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CHAPTER 3Giddianhi, the Gadianton leader, demands that Lachoneous and the Nephites surrender themselves and their lands—Lachoneous appoints Gidgiddoni as chief captain of the armies—The Nephites assemble in Zarahemla and Bountiful to defend themselves. [Between A.D. 16 and 17] |
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~ 16 A.D. ~ |
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1 AND now it came to pass that in the
*sixteenth year from the coming of Christ,
aLachoneus, the governor of the land, received an epistle
from the leader and the governor of this band of robbers; and these were the
words which were written, saying:
2 Lachoneus, most noble and chief governor of the land, behold, I write this epistle unto you, and do give unto you exceedingly great praise because of your firmness, and also the firmness of your people, in amaintaining that which ye suppose to be your right and bliberty; yea, ye do stand well, as if ye were supported by the hand of a god, in the defence of your liberty, and your property, and your country, or that which ye do call so. 3 And it seemeth a pity unto me, most noble Lachoneus, that ye should be so foolish and vain as to suppose that ye can stand against so many brave men who are at my command, who do now at this time stand in their arms, and do await with great anxiety for the word—Go down upon the Nephites and adestroy them. 4 And I, knowing of their unconquerable spirit, having proved them in the field of battle, and knowing of their everlasting hatred towards you because of the many wrongs which ye have done unto thema, therefore if they should come down against you they would visit you with utter destruction.
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4a the many wrongs which ye have done unto them These many pretended wrongs can only be immaged for they are a convoluted contrivance of the many false and mixed wrongs of the false traditions of the Lamanites from Laman and Lemuel and those also of the 'kingmen' of high birth, likely from the line of David and possibly from wicked King Noah and of high Nephite birth. And their 'pretended pretense' is that the Nephites in maintaining their position of 'liberty' are wronging them in preventing them from 'rightfully' ruling over them. Yet his is not the origin of the secret combinations of murder, but their 'adopted excuses' which do justify the conscience of deluded men entrenched in sin. |
1*
[A.D. 16] a 3 Ne. 1:1; 3 Ne. 6:6 2a 3 Ne. 2:12 b TG Liberty 3a 3 Ne. 2:19
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5 Therefore I have written this epistle, sealing it with mine
own hand, feeling for your welfare, because of your firmness in
that which ye believe to be right, and your noble spirit in the
field of battle.
6 Therefore I write unto you, desiring that ye would yield up unto this my people, your cities, your lands, and your possessions, rather than that they should visit you with the sword and that destruction should come upon you. 7 Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our asecret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us—not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance.
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7a
Hel. 6:22-26
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8 And behold, I aswear unto you, if ye will do
this, with an oath, ye shall not be destroyed; but if ye will not do this, I
swear unto you with an oath, that on the morrow month I will
command that my armies shall come down against you, and they
shall not stay their hand and shall spare not, but shall slay
you, and shall let fall the sword upon you even until ye shall
become extinct.
9 And behold, I am aGiddianhi; and I am the governor of this the bsecret society of Gadianton; which society and the works thereof I know to be cgood; and they are of dancient date and they have been handed down unto us. 10 And I write this epistle unto you, Lachoneus, and I hope that ye will deliver up your lands and your possessions, without the shedding of blood, that this my people may recover their rights and agovernment, who have dissented away from you because of your wickedness in retaining from them their rights of government, and except ye do this, I will avenge their wrongs. I am Giddianhi.
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8a
Hel. 1:11;
Ether 8:14 (13-14) 9a 3 Ne. 4:14 b TG Secret Combinations c Alma 30:53 d Hel. 26:26-30; Ether 8:9-19; Moses 5:29 10a TG Governments
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11 And now it came to pass when Lachoneus received this epistle he
was exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding
the possession of the land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the
people and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no wrong, save it
were they had awronged themselves by dissenting away unto
those wicked and abominable robbers.
12 Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a arobber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for bstrength against the time that the robbers should come down against them.
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11a
Hel. 14:30 12a 1 Kings 20:3 (2-3); Alma 54:7 (5-11) b TG Strength
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13 Yea, he sent a proclamation among all the people, that they should
agather together their women, and their children, their
flocks and their herds, and all their substance, save it were their land,
unto one place.
14 And he caused that afortifications should be built round about them, and the strength thereof should be exceedingly great. And he caused that armies, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites, or of all them who were numbered among the Nephites, should be placed as guards round about to watch them, and to guard them from the robbers day and night.
