2 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that I, Nephi, and my brethren, should again return unto the land of Jerusalem, and bring down Ishmael and his family into the wilderness.
Why Ishmael? One obvious reason is because his children matched up favorably with Lehi’s children. There were enough daughters for Lehi’s sons to marry. According to The Journal of Discourses, 23:184–85 (as quoted in the Book of Mormon Institute Manual, p. 19), Joseph Smith said that in the 116 pages of manuscript that was stolen, Lehi found out that he was of the lineage of Manassah. Ishmael was of Ephraim, thus fulfilling prophecy that Ephraim and Manassah would grow into a multitude (Genesis 48). Because their children intermarried, both lines of Joseph’s children were represented in the “Stick of Joseph.”
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