Ether 1

(All of my own thoughts are in blue ? red type 7/20 orange 7/21 brown 2022 -23) 

                                             THE BOOK OF ETHER

The record of the Jaredites, taken from the twenty-four plates found by the people of Limhi in the days of King Mosiah.

CHAPTER 1

Moroni abridges the writings of Ether—Ether’s genealogy is set forth—The language of the Jaredites is not confounded at the Tower of Babel—The Lord promises to lead them to a choice land and make them a great nation.

  1 And now I, Moroni, proceed to give an ^aaccount of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the ^bhand of the Lord upon the face of this north country. This is an affirmation that our lives are always in the hands of the Lord. Even though evil seems to be in control...it isn't. Evil can only do what the Lord allows. Life can always be preserved miraculously by the Lord, no matter what evil tries to do. If you aren't preserved, the Lord is allowing agency or justice, or it's your time.
  2 And I take mine account from the ^atwenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether.
  3 And as I suppose that the ^afirst part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an account from that time even to the great ^btower, and whatsoever things transpired among the children of men until that time, is had among the Jews—
  4 Therefore I do not write those things which transpired from the ^adays of Adam until that time; but they are had upon the plates; and whoso findeth them, the plates of Ether? the same will have power that he may get the full account.
  5 But behold, I give not the full account, but a ^apart of the account I give, from the tower down until they were destroyed. It's kind of too bad he didn't give us this account because we could compare it to what we have from the Jews (Bible) and see if anything was taken out or corrupted. 
  6 And on this wise do I give the account. He that wrote this record was ^aEther, and he was a descendant of Coriantor.
  7 Coriantor was the son of Moron.
  8 And Moron was the son of Ethem.
  9 And Ethem was the son of Ahah.
 10 And Ahah was the son of Seth.
 11 And Seth was the son of Shiblon.
 12 And Shiblon was the son of Com.
 13 And Com was the son of Coriantum.
 14 And Coriantum was the son of Amnigaddah.
 15 And Amnigaddah was the son of Aaron.
 16 And Aaron was a descendant of Heth, who was the son of Hearthom.
 17 And Hearthom was the son of Lib.
 18 And Lib was the son of Kish.
 19 And Kish was the son of Corom.
 20 And Corom was the son of Levi.
 21 And Levi was the son of Kim.
 22 And Kim was the son of Morianton.
 23 And Morianton was a descendant of Riplakish.
 24 And Riplakish was the son of Shez.
 25 And Shez was the son of Heth.
 26 And Heth was the son of Com.
 27 And Com was the son of Coriantum.
 28 And Coriantum was the son of Emer.
 29 And Emer was the son of Omer.
 30 And Omer was the son of Shule.
 31 And Shule was the son of Kib.
 32 And ^aKib was the son of ^bOrihah, who was the son of Jared;
 33 Which ^aJared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord ^bconfounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the ^cface of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered. If the word of the Lord speaks it - it is done!
 34 And the ^abrother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not ^bunderstand our words. It was apparently known that he was highly favored. I wish we had backstory on how that came to be. I wonder if the brother of Jared ever had this same thought to ask for this blessing, or was it only Jared.
 35 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not confound the ^alanguage of Jared; and Jared and his brother were not confounded. Here is one example of the blessings that can come because you are highly favored. Those closely associated with the brother of Jared were also blessed. So find and stay close to others who are highly favored.
 36 Then Jared said unto his brother: Cry again unto the Lord, and it may be that he will turn away his anger from them who are our ^afriends, that he confound not their language. Why not...we got what we asked for last time we asked. Why is it Jared who comes up with all the questions?
 37 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon their friends and their families also, that they were not confounded. Is the Lord answering Jared's prayer, or his brother's. Is it something they both desire?
 38 And it came to pass that Jared spake again unto his brother, saying: Go and ^ainquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is ^bchoice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance. This feels like quite the request. Maybe Jared was emboldened because the Lord answered his other two requests without any discussion. Interesting he phrases it as a kind of question, rather than "Go ask the Lord if he'll take us to the best place on the planet and let it be ours forever." Wonder why he said "drive us out" rather than "lead us out"? Sounds like there was reason they wanted to leave and that was of first priority. Next question, as long as we have to leave, maybe, if we are faithful, we'll get the best place on the earth, since the Lord seems to love my brother so much...
 39 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord according to that which had been spoken by the mouth of Jared.
 40 And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the brother of Jared, and had  compassion upon him, and said unto him:
 41 Go to and gather together thy ^aflocks, both male and female, of every kind; and also of the ^bseed of the earth of every kind; and ^cthy ^dfamilies; and also Jared thy brother and his family; and also thy ^efriends and their families, and the friends of Jared and their families.
 42 And when thou hast done this thou shalt ^ago at the head of them down into the valley which is northward. And there will I meet thee, and I will go before thee into a land which is ^cchoice above all the lands of the earth. The Lord isn't going to "drive" them (until they are on the waters) but is going to "lead" them and meet them!
 43 And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation. And ^athere shall be none ^bgreater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth. And thus I will do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me. I want to go to the prophet and ask him to cry unto the Lord to end this pandemic and reveal the secret combinations and then have the Lord have compassion on us... Hasn't happened yet. The pandemic has lessened, but the secret combinations have not been revealed so that all know it. Many continue to die at their hands and few acknowledge their deeds. I wonder what the phrase "this long time ye have cried unto me" means? Does it mean this series of questions took a lot of asking and time in between answers? Or does it mean that the brother of Jared had a long history of crying to the Lord and was faithful in his own prayers? Either way, it seems to point to the idea that our prayers matter and our desires.