Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments, ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord.

Note: Updated to include some references I had missed. Thank you, Rozy!

If anything counts as a Nephite cliché, this does. It occurs in the Book of Mormon, in whole or in part, with very minor variations, 15 times, written or spoken by six different people (Nephi, Lehi, Jarom, King Benjamin, Alma the Younger, and Mormon).

Where does this saying originally come from? It isn't biblical, nor is it found in the other writings of Joseph Smith. It appears to be either (a) something that was revealed to Nephi and later recast by Lehi in more epigrammatic form or (b) something that was independently revealed, in slightly different form, to both Lehi and Nephi.

The earliest instance we have is from Nephi. He believes in his father's dreams and visions, and prays for his brothers Laman and Lemuel, who do not. In response the Lord speaks to him. It is not clear if this was a literal voice or something else, but in any case it is presented a Nephi's first recorded revelation. Among the things the Lord says is this:

Blessed art thou, Nephi . . . . And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands. And inasmuch as thy brethren shall rebel against thee, they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And inasmuch as thou shalt keep my commandments, thou shalt be made a ruler and a teacher over thy brethren (1 Ne. 2:19-22).

Although this is the earliest instance of the saying, it is also the least typical. It includes "ye shall prosper" followed by a reference to "land," but not in the otherwise invariant form "ye shall prosper in the land." (Nephi later cites this revelation, in 1 Ne. 4:14, but condenses it to "prosper in the land of promise.") Its first and second halves refer to different groups of people: "ye" (a plural pronoun, including Nephi and unspecified others) vs. "thy brethren" (excluding Nephi). The most significant difference is that the second conditional clause is not about failing to keep God's commandments but rather about rebelling against Nephi.

In this form, the saying is too specific -- too anchored to Laman, Lemuel, and Nephi as individuals -- to have become proverbial until it was (I think) recast by Lehi.

Lehi later reports that he has "obtained a promise" -- meaning a direct revelation? -- which parallels Nephi's revelation in a general way but is even longer and less quotable.

Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.

But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord -- having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise -- behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them. Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten. Yea, as one generation passeth to another there shall be bloodsheds, and great visitations among them (2 Ne. 1:9-12).

The first half -- "inasmuch as [they] shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land" -- is very close to Nephi's version, but the second half is entirely different. This first part, at least, seems to have been revealed to both Nephi and Lehi, and Jarom later quotes it as such, calling it "the word of the Lord . . . which he spake unto our fathers," plural (Jarom 1:9).

We find the first two instances of the saying in its "classical" form in Lehi's parting message to Laman and Lemuel (2 Ne. 1:20) and to the children of Laman (2 Ne. 4:4). In both cases, he introduces the saying as something that "the Lord God hath said." Lehi could conceivably be quoting some prophetic writings which we do not have, something from the plates of brass perhaps; but this is unlikely, as the reference to prospering "in the land" seems to relate directly to the "land of promise" to which Lehi's family was led. It could also be something that was revealed to Lehi himself, but we have no record of this. What we do have is a record of the Lord revealing something extremely similar to Nephi, who would doubtless have told his father, and so the most reasonable assumption is that Lehi was referring to, and paraphrasing, his son's revelation.

In the next chapter, Nephi refers to own revelation -- not to Lehi's version -- and says it has been fulfilled:

And behold, the words of the Lord had been fulfilled unto my brethren, which he spake concerning them, that I should be their ruler and their teacher. Wherefore, I had been their ruler and their teacher, according to the commandments of the Lord, until the time they sought to take away my life.

Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were cut off from his presence (2 Ne. 5:19-20).

The bit about being a ruler and a teacher is clearly from Nephi's revelation. As for the saying in question, he only quotes the second half of it, and not word-for-word, but here, too, it is about disobeying Nephi, not God.

This theory -- that the saying was revealed to Nephi and paraphrased by Lehi, and that later Nephites quoted Lehi's version -- is complicated by the fact that Alma and Mormon quote it as something the Lord said to Lehi:

Behold, do ye not remember the words which he spake unto Lehi, saying that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land? And again it is said that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord (Alma 9:13).

And thus we see how merciful and just are all the dealings of the Lord, to the fulfilling of all his words unto the children of men; yea, we can behold that his words are verified, even at this time, which he spake unto Lehi, saying: Blessed art thou and thy children; and they shall be blessed, inasmuch as they shall keep my commandments they shall prosper in the land. But remember, inasmuch as they will not keep my commandments they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord (Alma 50:19-20, Mormon speaking).

No such revelation to Lehi is recorded in the Book of Mormon as we have it. The Lord does say, "Blessed art thou, Lehi," in a dream, but not the other sentences quoted. Mormon may be conflating Lehi's dream with his paraphrase of Nephi's revelation (which also begins "Blessed art thou"), or he may be quoting a revelation to Lehi which didn't make it into the records we have. (Perhaps it was included in the Book of Lehi, the translation of which was lost by Martin Harris.) It wouldn't be the only instance of the Lord revealing something first to Lehi and then, in slightly different form, to Nephi (e.g. the Tree of Life vision).

All in all, though, I still think it most likely that Nephi, not Lehi, was the original source of this revealed saying. It was revealed to Nephi in a specific form, directly referring to himself and his brothers. Lehi then generalized it, citing only "the Lord" and not mentioning Nephi. It was Lehi's more quotable version that became common currency among the Nephites, and thus it came to be referred to mistakenly as something the Lord had said to Lehi. It's not the only possibility, but it's the likeliest one in my judgment.

My next post will explore what being "cut off from the presence of the Lord" might actually mean.