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13a
3 Ne. 3:22;
3 Ne. 4:1 14a Morm. 2:4
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15 Yea, he said unto them: As the Lord liveth, except ye repent
of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in no wise be
adelivereda out of
the hands of those Gadianton robbers.
16 And so great and marvelous were the words and prophecies of Lachoneus that they did cause fear to come upon all the people; and they did exert themselves in their might to do according to the words of Lachoneus.
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15a except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in no wise be delivered Though the outcome was known of the Lord, this was a critical time for the Nephites. For as the prophet leader Lachoneous stated, their survival rested upon their repentance. And at this time the people did respond to this a final warning otherwise unto their destruction. And they did strive to repent and be found worthy of the Lord, that the Lord might preserve them from destruction. |
15a
TG
Deliver, Deliverance; TG Protection, Divine
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17 And it came to pass that Lachoneus did appoint chief captains
over all the armies of the Nephites, to command them at the time
that the robbers should come down out of the wilderness against
them.
18 Now the chiefest among all the chief captains and the great commander of the armies of the Nephites was appointed, and his name was aGidgiddoni. 19 Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their times of wickedness) some one that had the aspirit of revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge.
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18a
3 Ne. 4:13, 24, 26;
3 Ne. 6:6 19a TG Guidance, Divine
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20 Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni: aPray unto
the Lord, and let us go up upon the mountains and into the wilderness, that
we may fall upon the robbers and destroy them in their own lands.
21 But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord aforbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would bdeliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands.
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20a
Alma 16:6 (5-8);
Alma 43:23-24; Alma 48:16 21a Alma 43:46-47; Alma 48:14; Morm. 3:10-11 b 1 Sam. 14:12; 2 Kings 3:18; 1 Ne. 3:29
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~ 17 A.D. ~ |
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22 And it came to pass in the *seventeenth year, in
the latter end of the year, the proclamation of Lachoneus had gone forth
throughout all the face of the land, and they had taken their horses, and
their chariots, and their cattle, and all their flocks, and their herds, and
their grain, and all their substance, and did march forth by thousands and by
tens of thousands, until they had all gone forth to the
bplace which had been appointed that they should gather
themselves together, to defend themselves against their enemies.
23 And the aland which was appointed was the land of Zarahemla, and the land which was between the land Zarahemla and the land bBountifula, yea, to the line which was between the aland Bountiful and the land Desolation.
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23a the land which was between the land Zarahemla and the land Bountiful This land between Bountiful and Zarahemla has heretofore been alluded to but has never been so apparently named in the Book of Mormon, It is the land of the 'most capital parts of the land' (Helamen 1:23-27), which Coriantumr the descendant of Zarahemla had marched through from Zarahmela toward Bountiful taking possession of many cities and many strongholds. None of these as presumed named in the Book of Mormon, but at left unnamed. And there again, though they are directly referenced as being there, they are again left unidentified. Later in the smaller Book of Mormon a land by the name of David is mentioned (Mormon 2:5), which may or may not be this land of the capital parts of the nation, but it is not so specifically identified to make that conclusion. |
22*
[A.D. 17] a 3 Ne. 4:4 b Morm. 2:7 b 3 Ne. 3:13 23a 3 Ne. 4:16 b Alma 22:29; 3 Ne. 11:1 c Morm. 3:7; Morm. 4:2
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This means that the land chosen to defend by Lachoneus consisted of the Centeral Sidon Valley, the lower Sidon Valley and round about to include the land of the narrow neck and pass of Bountiful. Thus Lachoneus' defense used various 'natural' bariers. He had pluged the access to and from the lands south and north, thus cutting off any possible support to the Gadianton robbers of the south from those in the land north. And while Lechoneus had sent a proclamation throughout the land, we cannot presume that it reached and did effect all the vast reaches of the land northward, but only those which did respond and which were likely in general of lesser distances. Such land which were greatly removed, the general historical line of this portion of the Nephite record likely did not include in its main stream account. And thus it must also be considered to be true of the most southern reaches of the land including all that land which is generally referenced in the Book of Mormon as the 'Land of Nephi'. Thus the lands of Desolation or the greater lands of Mulek in the north and the greater lands of the Lamanites called the land of Nephi to the south are not particularly a part of the mainstream history we are reading, though in large we presume them to be more after the manner of the 'robbers' for lack of greater detail in the abridged mainstream history of the national band of 'Christians' the book identifies by the name of Nephites in general. |
