Sword of Laban
See this page in the original 1992 publication.
Author: Benson, Reed A.
Laban, a Book of Mormon contemporary of Nephi 1 in Jerusalem (c. 600 B.C.), possessed a unique sword. "The hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and the blade thereof was of the most precious steel" (1 Ne. 4:9). Nephi was "constrained by the Spirit" to kill Laban (1 Ne. 4:10). Among other things he had opposed the Lord's imperative to relinquish the plates and had "sought to take away" Nephi's life (1 Ne. 4:11). Using Laban's "own sword," Nephi slew him (1 Ne. 4:18), retained the sword, and brought it to the Western Hemisphere.
Nephi made many swords "after the manner" of the sword of Laban (2 Ne. 5:14) and used the sword in "defence" of his people (Jacob 1:10), as did King Benjamin (W of M 1:13). Benjamin later delivered the sword to his son Mosiah 2 (Mosiah 1:16). The sword of Laban seems to have been preserved as a sacred object among the Nephites, as was Goliath's sword in ancient Israel (1 Sam. 21:9).
In June 1829 the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates were promised a view of the sword (D&C 17:1). According to David Whitmer's report, that promise was fulfilled "in the latter part of the month" (Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, nos. 3-5, May 1882, Vol. VI, Salt Lake City, p. 208).
President Brigham Young also reported that the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery saw the sword of Laban when they entered a cave in the hill Cumorah with a large room containing many plates. "The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until The Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our God and his Christ"' (JD 19:38).
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