So Nephi, taking the example scriptural heroes himself, goes back to Laban's place and along the way runs into Laban, passed out dead drunk alone on the ground. And the spirit tells Nephi to kill Laban, put on his clothes and pretend to be him. The spirit continued to explain that Laban was a thief, and even more than that, Lehi and his family absolutely needed the plates or they would be ignorant of the commandments of the Lord. Now, I find this interesting. They have a prophet, and they can make plates themselves, but it gives precedent to the idea that the prophets need something to learn from too. That prophets need scripture as well.
So, Nephi decapitates Laban (which is a little Braveheart) and puts on his armor and tells one of Laban's servants, Zoram, to take him to the plates. After he and Zoram get the plates, Nephi takes Zoram with him toward the gates where his brothers are waiting, but they run scared from him, and in an attempt to stop them from running away, he reveals himself, which freaks Zoram out a little. However, Nephi, being a big guy, keeps Zoram from leaving. Then Zoram takes an oath to go with them and not tell anyone about them or where they have gone. So, the four brothers return to the tent in the wilderness with a little more than they bargained for. They have the scriptures, an extra man, pieces of armor and a sword.

Turns out that not all was happy valley in the time they were gone. Sariah, their mother, was just a wee bit peeved with their father for sending her sons on a potentially life threatening mission. However, their safe return bolsters her faith quite a bit. I find this interesting. She is being told, and not really asked, to sacrifice what means the most to her, only to have it return and her faith bolstered by the experience. And she and Lehi attend to thanking the Lord immediately.

After they give thanks, Lehi examines the newly acquired scriptures, and finds it has what we consider the new testament up through Jeremiah, and a record of his lineage,. And as soon as he is done, he starts prophesying again, which adds to that pattern of the Prophets need scriptures too theme.

Nephi then sums up and says that he isn't going to repeat what has been written already, except that they are from the tribe of Joseph. He doesn't want to waste the space in these new records because he wants the space to write things that bring people unto God.

Overall, I noticed that there are lots of references to scriptures in these passages, which is pretty interesting considering it is the beginning of a book of scripture. I guess it is as good a place as any to remind people from the beginning of a holy book that reading and learning from holy books is necessary.