 Lechoneus as a prophet leader and chief governering judge of the people had determined to defend only the central Sidon valley, using the eastern and central cordillera as natural defense barier lines and round about to the strategic land of Bountiful of the narrow neck and pass. He did not concern himself with the whole of the land north of the narrow neck and left it unto itself. Nor did he concern himself with the whole of the land of Nephi to the south other than those of the Lamanites of the Christian faith who had traveled north to join the Nephite people of Lechoneus. And thus we must furher preclude that the 'defensive battle' was thus aimed directly at that central Gadianton band which did inhabit the mountainous regions of the three Cordilleras of the nation of Zarahemla and the upper southern joining regions of those ranges into the southern highlands which continued south into the land of the Lamanites which by the Nephites was called the 'land of Nephi'. Now, though the Gadianton robbers did have access to various lands in which they could come down and plant and grow crops of their own, they feared to do so least the patrolling Nephite armies might come upon them in such a disadvantageous circumstance and destory them. Thus though there were many cities and lands left unto the robbers, they feared to occupy them, at least in the lands round about the nation of Zarahemla which were subject to the immediate fear of the armies of Lechoneus' Nephites captained by Gidgiddoni. And thus is the defense of Lechoneus and that which we must appreciate as only the mainstream Christian history of the Nephites, because of such vast sectors of the land abbandoned as to its history and people at this time. |
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24 And there were a great many thousand people who were called
Nephites, who did gather themselves together in this land. Now Lachoneus did
cause that they should gather themselves together in the land
asouthward, because of the great curse which was upon
the bland northwarda.
25 And they did fortify themselves against their enemies; and they did dwell in one land, and in one body, and they did fear the words which had been spoken by Lachoneus, insomuch that they did repent of all their sins; and they did put up their aprayers unto the Lord their God, that he would deliver them in the time that their enemies should come down against them to battle. 26 And they were exceedingly sorrowful because of their enemies. And Gidgiddoni did cause that they should make aweapons of war of every kind, and they should be strong with armor, and with shields, and with bucklers, after the manner of his instruction.
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24a the great curse which was upon the land northward Now all of the Americas, North, South and Central, is a land of liberty and the promised land of Joseph as pronounced by a proper understanding of the words and meaning of the Book of Mormon and as confirmed and taught by the General Authorities of the Church. And this dispite such limited geographic models which tend to diminish such considerations. Thus here is an interesting distinction a 'Prophet Leader' of the Nephites does make, that the land northward, implying North America, does have a 'greater curse' upon it than the land south of the narrow neck of land. This is historical to the Book of Mormon, for the land north was the land of the Jaredites who were utterly destoryed and had earned the land north of the narrow neck the name of Desolation. But is there not more? The land to which Lehi was brought was the land south. The land which Mulek was brought to was the land north, though Mulek's party traveled south into the land of Zarahemla. Mulek, undenoted by most, was also of the seed of Joseph. Were Lehi was of Manasseh, Mulek was actually of the promised seed of the covenant, having descended from Ephraim (See Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph. Joseph Smith, like unto Mulek, was a descendant of Joseph as well as also from Jesse. And the prophet Brigham Young states of Joseph Smith that he was a pure Ephraimite. Thus it might be concluded that the general land of Joseph has two sub-lands of Ephraim and Manasseh, though they are not so divided as to populous, they seem to be divided as to blessings and greater cursings. Also consider that the land north, North America is the centeral land which Adam dwelt in, and from which the people of Adam were swept off of during the flood of Noah. Also both the Jaredites and the Nephites met their 'waterloos' upon the land north. Land of greater cursings also have greater blessings. The land north is the land of the restoration and the land of the New Jerusalem. Perhaps it was not just the effects of the historical bones of the Jaredites which did seem to make the land north so much more cursed. Perhaps the land north is more cursed and more blessed as to the things of God and the prophet Lechoneus knew well of which he spoke. |
24a
Alma 46:17;
Morm. 3:5 b Alma 22:31 (30-31) 25a TG Trust in God 26a 2 Ne. 5:14; Jarom 1:8; Mosiah 10:8; Alma 2:12; Hel. 1:14
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| * Verse 1 [A.D. 16]; Verse 22 [A.D. 17]. | ||
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