LIB. A righteous king of the Jaredites, in whose reign the nation prospered and multiplied greatly. He was the son and successor of Kish. In the reign of a former monarch named Heth, the Lord had deeply afflicted the people, because of their sins; and among other things he had caused numbers of poisonous serpents to occupy the regions in the neighborhood of the Isthmus of Panama, and thus prevented the people from gaining access to the southern continent. In Lib's days these venomous reptiles were destroyed, and the land southward was found to be full of beasts of the forest. That country was preserved as one enormous hunting ground of the race, Lib, himself, becoming a great hunter. He also built a large city at the narrowest portion of the Isthmus, apparently for the purpose of guarding the regions south from settlement, so that it might be the source of their meat supply, for the country northward was covered with inhabitants. In this reign the people greatly developed in the arts of civilization, they prosecuted mining with much vigor, improved in the manufacture of textile fabrics; agriculture made marked advance through the invention and application of improved machinery in the cultivation of the earth and the harvesting of their crops. They also made all manner of weapons of war, though, as this was a time of profound peace, this can only be regarded as a precautionary measure. In fact, to use the words of the sacred historian: "never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord. And they were in a land that was choice above all lands, for the Lord had spoken it."
Lib lived many years, was blessed with a numerous posterity, and when he died he was succeeded by his son Hearthom.