|
|
|
|
CHAPTER 51The king-men seek to change the law and set up a king—Pahorah and the freemen are supported by the voice of the people—Moroni compels the king-men to defend their liberty or be put to death—Amalickiah and the Lamanites capture many fortified cities—Teancum repels the Lamanite invasion and slays Amalickiah in his tent. [About 67 B.C.] |
||
67 B.C. |
||
|
1 And now it came to pass in the
*commencement of the twenty and fifth year of
the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, they having established
peace between the people of Lehi and the people of Morianton concerning their
lands, and having commenced the twenty and fifth year in
apeace;
2 Nevertheless, they did not long maintain an entire peace in the land, for there began to be a contention among the people concerning the chief judge Pahoran; for behold, there were a part of the people who desired that a few particular points of the alaw should be altered. 3 But behold, Pahoran would not alter nor suffer the law to be altered; therefore, he did not hearken to those who had sent in their voices with their petitions concerning the altering of the lawa.
|
3a he did not hearkento those who had sent in thier voices with their petitions concerning the altering of the law In the brass plates record of the Old Testament, the Prophet and judge Samuel was so petitioned in person by 'all of Israel' to appoint them a king like unto the other nations about Israel. And Samuel inquired of the Lord and the Lord suffered the people to have a king but Samuel did preach against the evil of having a king. Here Pahoran in a similar situation does not harken to the voice of the people of 'high birth' and refused them a king. The rejection of having a king was based upon such things as the passed history of the brass plates record which set forth the evil of it and the evidences thereof. Even the past history of the Nephites in the land of Nephi, not the land of the Lamanites, did attest to the evil of having a king. And yet according to the principle of free agency and choice, this question to would come to the vote of the people. |
1*
[67 B.C.] a TG Peacemakers 2a Alma 1:1
|
|
4 Therefore, those who were desirous that the law should be altered
were angry with him, and desired that he should no longer be chief judge over
the land; therefore there arose a warm adispute concerning
the matter, but not unto bloodshed.
5 And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment-seat were called aking-men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a bking over the land. 6 And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain chief judge over the land took upon them the name of afreemen; and thus was the bdivision among them, for the freemen had sworn or ccovenanted to maintain their rights and the privileges of their religion by a free government.
|
4a
TG
Disputations 5a Alma 60:16; Alma 62:9; TG Kings, Earthly; TG Unrighteous Dominion b 3 Ne. 6:30 6a Alma 61:3-4; Alma 62:6 b 1 Kings 16:21-22 c Alma 48:13; Alma 60:25-27
|
|
|
7 And it came to pass that this matter of their contention was
settled by the avoice of the people. And it came to pass
that the voice of the people came in favor of the freemen, and Pahoran
retained the judgment-seat, which caused much rejoicing among the brethren of
Pahoran and also many of the people of liberty, who also put the king-men to
silence, that they durst not oppose but were obliged to maintain the cause of
freedom.
8 Now those who were in favor of kings were those of ahigh birth, and they sought to be bkings; and they were supported by those who sought power and authority over the people.
|
7a
Alma 4:16;
Hel. 1:5 8a TG Haughtiness; TG Pride b TG Tyranny
|
|
|
9 But behold, this was a critical time for such contentions to be
among the people of Nephi; for behold, Amalickiah had again
astirred up the hearts of the people of the Lamanites
against the people of the Nephites, and he was gathering together soldiers
from all parts of his land, and arming them, and preparing for war with all
diligence; for he had bsworn to drink the blood of Moroni.
10 But behold, we shall see that his promise which he made was arash; nevertheless, he did prepare himself and his armies to come to battle against the Nephites.
|
9a
Alma 63:14 b Acts 23:12; Alma 49:27 (26-27) 10a TG Rashness
|
|
|
11 Now his armies were not so great as they had hitherto been,
because of the many thousands who had been aslain by the
hand of the Nephites; but notwithstanding their great loss, Amalickiah had
gathered together a wonderfully great army, insomuch that he feared not to
come down to the land of Zarahemla.
12 Yea, even Amalickiah did himself come down, at the head of the Lamanites. And it was in the twenty and fifth year of the reign of the judges; and it was at the same time that they had begun to settle the affairs of their contentions concerning the chief judge, Pahoran. 13 And it came to pass that when the men who were called king-men had heard that the Lamanites were coming down to battle against them, they were glad in their hearts; and they refused to take up arms, for they were so wroth with the chief judge, and also with the apeople of bliberty, that they would not take up arms to defend their country.
|
11a
Alma 49:25 (22-25) 13a Alma 46:16 (10-16) b TG Liberty
|
|
|
14 And it came to pass that when Moroni saw this, and also saw that
the Lamanites were coming into the borders of the land, he was exceedingly
wroth because of the astubbornness of those people whom he
had labored with so much diligence to preserve; yea, he was exceedingly
wroth; his soul was filled with anger against them.
