Jared, the son of King Omer, was a central figure in a tumultuous period of Jaredite history. Driven by his ambition for power and splendor, Jared led a rebellion against his own father, seizing half of the kingdom through flattery and deceit (Ether 8:2). He didn’t stop until he had captured Omer and claimed the entire kingdom (Ether 8:3). Through a subsequent battle, Jared was overthrown by his brothers, Esrom and Coriantumr, who restored Omer to the throne yet spared Jared’s life at his own pleading (Ether 8:5-6).
However, Jared’s lust for power was unquenched. In the midst of his sorrow over his lost status and driven by his desire for the glories of the world, he conspired with his daughter in a dark scheme to reclaim the throne. Following her advice, they re-instituted the practice of secret combinations that had been handed down from the ancient records. The daughter, by her wiles and beauty, seduced Akish into complicity, manipulating him into assassinating Omer in exchange for her hand in marriage (Ether 8:8-18). The plot led to the temporary overthrow of Omer, yet instead of succeeding his father immediately, Jared allowed Akish to rule, content to exercise power from the shadows while married to Akish’s daughter (Ether 9:1-6).
In an ironic twist of fate, the very secret combinations that Jared had employed for his rise to power eventually led to his downfall. Akish, empowered and driven by similar desires for kingship and influenced by the secret society’s oath, orchestrated Jared’s assassination while he was ruling the kingdom (Ether 9:4-6). Thus, Jared’s pursuit of power ended in his own demise, serving as a cautionary tale about the destructive nature of secret combinations and the lust for power.