1 Nephi 2

As Nephi looks back, he writes of his two older brothers that -

"...they were like unto the Jews who were at Jerusalem..."  (Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 2:13)

Those words probably wouldn't mean much without Jeremiah's writings of the Jews of Nephi's day -

"Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD."  (Old Testament | Jeremiah 9:2 - 3)

"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush..."  (Old Testament | Jeremiah 6:15)

And -

"How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife."  (Old Testament | Jeremiah 5:7 - 8)

No wonder the Lord destroyed Jerusalem.  Knowing that Laman and Lemuel were "like unto the Jews who were at Jeusalem" helps us better understand these two men.