| Book of Mormon |
Annotations |
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Chapter 3
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1 But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure
in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with
exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will
plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.
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2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and
receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if
your minds are firm, forever.
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3 But, wo, wo, unto you that are not pure in heart, that
are filthy this day before God; for except ye repent the land is cursed for
your sakes; and the Lamanites, which are not filthy like unto you,
nevertheless they are cursed with a sore cursing, shall scourge you even unto
destruction.
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4 And the time speedily cometh, that except ye repent they
shall possess the land of your inheritance, and the Lord God will lead away
the righteous out from among you.
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5 Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate
because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their
skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment
of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it
were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be
whoredoms committed among them.
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If the apologists are right that the Lamanite cursing was
not a skin of darkness, what was “the cursing which hath come upon their
skins”?
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6 And now, this commandment they observe to keep;
wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord
God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they
shall become a blessed people.
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7 Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives
love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children;
and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of
their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of
your great Creator?
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8 O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of
your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be
brought with them before the throne of God.
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Isn’t this expressing that, at least for the descendants
of Lehi, “White skin good—Dark skin bad”?
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9 Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the
word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of
their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their
filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that
their filthiness came because of their fathers.
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10 Wherefore, ye shall remember your children, how that ye
have grieved their hearts because of the example that ye have set before
them; and also, remember that ye may, because of your filthiness, bring your
children unto destruction, and their sins be heaped upon your heads at the
last day.
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11 O my brethren, hearken unto my words; arouse the
faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber
of death; and loose yourselves from the pains of hell that ye may not become
angels to the devil, to be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone which is
the second death.
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12 And now I, Jacob, spake many more things unto the
people of Nephi, warning them against fornication and lasciviousness, and
every kind of sin, telling them the awful consequences of them.
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13 And a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people,
which now began to be numerous, cannot be written upon these plates; but many
of their proceedings are written upon the larger plates, and their wars, and
their contentions, and the reigns of their kings.
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14 These plates are called the plates of Jacob, and they
were made by the hand of Nephi. And I make an end of speaking these words.
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