The Children of Lehi are the descendants of the prophet Lehi and his wife Sariah, who left Jerusalem about 600 B.C. and crossed the sea to a land they called the promised land. Before his death Lehi declared the covenant that defines the group: the Lord had covenanted the land to him and his children forever, and promised that those he led out of Jerusalem would prosper if they kept the commandments but be cut off if they fell into transgression (2 Ne. 1:5-9, 20). During the voyage the family was driven back for four days by a tempest that “began to be exceedingly sore” (1 Ne. 18:14). Lehi spoke many things to his children and to the sons of Ishmael, urging them to obedience; his parents, “having suffered much grief because of their children,” especially Laman and Lemuel, were brought to their sick-beds (1 Ne. 18:17). Before his death Lehi gave counsel to the sons and daughters of Laman and of Lemuel (2 Ne. 4:8). The record states that as the children of Lehi kept the Lord’s commandments he blessed and prospered them according to his word (3 Ne. 5:22).
Across the generations the children of Lehi fought wars, knew periods of peace and prosperity, and fell into wickedness. Moroni once prepared the Nephites to fight in a manner never before known among the children of Lehi (Alma 49:8); the Lord’s words spoken to Lehi were said to be fulfilled in their history (Alma 50:19); and Mormon records that there had never been such great wickedness among the children of Lehi as in his own day (Morm. 4:12). The teachings passed to them came through the records their forebears kept. The brass plates allowed Lehi to teach his children and they in turn to teach theirs (Mosiah 1:4), and King Benjamin reminded his people that they had been taught the records and prophecies down to the time Lehi left Jerusalem (Mosiah 2:34). The Lamanites held the tradition of their fathers, that they had been driven from Jerusalem and wronged by their brethren in the wilderness and at sea (Mosiah 10:12). Mormon wrote that a purpose of the record he compiled was that the seed of this people might more fully come to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was to go forth to them from the Gentiles (Mormon 5:14-15).