Did all of Lehi’s family members support his decision to flee Jerusalem?

Q: Did all of Lehi’s family members support his decision to flee Jerusalem?

A: All that Lehi could tell his wife and four sons was that the Lord had told him to depart and flee into the wilderness. They had to go on faith, at least until they received a witness of their own that this was the Lord’s will. Remarkably, no one questioned his ability to lead them through the desert wilderness, which means he was likely an experienced traveler there and knew where the water holes were located—which meant the difference between life and death. On the other hand, his two eldest sons, Laman and Lemuel, complained openly about his decision to leave their comfortable home and luxurious living based simply on a dream. They believed him foolish; to be acting foolishly on a fanciful whim.  Meanwhile Nephi, the youngest, understood correctly that his father was a true man of God acting under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

After three days’ journey into the wilderness, the party came to a river where they set up camp. With his grumbling sons Laman and Lemuel by his side, he expressed his hope in the great man each could become by comparing one to the river and the other to the valley it ran through. He called the river “Laman” and the valley “Lemuel” to inspire them to better deeds and faith in God. Nephi walked a little ways from camp and asked the Lord in humble prayer if what his father had spoken about leaving Jerusalem was true. Through the Spirit, the Lord softened his heart and communicated to him that what his father was doing was indeed what God wanted him to do. Now he knew for himself. He told Sam what the Lord had said, and Sam believed it, but Laman and Lemuel refused to believe him because they wouldn’t exercise faith in God.

Background Notes

When Lehi compared Laman and Lemuel to the river and valley, respectively, he did so in an ancient form of Arabic poetry called a “qasida”. The account states they came down by the “borders” near the Red Sea and that the River Laman emptied into the “fountain” of the same body of water. We now know that the area approaching the Red Sea from the northeast was anciently called “The Borders,” and that the swamp where the River Laman would have emptied into the Red Sea was called the “Fountain”. No knowledge regarding a qasida, The Borders, or the Fountain was had in the Western World in the early 1800s.