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3 They did so.

4 The room became dark, and the report became shorter.

5 Jared said: This is an excellent vessel for keeping water out, but we intend to put people in.

6 The brother of Jared brought the question before the Lord, for reverence had not supplied light or renewed the air.

7 And the question concerning light returned to him as a question: What wouldst thou have prepared?

8 He considered what might help, rather than waiting for concern itself to become an answer.

9 There were eight barges, and each would require provision for living passengers, not merely a handsome account of its departure.

10 Some offered plans. Some pointed out difficulties. None was commanded to be grateful for a danger that could still be addressed.

11 Jared reminded the scribe that these were covered barges, not Nephi’s later ship with a convenient deck for the illustrator.

12 The scribe corrected the drawing before a mast had become doctrine.

13 They prepared food and the other necessities of the voyage, and found that careful work did not expel wonder from the room.

14 The brother of Jared carried his unfinished question to a mountain.

15 Behind him the builders continued building; their work did not need to stop while he thought.

16 For a request for guidance was not an instruction that everyone else abandon the tools.

17 And the keeper wrote: Test the room with the people who must live in it.

18 A description of safety shall not be used in place of a safer vessel.