15 And it came to pass that he sent a petition, with the voice of the people, unto the governor of the land, desiring that he should read it, and give him (Moroni) power to compel those dissenters to defend their country or to put them to death. 16 For it was his first care to put an end to such contentions and dissensions among the people; for behold, this had been hitherto a cause of all their destruction. And it came to pass that it was granted according to the voice of the people.
|
14a
TG
Stubbornness
|
|
|
17 And it came to pass that Moroni commanded that his army
should go against those king-men, to pull down their pride and
their nobility and level them with the earth, or they should take
up arms and support the cause of liberty.
18 And it came to pass that the armies did march forth against them; and they did pull down their pride and their nobility, insomuch that as they did lift their weapons of war to fight against the men of Moroni they were hewn down and leveled to the earth. 19 And it came to pass that there were four thousand of those adissenters who were hewn down by the sword; and those of their leaders who were not slain in battle were taken and bcast into prison, for there was no time for their trials at this period.
|
19a
Alma 60:16 b Alma 62:9
|
|
|
20 And the remainder of those dissenters, rather than be smitten down
to the earth by the sword, yielded to the standard of liberty, and were
compelled to hoist the atitle of liberty upon their towers,
and in their cities, and to take up arms in defence of their country.
21 And thus Moroni put an end to those king-men, that there were not any known by the appellation of king-men; and thus he put an end to the stubbornness and the pride of those people who professed the blood of nobility; but they were brought down to humble themselves like unto their brethren, and to fight avaliantly for their freedom from bondage.
|
20a
Alma 46:13 (12-13) 21a TG Courage
|
|
|
22 Behold, it came to pass that while aMoroni was
thus breaking down the wars and contentions among his own people, and
subjecting them to peace and civilization, and making regulations to prepare
for war against the Lamanites, behold, the Lamanites had come into the land
of Moroni, which was in the borders by the seashore.
23 And it came to pass that the Nephites were not sufficiently strong in the city of Moroni; therefore Amalickiah did drive them, slaying many. And it came to pass that Amalickiah took possession of the city, yea, possession of all their fortifications. 24 And those who fled out of the acity of Moroni came to the city of Nephihah; and also the people of the city of Lehi gathered themselves together, and made preparations and were ready to receive the Lamanites to battle.
|
22a
Alma 50:13;
Alma 62:32, 34;
3 Ne. 8:9 24a Alma 50:14
|
|
|
25 But it came to pass that Amalickiah would not suffer the
Lamanites to go against the city of Nephihah to
battlea, but kept
them down by the seashore, leaving men in every city to maintain
and defend it.
26 And thus he went on, taking possession of amany cities, the city of bNephihaha [Moroni], and the city of cLehi, and the city of dMorianton, and the city of Omner, and the city of eGid, and the city of fMulek, all of which were on the east borders by the seashoreb. 27 And thus had the Lamanites obtained, by the cunning of Amalickiah, so many cities, by their numberless hosts, all of which were strongly fortified after the manner of the afortifications of Moroni; all of which afforded strongholds for the Lamanites.
Further, the error might even seem to be supportive of the concept of Mormon being and abridger and preparer of the golden plates, for Nephihah would have been known to have been taken by the Lamanites in an 'abridged summary' consideration of a list of cities so taken in that quarter of the land. And the abridge, even in his careful preparation could easily have made just such an error of inclusion in such a summary list such cities that would over the course of the Lamanite invasion have been taken. And this seems to be Mormon's such summary list, though in the context as read by the reader, the reader reads that not only was Nephihah taken, but taken by Amalickiah and during the course of battles in 62 B.C. But in the reality of the expanded history from which Mormon abridges his text from, Nephihah is not taken until 5 years later and by Ammoron rather than Amalickiah, who is dead by that date. And even in proofing the engraved text, Mormon may well have missed the 'contextual' error. For how often has any such preparer of a written work proof read his own text and read through just such an error without detecting it, knowing in his own mind what he put down is true in one context from which he wrote it, though perhaps not in the more obvious context of the more 'objective' reader who has no such pre-disposition to understanding it from any other perspective other that which is given by the direct written text? Also, if the book contained no such errors, then why did the title page allude to such being a possibility? If one could not find and identify a 'few' such human faults and mistakes, it might be more to the disproving of the book than the actual proving it. For human endeavors of the true and real kind 'ARE NOT' commonly flawless. A prime example is the making of movies. How often is there a flaw found in the final finished movie taken and edited from scene to scene of the compilation of the thing, still found though every attempt and effort is made to insure that just such a thing does not appear in the final edited production? Mormon was about just such cutting, editing and abridging when he compiled and abridged the Book of Mormon record. Grant we not the humanality of the man though he being a Prophet of God, to have made some mistakes? |
25a Amalickiah would not suffer the
Lamanites to go against the city of Nephihah to battle Now this
is a strong and clear statement that the Lamanites under Amalickiah DID
NOT come against the city of Nephihah and take it. Thus when the next
verse does state that Nephihah was taken, seemingly either an engraving error
was made in verse 25 or verse 26. The clearness of the first statement and
later Book of Mormon evidence that Nephihah was not taken until 5 years later
by the hand of Ammoron in 62 B.C. and not Amalickiah in 67 B.C., Amalickiah
being dead by that particular time (see Alma 59:7-11), comfirms the error to
be that of verse 26. Where it appears that Mormon
in error engraves the name of Nephihah in the next verse rather than what
should have been the name of Moroni. Thus this seems to be a rare case of an
engraver's error. Mormon was but a man, though a man of God. And the Book of
Mormon speaks of such possibility as being faults and the mistakes of men and
not to condemn the things of God because of such (Book of Mormon Title Page).
