Jacob 2:13

[pam]

Reference Search: Jacob 2:13

13 And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they.

Quotes for Discussion

Price Cycle

Among the timeless lessons to be learned from the Book of Mormon are the perils of the prosperity cycle. It is as though a people could not learn from the mistakes of the past. Whenever any group chose to keep the commandments of God, he blessed and prospered them. At that point, instead of returning constant thanks to him who had rewarded them—instead of acknowledging in humility that all that they had was a direct blessing from the Almighty—most of the people in the Book of Mormon (Nephites and Jaredites alike) lost sight of the source of their blessings. They traded the confidence of heaven for the approbation of men. Wealth became the end in life rather than a means to the accomplishment of good. Whenever the acquisition of "things" became more important than people, then it was only a matter of time before class distinctions, caste systems, and the persecution of the poor followed. "Wealth is a jealous master who will not be served half-heartedly and will suffer no rival—not even God….The more important wealth is, the less important it is how one gets it."

Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, p. 393

The costliness of your apparel

In the courts of the prince of darkness a high seat of honor is accorded the designer of fashions, who throughout many generations of time has induced countless millions to trade function for fad, comfort for ostentation, modesty for vanity. For such persons it is not the appearance of the attire that matters, but rather the cost. The phrase "costly apparel" occurs more than a dozen times in the Book of Mormon. Almost always it is descriptive of a people who have been prospered by the Lord, have become caught up with themselves and their acquisitions, and thereafter have begun to place greater stress upon the glitter of their outward appearance than the cleanliness of their inner vessel.

Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols., 2:, p.14