Through disobedience to these injunctions, his heart had turned away from the Lord, and he had been led into idolatry and wickedness. At his death he not only left the influence of his personal example, but, also, a numerous family who, from their great wealth and high social position, must have exercised a powerful and lasting influence for evil, which, with other causes, resulted, in less than three hundred years, in the scattering of the ten tribes among the nations of Asia, and the occupation of their country by strangers, and in less than four hundred years, in the destruction of Jerusalem, and in the Babylonish captivity. The sexual wickedness which had become prevalent in Israel, and the consequent abuse of the marriage relations, was, evidently, the reason why the Lord commanded that the children of Lehi should have but one wife, for he said to the Nephites, through his prophet Jacob, "This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures; for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son;" 2. 23. That is, they excused themselves with the example of these kings for breaking the special command of God to them, that they should have but one wife, and like those eminent persons, ran into excess and wickedness, as their fathers had done before them. To neutralize the evil effects of the bad example of their fathers was evidently the reason why the Lord commanded the Nephites, "For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;" _verse_ 27. Plural marriage would have been whoredom to the Nephites, because the Lord had forbidden it. That the prophet Jacob foresaw, prophetically, that at some future period this restriction would be taken off is evident from _verse_ 30, "For if I will, saith the Lord of hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." That is, they were required to limit themselves to one wife, until the Lord should order it otherwise, and by implication, when he instructed them to take more than one wife, it would be justifiable. In the thirty-first verse the Lord gives a reason for forbidding plural marriage among the Nephites, "For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem; yea, and in all the lands of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands." These teachings of the prophet Jacob cannot be presumed, even by opposers of plural marriage, to do away with the tenor of the Jewish Scriptures, for we are informed in 2 _Nephi_ 3. 12, that the record of the Jews and of the Nephites, should grow together unto the confounding of false doctrine in the latter-days.