Joseph¹, son of the patriarch Jacob (Israel), was sold into Egypt and there preserved his father and household from famine (1 Nephi 5:14). Lehi descended from him: the genealogy on the brass plates showed Lehi to be a descendant of Joseph, and Laban likewise descended from Joseph, which is why his fathers had kept the records (1 Nephi 5:14-16). Lehi’s line ran through Manasseh, Joseph’s son (Alma 10:3). Ishmael, whose daughters married Lehi’s sons, is traced to Joseph through Ephraim.
Nephi and Lehi report covenants and prophecies given to Joseph and his seed. Lehi, blessing his own last-born son Joseph, recounts the words of the ancient Joseph: that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord would raise a righteous branch of the house of Israel—not the Messiah, but a branch broken off, to be remembered in the covenants so that the Messiah would be made manifest to them in the latter days (2 Nephi 3:5). Joseph foretold a choice seer raised up from his descendants, like Moses, who would bring forth God’s word to them and bring them to the knowledge of the earlier covenants; this seer’s name would be called after Joseph’s own and after his father’s name (2 Nephi 3:4-23). The same blessing repeats the prophecy and its detail (2 Nephi 3:6-15) and runs through the seer’s work of great worth (2 Nephi 3:6-21).
The promise to Joseph is that his seed will not be destroyed. Lehi tells his son Joseph that his seed shall not utterly be destroyed (2 Nephi 3:3); Moroni records that the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of Jerusalem so they should not perish (Ether 13:7); and Captain Moroni, raising the title of liberty, recalls Jacob’s words that a part of the coat of Joseph was preserved and had not decayed, signifying that a remnant of Joseph’s seed would be preserved by God while the rest perished (Alma 46:24). The purpose behind this preservation is itself prophesied: Moroni records that a New Jerusalem would be built upon the promised land unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type (Ether 13:6).
Joseph’s descendants were to write a record that would join with the record of Judah’s descendants: the writing of Joseph’s loins and the writing of Judah’s loins would grow together to confound false doctrine and bring Israel to the knowledge of the covenants (2 Nephi 3:12). Ezekiel records the same joining as two sticks made one—the stick of Joseph, in the hand of Ephraim, joined with the stick of Judah (Ezekiel 37:15-19).