What Seas Border the Land of Promise?

The Lehi Colony set sail from Bountiful on the ship Nephi built according to the instructions of the Lord (1 Nephi 8:1-2), they “put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind toward the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:8). After they had “been driven forth before the wind for many days” (1 Nephi 8:9), a mutiny arose and after some difficulty with Nephi’s older brothers and the sons of Ishmael, Nephi regained control of the ship and they “sailed again toward the promised land” (1 Nephi 8:22), and after a certain time, they “did arrive at the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:23), and after arriving in the land by ship, “they did begin to till the earth” and “plant seeds” which seeds they “brought from the land of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 8:24).

These passages are quite clear on the following points:

1. Nephi’s ship was a weather-driven sailing ship and required the wind to propel it across the seas.

2. The winds drove the ship all the way to the land of promise.

3. The winds and sea currents driving the ship took them directly to the land of promise where they landed.

4. After landing, they cultivated the land and planted the seeds they had brought with them.

There is no mention, no indication, no suggestion or innuendo in Nephi’s description of their sailing to the Land of Promise that alters the above four points.

In addition, Jacob said and Nephi wrote down, that “the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20). Which should clearly show that the Lehi Colony sailed across the sea and landed on their island, which was upon that very same sea. There is no indication of any kind to suggest anything different.

Jacob’s sermon to the Nephites was clearly meant to show them that though they were on a distant island in the middle of the sea, far away from Jerusalem, that others from the House of Israel had also been led away to distant isles. He said, “great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren” (2 Nephi 10:21).

Then, to make sure the Nephites listening understood they were not forgotten by the Lord, Jacob added, “And now behold, the Lord remembereth all them who have been broken off, wherefore he rememebreth us also” (2 Nephi 10:22).

There seems little doubt that the sea the Nephites traveled across to the promised land was the same sea that bordered the promised land, for there is no suggestion otherwise of any kind in scripture to suggest the Land of Promise, the isle Jacob describes, was not upon the very sea they had traveled to get there.

Obviously, the Nephites set sail into the sea they called Irreantum, or “Many Waters” (1 Nephi 17:5). This body of water that merges with several seas or oceans, includes the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and once beyond South America, merges with the Atlantic Ocean—truly a sea of “many waters.” In the Book of Mormon this sea is also described as the "Great Sea," "Great Water," "Deep," and "Great Deep." These oceans or sea are the only way a sailing ship could get from the southern coast of Arabia, the land they called Bountiful, to the Land of Promise. Yet, in a work entitled “True Book of Mormon Geography” of New York, a blogger claims that: “The Great Sea does not border Book of Mormon lands.”

(See the Next Post “The Great Sea, the Great Deep” for a further understanding of the oceans or seas that made up the Land of Promise West Sea, East Sea, North Sea and South Sea)