mistakes in the future.

18 They see things as they really are, and things that may be again if others do not learn from history.

19 History is very plain and easy to learn.

20 Our ancestors have taught us to do this as well.

21 The Great City was stubborn and despised the simplicity of the lessons learn from history.

22 They killed those that taught these lessons, because they wouldn't hear them.

23 Since they refuse to hear these lessons, they will inevitably fall.

24 When they begin to stumble, they will desperately look for answers.

25 They won't be able to find those answers because they will have killed the teachers.

26 I, Jacob, believe these things are important to say.

27 I believe they are important because I see the same problems among the Nephites that The Great City experienced.

28 They have not built their house upon a rock, and do not have a safe foundation.

29 Its only when you have a strong foundation that a building will last.

--------------------Chapter 5--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 5

1 My brothers and sisters, do you not remember having read the words of our ancestor Zenos, who spoke saying:

	2 "Listen to me, my people!

	3 You are like a tame olive tree, which a man took and nourished in his vineyard where it grew, became old, and began to decay.

	4 The master of the vineyard went and saw that his olive tree began to decay.

	5 When he saw it, he pruned it, dug around it, and nourished it so that it might grow saplings and not die.

	6 After many days, saplings started to sprout, but the main tree started to die.

	7 The master of the vineyard saw this and was sad that he would lose the tree.

	8 He went and plucked the saplings so that he could graft on new branches.

	9 He also burned the main tree.

	10 He took many of those young and tender saplings and grafted them onto a wild tree.

	11 He did this, because it doesn't matter if the root of the tree he loved dies, as long as he can save the fruit that grows from the tree.

	12 That is why he took many of those young and tender saplings and grafted them onto a wild tree.

	13 After some time, the grafted saplings began to bear fruit.

	14 The fruit was just as good as it was when it was on the tree that had now died and been burned.

	15 The master of the vineyard stored the fruit which he had grown.

	16 This tree, which was once wild, now had delicious fruit growing from it.

	17 This is because he took care of the tree.

	18 If he had not put in the effort of taking care of his tree with grafted branches, it would have grown bad fruit or no fruit at all.

	19 The master knew that it may take time when you are putting in effort to see the fruit of your labors, and he must be patient.

	20 If the master of the vineyard had not cleared away bad vines and thorns, it would have choked out the grafted saplings.

	21 If he had not done this, the only thing that the tree would have been good for would have been firewood.

	22 The master of the vineyard did not want to lose a valuable tree, so he worked hard to take care of it."

--------------------Chapter 6--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 6

1 My brothers and sisters, I told you I would teach you these lessons.

2 These lessons were taught by our ancestor Zenos and can be applied to our own lives.

3 Those that work hard will have their work pay off, and those that don't will not.

4 Those that do not are a stubborn people.

5 I encourage all of you to work hard for the things you want.

6 Be wise; what more can I say?

7 Finally, I bid you farewell.

--------------------Chapter 7--------------------

Traditionally composing of Jacob chapter 7

1 After some years had come and gone, there came a man named Sherem to the Nephites.

2 He taught that there would be no consequences for immorality.

3 He taught lessons that the people liked but were immoral.

4 He worked hard to get the Nephites to be an immoral people, and he succeeded with many of them.

5 He even approached me, Jacob, knowing that he would get many people to follow him if I became immoral as well.

6 He was a very charismatic man.

7 When he spoke to me, he said

	8 "Brother Jacob, I have wanted to speak with you for a long time. I know that you also speak to the people in how they might live happy lives.

	9 You have misled these people and made them unhappy."

10 I asked him

	11 "Do you deny that how I advocate for people to live brings happiness?"

12 He said

	13 "If there were happiness, I would not deny it.

	14 I know that it is not a true happiness that you teach, nor will it ever be."

13 I said to him

	15 "Do you believe in the lessons of our ancestors?"

16 and he said

	17 "Yes."

18 So I told him

	19 "Then you do not understand them.

	20 All that our ancestors have written and taught teach to love and work together.

	21 I know that if we do not do this, all mankind will be lost."

22 He said to me

	23 "Show me how this works so I can believe it."

24 I told him

	25 "You already know that this is true, yet you deny it!"

26 After some time, Sherem became ill.

27 He had to be taken care of for many days.

28 He became so ill, that he was about to die.

29 He spoke to those helping him and said

	30 "Gather everyone around me tomorrow morning, I have something to say before I die."

31 In the morning, many people who followed his teachings gathered around him.

32 He spoke very plainly to them and denied what he had taught them.

33 He now taught that loving and helping one another is the way to live a happy life, instead of selfishness.

34 He made it very clear that he was wrong before.

35 He felt awful that he advocated against such a simple truth and lead others astray.

36 After he spoke these words, he could say no more, and passed away.

37 When the people gathered around him heard what he had said and saw him die, they were shocked.

38 They too felt remorse for what they had done and believed.

39 I was happy that my people wanted to live moral lives again.

40 Peace had been re-established among the Nephites.

41 We came up with many plans to try and help the Lamanites to live moral lives, but no plan worked.

42 They loved to fight and kill, and they hated us and continually tried to destroy us.

43 That is why the Nephites fortified themselves with armies and fought to protect ourselves with all our might and succeeded in doing so.

44 I, Jacob, began to grow old.

45 The history of my people is kept on the other plates of Nephi, for that reason, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge.

46 Since we were thrown out of The Great City we have been a lonely people, but our lives have still been like a dream.

47 We were born during hardships in the wilderness.

48 We were hated by our brothers who waged war on us and we were saddened by their hatred.

49 I, Jacob, know that I must soon go down to my grave.

50 For that reason, I gave my son Enos these plates.

51 I told him the instructions that my brother Nephi had given me and he promised to follow them as well.

52 I now finish my writings, which have been short.

53 To those reading this, and I hope the people of Nephi read this in the future, I bid you farewell.