Act 1 · Track 06

Bound for a Land

A young man tied to the mast of the ship he built, watching his family come apart across four days of storm, refusing to curse his brothers, and praying instead.

pov

a family in a storm

genre

Cinematic Alt-Rock

scripture

1 Nephi 18:9-21

Lyrics

Verse 1

I am the one who built the ship

I am the one who walked the timber to the shore

I am the one who said the Lord would teach me how

And He did

The first night out we ate together

My brothers laughed

My father blessed the bread

The sea was calm

The brass thing pointed the way

I thought we were going to be all right

Verse 2

The second night my brothers drank

The second night they danced on the deck

The third night they came to me

With cords in their hands

And eyes I did not recognize

I did not fight them

I did not lift my hands

I let them tie my wrists to the mast

I let them tighten the cords until the skin broke

Because I knew what I knew

And they did not yet know what they did not know

Pre-Chorus

And the sky turned

And the wind turned

And the sea stood up

Chorus

Bound for a land

I have never seen

Bound for a land

I do not understand

Bound for a land

Bound

Verse 3

The wind took the sails

The wood groaned under their feet

The compass in my father's hand stopped moving

My mother screamed at my brothers to untie me

My children clung to my wife's legs and cried

And I prayed

I did not curse them

I did not name what they had done

I prayed for the storm to stop

I prayed for my brothers to see

I prayed for my mother

I prayed for my father on his face on the deck

Bridge

For three days

The water came over the side

For three days

I prayed and did not curse them

Pre-Resolution

On the fourth day

They came to me

With shaking hands

They untied my wrists

My wrists were swollen

My wrists were the color of the sea after the storm

I did not curse them

I prayed

And the sea went still

And the wind went silent

And the brass thing began to move again

Final Chorus

Bound for a land

I have never seen

Bound for a land

I do not understand

Bound for a land

And we made it

We made it

We made it to land

Outro

My brothers would not look at me

And I would not look at them

And my mother held my father

And my father was breathing

And my wife held our children

And we walked off the boat

Onto a land we had never seen

And we knelt down

And we kissed the ground

Behind the Song

Faith with bound hands

Nephi has been the son who acts throughout the album — I will go, I will do, I will build. This is the song where his hands are tied and there is nothing left for him to do. The album’s quietest study of what faith looks like when you have no work to do, no fight to make, no enemy to defeat — only prayer to offer and a refusal to curse the people who bound you.

Three days, Jonah-shaped

The storm peak repeats ‘for three days’ three times. Three days is the biblical span for death and resurrection — Jonah in the belly of the fish, Christ in the tomb. The song does not say so. The structure does. The bound son in the belly of the ship for three days, praying, refusing to curse his brothers, then released into stillness — the typology is there for anyone listening for it.

I did not curse them

The line returns three times across the song. First as Nephi names what he is doing during the binding. Then across the storm, as he names what he refused to do across three days. Finally at the resolution, as he names what he did instead — he prayed, and the sea went still. The album’s central teaching about Nephi’s character: he was the brother who could have cursed his brothers and refused to. The faith of a man with his hands tied is the faith of a man who refuses to use his voice to wound the people who wounded him.

Because I knew what I knew

Verse two closes with the line: because I knew what I knew, and they did not yet know what they did not know. Nephi’s whole theology compressed into two parallel clauses. He does not fight his brothers when they come for him because he understands what they do not yet understand. He does not need to argue. He does not need to defend himself. He knows what will happen. The line lands quieter than any other in the song and carries more weight than any of them.

The man whose hands were tied kneels on the land

The outro lands with a quiet inversion. The man whose wrists were swollen, who could not move for four days, who could not lift a finger to save his family, finally puts his hands on solid ground. The line is a benediction. The hands that were bound on the water are the hands that touch the promised land.