Unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours. 3:8
3:1-14
1 But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.
2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.
I, Jacob, would like to talk to you who are pure in heat. [1]
3 But, wo, wo, unto you that are not pure in heart, that are filthy this day before God; for except ye repent the land is cursed for your sakes; and the Lamanites, which are not filthy like unto you, nevertheless they are cursed with a sore cursing, shall scourge you even unto destruction.
The Lamanites aren't filthy like you, yet they are cursed with a sore cursing.
4 And the time speedily cometh, that except ye repent they shall possess the land of your inheritance, and the Lord God will lead away the righteous out from among you.
If you don't repent, they will possess your land.
5 Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father -- that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them.
6 And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people.
7 Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator?
You hate the Lamanites because they are filthy and the cursing that has come upon their skins.
But they are more righteous than you, because they don't have more than one wife and they have no concubines.
8 O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God.
Unless you repent your skins will be whiter than yours.
9 Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers.
10 Wherefore, ye shall remember your children, how that ye have grieved their hearts because of the example that ye have set before them; and also, remember that ye may, because of your filthiness, bring your children unto destruction, and their sins be heaped upon your heads at the last day.
Don't revile the Lamanites for the darkness of their skins.
Their filthiness came upon them because of their faithers. [2]
11 O my brethren, hearken unto my words; arouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death; and loose yourselves from the pains of hell that ye may not become angels to the devil, to be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death.
Don't become angels of the devil to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone whish is the second death.
12 And now I, Jacob, spake many more things unto the people of Nephi, warning them against fornication and lasciviousness, and every kind of sin, telling them the awful consequences of them.
13And a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, which now began to be numerous, cannot be written upon these plates; but many of their proceedings are written upon the larger plates, and their wars, and their contentions, and the reigns of their kings.
I said many more things to the Nephites, but I can't fit them on these small plates. [3]
There's much more written about their wars and kings on the larger plates.
14These plates are called the plates of Jacob, and they were made by the hand of Nephi. And I make an end of speaking these words.
These plates are called the plates of Jacob, made by the hand of Nephi. [4]
Notes
Remember how God cursed the Lamanites (Native Americans) by darkening their skin? Well, he'll do it to you too, if you don't repent. That is the lesson of Jacob 3.
Back 2 Nephi 5, in God cursed the Lamanites, causing "a skin of blackness to come upon them" to make them appear repulsive to the "white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome" Nephites.
And it worked, too. The Nephites hated the Lamanites "because of their filthiness" and dark skins. But now God says that the filthy Lamanites are more righteous than the Nephites, because they haven't committed whoredoms by having more than one wife like the Nephites (and Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Mitt Romney's great grandfather).
God made the Lamanites filthy and dark-skinned "because of their fathers." (2 Nephi 5)
Jacob continued his sermon to the Nephites, but he only has space for less than 1% of it (which began to be numerous) in the small plates.
See the large plates for the details.
Jacob's small plates are called the plates of Jacob, and they were made by the (dead?) hand of Nephi.
And that's all Jacob has to say about that.
