Jacob wrote that Nephi instructed him
regarding Nephite sacred preaching, revelations, and prophesies that “I should
engraven the heads of them upon these
plates” (Jacob 1:4). We really expect something more like “most important” to
be used here. Indeed, the Hebrew word for the head of the body is sometimes
used to describe things as “chief’ (Deuteronomy 33:15; Psalm 137:6; Proverbs
1:21; Amos 6:1) or “precious” (Song of Solomon 4:14; Ezekiel 27:22), which is
probably the sense in which Jacob used the word. (David E. Bokovoy and John A.
Tvedtnes, Testaments: Links between the
Book of Mormon and the Hebrew Bible [Tooele, Utah: Heritage Press, 2003],
204)