Jan 6 - 12 1 Nephi 1-7

The spiritual messages of 1 Nephi 1-7 are covered in the Come, Follow Me manual. Here, we want to consider some context for this part of the Book of Mormon.

Order of translation. Come, Follow Me starts with 1 Nephi 1, but a lot of people don't realize that the current Book of Mormon actually begins with the last section that Joseph translated. He dictated 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon while residing at the Whitmer home near Fayette, New York.

In other words, Joseph translated what is now the Book of Mosiah through the Book of Moroni (and the Title Page) in Harmony, Pennsylvania. When he reached the end, he did not go back to re-translate the Book of Lehi (the lost 116 pages) because the Lord told him not to (D&C 10). See next section.

About this time, Joseph received a commandment through the Urim and Thummim to contact David Whitmer, a man he had never met, and ask him to come to Harmony to take Joseph and Oliver to Fayette where they could finish the translation at the Whitmer home.

His mother related the account here:

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/100

In the mean time Joseph was 150 miles distant and knew naught of the matter e[x]cept an intimation that was given through the urim and thumim for as he one morning applied the<​m​> to his eyes to look upon the record instead of the words of the book being given him he was commanded to write a letter to one David Whitmore [Whitmer] this man Joseph had never seen but he was instructed to say him that he must come with his team immediately in order to convey Joseph and ​Oliver [Cowdery]​ back to his house which was 135 miles

Last week we mentioned the translation. Here we see that as he neared the end of translating the original plates in Harmony, Joseph was still applying the Urim and Thummim to his eyes to look upon the plates.

Notice, Lucy did not say "as he one morning looked into a stone he place in a hat."
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Translate engravings. The original Book of Mormon--the one Moroni put in the stone box on the Hill Cumorah--included an abridgment of the Book of Lehi. This was the 116 pages that Martin Harris lost.  The Lord told Joseph not to go back and retranslate the Book of Lehi. Instead, he (Joseph) would have to translate the engravings on the plates of Nephi (the plates we now call the small plates).

41 Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained;
42 And behold, you shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words.

(Doctrine and Covenants 10:41–42)

Translating engravings is the way to think of the translation process.

Notice, the revelation does not say "you shall read the words that appear on the seer stone once you place it inside a hat."
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Meeting on the road. Before leaving Harmony, Joseph gave the original plates to a divine messenger. Along the road to Fayette, he, David and Oliver encountered the same messenger. David offered him a ride but the messenger said he was going to Cumorah. David didn't know what Cumorah meant. Joseph explained it was one of the Nephites and he had the plates. You can read more about that here:
http://www.lettervii.com/2019/09/david-whitmer-and-cumorah-messenger.html

Apparently the messenger was returning the original plates to the repository in the Hill Cumorah. Inside the repository, he found the small plates and brought them to Fayette so Joseph could translate them there. Had Martin Harris not lost the 116 pages, we would have the original Book of Mormon, including the Book of Lehi. We would not have had the small plates of Nephi in the Book of Mormon.

The messenger showed the plates to Mary Whitmer, David's mother. She said he called himself Brother Nephi. This makes sense because Nephi was one of the 12 disciples from among whom three were granted power to tarry on earth. See 3 Ne. 28.
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Jerusalem. The January 2020 Ensign points out that when Lehi left Jerusalem, the city had a population of about 25,000 people. This was considered a "great city" in the Book of Mormon. (1 Nephi 11:13) We will keep this in mind during the year when we talk about other "great cities" in the text.