There is and has been for some time a question, or disagreement, on how many daughters Lehi had, who they were, and why were they so ready to follow Nephi into the wilderness and down to Lehi’s tent near the Red Sea. Erastus Snow sheds some light on this:
“The Prophet Joseph Smith informed us that the record of Lehi was contained on the 116 pages that were first translated and subsequently stolen, and of which an abridgement is given us in the First Book of Nephi, which is the record of Nephi individually, he himself being of the lineage of Manasseh; but that Ismael was of the lineage of Ephraim, and that his sons married into Lehi’s family, and Lehi’s sons married Ishmael’s daughters” (Journal of Discourses XXIII, p 184, 185—Logan, May 6, 1882; Improvement ERA, September 1952; James E. Talmage, A Study of the Articles of Faith, pp504-505; Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Book of Mormon Questions, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1967, pp9-11).
After reaching a campsite near the Red Sea, Lehi sends his sonso back to Jerusalem to get Ishmael and his family
Hugh Nibley expounded on this, saying: “Lehi, faced with the prospect of a long journey in the wilderness, sent back for Ishmael, who promptly followed into the desert with a large party; this means that he must have been hardly less adept at moving about than Lehi himself. The interesting thing is that Nephi takes Ishmael (unlike Zoram) completely for granted, never explaining who he is or how he fits into the picture—the act of sending for him seems to be the most natural thing in the world, as does the marriage of his daughters with Lehi’s sons. Since it has ever been the custom among the desert people for a man to marry the daughter of his paternal uncle (bin ammi), it is hard to avoid the impression that Lehi and Ishmael were related (Hugh W. Nibley, Lehi in the Desert: The World of the Jaredites; There were Jaredites, vol 5, in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1988, p40).
Of course, Lehi and Ishmael did not have to be related, but the suggestion they were appears quite strongly in light of Jewish law and customs. In fact, as Ishmael’s oldest daughter is described as “slow,” or handicapped by today’s standards, it appears that Laman married Ishmael’s second daughter, and Zoram was brought along to marry the oldest daughter.
It should also be considered that the Lord counseled Lehi that “his sons should take daughters to wife, that they might raise up seed unto the Lord in the land of promise” (1 Nephi 7:1). The wordage used by the Lord suggests that the wives Lehi’s sons were to ”take daughters to wife,” suggests that the women for his sons to marry were already known to them, and likely the agreement for their marriages were already arranged between Lehi’s four sons and the younger four daughters of Ishmael.
Ishmael and his five daughters
Such would certainly have been normal in Jewish custom, first, that the father of each child had agreed upon a betrothal, and that such had been done many years earlier when they were young and had to wait for the appropriate age to marry. Obviously, Ishmael held out but finally agreed that Laman would marry the second daughter, which precluded marriages of the four younger sisters, even when they had reached the appropriate age, because the oldest daughter was not yet married. This is borne out by the passage regarding the journey from Jerusalem down to Lehi’s camp, when “as we journeyed in the wilderness, behold Laman and Lemuel, and two of the daughters of Ishmael, and the two sons of Ishmael and their families, did rebel against us; yea, against me, Nephi, and Sam, and their father, Ishmael, and his wife, and his three other daughters (1 Nephi 7:6).”
Note that Laman and Lemuel, and two of the daughters of Ishmael, which were unmarried at this point, rebelled against Nephi, suggesting Nephi’s oldest two brothers and the two daughters (not the oldest) of Ishmael were already aligned to one another, because the other three (including the oldest) daughters, did not rebel (1 Nephi 7:6).
Thus, with the marriages already arranged, the Lord told Lehi that his sons should take Ishmael’s daughter now and marry them. Of course, Lehi immediately sent back to Jerusalem for Ishmael and his family.
Lehi Searching the Brass Plates
“Whoever has read the Book of Mormon carefully will have learned that the remnants of the house of Joseph dwelt upon the American continent; and that Lehi learned by searching the records of his fathers that were written upon the plates of brass, that he was of the lineage of Manasseh. The Prophet Joseph informed us that the record of Lehi, was contained on the 116 pages that were first translated and subsequently stolen, and of which an abridgment is given us in the first Book of Nephi, which is the record of Nephi individually, he himself being of the lineage of Manasseh; but that Ishmael was of the lineage of Ephraim, and that his sons married into Lehi’s family, and Lehi’s sons married Ishmael’s daughters, thus fulfilling the words of Jacob upon Ephraim and Manasseh in the 48th chapter of Genesis, which says: “And let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land. Thus these descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim grew together upon this American continent” (Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, vol.23, pp184–185. emphasis added.)” (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, pp99–100; Book of Mormon Student Manual for Seminaries and Institutes of Religion – 2012, Official Website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
It is from this verse that the composition of Ishmael’s family can be more accurately determined. Ishmael and his wife had two sons (1 Nephi 7:6), and five daughters (1 Nephi 16:7). When they left Jerusalem, the sons had already married (and probably had children) as implied by the phrase, the two sons of Ishmael and their families (1 Nephi 7:6). The five daughters, on the other hand, were all single. The math works out nicely. Each of Lehi’s sons was able to marry one of Ishmael’s daughters, because Zoram was now available to marry the oldest daughter, which he did (1 Nephi 16:7). Consequently, there are no unmatched members of the camp until Jacob and Joseph are born.
“From the above quotation and from 1 Nephi 7:6 we may propose that two of Ishmael's sons had married daughters of Lehi and Sariah. That would mean the two families were already related by marriage, which might explain Lehi's seeming nonchalance about instructing his sons to bring Ishmael's family down into the wilderness. As mentioned above, there were probably already marriage plans arranged between the two families—only the setting for the ceremonies would now have to change from the city to the desert. Another reason why Ishmael's family in particular was elected to join Lehi's since Ishmael had five unmarried daughters; the four sons of Lehi along with Zoram would now be able marry Ishmael's daughters—a perfect five-way match set up in advance by the Lord.
Thus, Lehi had two known daughters and six sons. While it is not likely there were more sons borne to Lehi, it is possible there were more than two daughters, since when the Lord tells Nephi to flee from the Land of First Inheritance after Lehi died, Nephi states:
Nephi leaves and goes into the wilderness with all those who would go with him
“I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me” (2 Nephi 5:6, emphasis added). If these sisters were the two mentioned earlier, then they were leaving their husbands and either taking or leaving their children behind—neither of which would be compatible with Jewish law and customs.
The fact that "sisters" is mentioned means that at least two sisters went with Nephi. Were these sisters the elder daughters of Lehi who had married Ishmael's sons? It would seem highly improbable. For Lehi's married daughters were among those who had rebelled against the faithful members of Nephi's
Party when they were bringing Ishmael's family from Jerusalem (1 Nephi 7:6). It would be hard to believe that these rebellious daughters of Lehi would leave their husbands and children and desert to Nephi's camp without his mentioning the fact. Their sudden repentance is something that Nephi does not record. The only reasonable conclusion that we can come to is that the sisters of Nephi who accompanied him into the wilderness were two younger daughters of Lehi. They were doubtless born to the patriarch in the
Wilderness after he had left Jerusalem. Unfortunately, their names are not given, nor is any special mention of their births recorded in the sacred text. Apparently they were born after Jacob, Lehi's first-born in the days of his tribulation in the wilderness (2 Nephi 2:1), and before Joseph, his last-born (2 Nephi 3:1). Thus we are driven to the conclusion that Father Lehi had at least four daughters.
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