By understanding the scriptural record, we can get some insight into where Lehi lived and what business he was involved with. Few theorists try to understand this, and as a result include in their theories some inaccurate background in their theories. The scriptural record opens rhe door to several unanswered questions:
• Why did Lehi have at least three large Bedouin style tents?
• Why did Lehi have so many donkeys on hand with which to carry the tents (3 donkeys for one tent)?
• Where did Lehi come from when he came home exhausted and cast himself on his bed?
• How did Lehi and his sons know how to use the tents and set them up (A lengthy day-long job, usually done by the women)?
• Why did Lehi have a large amount of seeds of every kind on hand to take with him to plant in the Land of Promise?
• Why did Nephi ask the Lord where to find ore from which he could fashion tools and why did he have the knowledge and experience to make tools?
• Why did Nephi’s brothers know how to work with timber in their helping to build a ship?
• How did Lehi know where to go and how to get there (there were no roads and trails could be miles wide in wilderness)?
• How did Lehi know how to survive in the wilderness?
A typically wealthy home outside of Jerusalem
A few clues in 1 Nephi open up some interesting questions like those above, and perhaps shed light on both the location of Lehi's home, the type of business enterprise he engaged in that brought him gold and silver and precious things, and the size and extent of his family.
As an example, Nephi, in his abridged account, says that his father, Lehi, dwelt at Jerusalem all his days (1 Nephi 1:4). He did not say that his father dwelt in Jerusalem, but at Jerusalem. The word at is defined as within the limits of; in the region or vicinity of; in proximity to, while the word in is defined as within the bounds of; contained or included within; to be part of; contained by.
The use of this particular word would suggest that Nephi's home was near Jerusalem, but not within the old, walled city itself. Nephi also states that Lehi went forth, then returned to his own house at Jerusalem (1 Nephi 1:5,7). Was Lehi engaged in some business that took him away from the area of Jerusalem, to which he returned when he went back to his house? Nephi goes on to say that after he and his brothers returned to Jerusalem for the brass plates and Laman entered the city and confronted Laban, they ran into trouble (1 Nephi 3:13).
Immediately afterward, they decided to go “down to the land of our inheritance” and collect some of the gold and silver and their precious things which they had left in the family home (1 Nephi 3:22). Nephi continues the account by saying that he and his brothers then “went up again unto the house of Laban,” which was in the walled city of Jerusalem (1 Nephi 3:23).
Did the brothers leave Jerusalem and travel south to their land of inheritance, or former home at Jerusalem? Then, on obtaining some of their gold and precious things, travel back up and into the city of Jerusalem again?
A further clue is shed on this intriguing language when we read earlier that when Nephi and his brothers left the camp of their father by the Red Sea, they took their tents and “went up to the land of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 3:9).
Later, after returning with the brass plates to Lehi's camp, the boys were sent back to Jerusalem to obtain Ishmael and his family. Again Nephi uses the term up to Jerusalem (1 Nephi 7:3) and down to the wilderness (1 Nephi 7:5). Finally, after discussing the rebellious attitudes of his two older brothers and two of the daughters of Ishmael, Nephi says that “we did come down unto the tent of our father” (1 Nephi 7:22)—this is because Jerusalem sits at 2,474-feet while the location of Lehi’s tent was at sea level.
Generally speaking, when discussing directions, up can mean north, or up in elevation. From Los Angeles, you go up to San Francisco or down to San Diego; from Salt Lake City, you go up to Logan, or down to St. George. Or, a person may live up the block or down the block, depending on the direction of elevation of the street.
In addition, the topography of the Holy Land shows that Palestine is a series of hills and mountains that basically run east and west, lifting upward from the Medierranean Sea to their peaks, then dropping off back down to sea level in the east. In the area of Jerusalem, the hills increase in elevation from the Mediterranean coast upward to Jerusalem, then down to the Dead Sea. Thus, anywhere to the west or east would also be down from Jerusalem.
Whether the Lehi home was to the west, east or even south of Jerusalem is not known, but it does seem likely that the patriarch had his home in an area near Jerusalem, but not within the city walls. It also seems certain that Nephi and his brothers came up to Jerusalem from their father's camp near the Red Sea, encountered Laban unsuccessfully, then left the city and went down to their former home, finally to return by going back up to Jerusalem.
Tere is compelling evidence that Lehi’s home had been outside the city walls for when Nephi led Zoram with the plates containing the record of the Jews, they went outside the city “without othe walls,” and when Zoram became fearful he made to “flee from before me and return to the city of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 27,30).
Down to Lehi's tent would obviously mean going south from Jerusalem into the wilderness and to their camp along the borders of the Red Sea. But down to their former home and then back up to Jerusalem, may either have been south or just down the hills a distance to their former home where the land of their inheritance was located.
Why would Lehi have a house outside the city walls? And what kind of business did he run? He was obviously a wealthy man with gold, silver and precious things in sufficient amount to make even Laban, the head of the treasury, drool in anticipation of acquiring.
First, let's take a look at the city of Jerusalem in 600 B.C. The city of Jerusalem sat on the top of Mount Zion, and across from it is the Mount of Olives, with the narrow Valley of Jehoshaphat in between.
At the time of Lehi, Jerusalem was likely a tourist town, that is, flooded by pilgrims on holy days. Consequently, its inhabitants would have been mostly inn keepers, priests, garrison soldiers, and specialized merchants, with a sprinkling of those who transported goods into the city. Is it possible that Lehi was one of those who had some business away from the city, an area of the desert from which he transported goods from caravans along the King’s Highway, then back up to Jerusalem where he resold the goods to merchants in the city.
Since Lehi would have had to wait for the arrival of the caravan, he would have needed a comfortable tent, and others for some or all of his boys and several servants he would have taken with him, providing them with the experience of tents, Bedouin-style living, and life in the wilderness.
Obviously, Lehi would have needed tents ready when the Lord directed him to flee into the wilderness. Thus, he owned tents at a time when making them was a laborious, time-consuming process of weaving the fabric out of durable goats' hair. Besides, travelers in Judea generally camped in caves notneeding tents—in fact, tents were for desert travelers. Nor were these simple tents one might store away in a nook somewhere. The tents of Lehi's day weighed about 500 pounds each, and took three donkeys to carry -- one animal to carry the roof, one the walls, and another the partitions. Possession of such tents would have to serve some particular and reoccurring purpose for their cost and size to be justified.
(See the next post, “Lehi’s House at Jerusalem and Business - Part II,” for more on Lehi and his sons knowing about wilderness living, and why Lehi would have had seeds of every kind on hand)
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