Jesus taught the Nephites that Heavenly Father gave them the land of America as an inheritance. Lehi also had received this promise when he arrived in the promised land (see 2 Nephi 1:5). This confirmed the blessing that Jacob gave to Joseph when he said, “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills” (Genesis 49:26). The phrase “utmost bound of the everlasting hills” refers to the Western Hemisphere. President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) explained: “The Lord gave … America, as an everlasting possession to Joseph, the son of Jacob. His posterity, when cleansed from sin, and when they come forth in the resurrection, shall inherit this part of the earth. This land shall be theirs forever” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 1:88).