A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Omni
OMNI. A Nephite prophet, son of Jarom, and a descendant of Jacob, the younger brother of Nephi. He lived in the land of Nephi, and was the custodian of the plates of Nephi from the 239th to the 283d year of the Nephite annals, or 44 years. He characterizes himself as a wicked man, who had not kept the commandments and statutes of the Lord as he ought to have done, but had been principally engaged in defending his people from the constantly recurring onslaught of the Lamanites. The history of his times he sums up in one short sentence: "And it came to pass that 276 years had passed away [from the time Lehi left Jerusalem] and we had many seasons of peace and we had many seasons of serious war and bloodshed.' ' Having kept the plates according to the commandments of his fathers, he conferred them upon his son Amaron. (B. C. 318.)