It would seem that Mormon in his abridgement did place the name of the city
of Nephihah engraven upon the plates when he clearly should have engraven the
name of the city of Moroni instead, for it was Moroni which had been taken
by the Lamanites and NOT Nephihah at this juncture in time.
26a he went on, taking possession of many cities, the city of Nephihah Mormon's task of abridging the Book of Mormon was monumental. The book of Alma is very long. And the thing about engraving upon plates is that once an engraving is upon the plates it is there. Now whether Mormon eventually realizes that he has made a couple of engraving errors upon the plated of the book of Alma or not, it is not known. But the message of the title page of the Book of Mormon is clear. ' ... if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God ... '. Mormon was but human like unto the rest of us. He here records that 'he' meaning Amalickiah did take possession of the city of Nephihah. Now unless there are either two cities of Nephihah (this is the preferred explanation of Elder Orson Pratt in his once upon a time footnote to chapter 56 but that is not consistant with the fact that the city of Nephihah was upon the plains between Aaron and Moroni and not on the sea shore) or that Nephihah was lost to Amaliakiah, then regained but not recorded and then later taken again by Ammoron, Amaliakiah's brother, then Mormon has make an engraving error here. No little people do attempt to take advantange of people because of their errors. But we are all human and do make errors. When the Book of Mormon was first published there were many publication errors in the first edition, which in the world of publication is not uncommon, especially in 1830. Simple and subjective minded critics of the Book of Mormon flaunt such human errors so that they might find fault with the Book of Mormon and claim that it is not a book of God,for a book of God is perfect like unto the Bible, right? Of course the Bible has many errors as seen by comparison to the various language copies and even in comparison to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Further as Mormon 8:12 states, that there are imperfections which are in the record, but it also promises that those who do not comdemn it for the errors of men which are in it 'shall know of greater things than these'. When one begins to criticize, then the spirit of the Holy Ghost withdraws from them. The Church is not perfect because of the men in it, the scriptures are not perfect because it is men who have produced them. But if one will not take to condemning the things of God which men have brought forth, though the errors of men are in them, then God will bless them because of their faith by the power of the Holy Ghost to come to know even greater things of God. But is men take to criticizing and tearing down the things of God because they find the mistakes of men in them, then they are in the stages of apostacy and of rejecting the things of God and the Holy Ghost will withdraw from them rather than work with them. 26b all of which were on the east borders by the seashore Now here is wisdom. Lehi, Morianton, Omner, Gid and Mulek are all on the east borders round about by the seashore from Moroni even until Bountiful. But Nephihah is not. As noted just prior, Mormon has here made and engraving error. He likely meant to engrave the city of Moroni which was taken by Amaliakiah and is on the east by the seashore. In the previous verse 25, Mormon had just finished engraving that Amalickiah would NOT suffer the Lamanites to go against the city of Nephihah to battle. And in verses 22-24 Mormon had reported that the Lamanites under Amaliakiah had taken the city of Moroni and those of that city fled out of Moroni and came over to the city of Nephihah. Then is making a summary listing of the cities taken by Amalickiah in verse 26, Mormon errors in not listing Moroni and listing Nephihah instead. Now Nephihah will eventually fall to the Lamanites but not until later when Amalichiah's brother Ammoron takes it (See Alma 59:11). Pure and simple, Mormon is human and he has made an error, Do not condemn the things of God because of it. When one studies closely the Book of Mormon, the know that the city of Nephihah was not upon the seashore like the other cities of the list, but hat it was upon the plains of Nephihah inland between the city of Moroni and the city of Aaron. |
26a
Alma 58:31 b Alma 50:14; Alma 62:18 (14, 18, 26) c Alma 50:15; Alma 62:30 d Alma 50:25; Alma 55:33 e Alma 55:7 f Alma 52:2, 16, 22; Alma 53:6 (2, 6) 27a Alma 48:8-9
|
|
28 And it came to pass that they marched to the
aborders of the land Bountiful, driving the Nephites before
them and slaying many.
29 But it came to pass that they were met by Teancum, who had aslain Morianton and had bheaded his people in his flight. 30 And it came to pass that he headed Amalickiah also, as he was marching forth with his numerous army that he might take possession of the land Bountiful, and also the land anorthward.
|
28a
Alma 52:12 29a Alma 50:35 b Hel. 1:28-30 30a Alma 50:29; Alma 52:9
|
|
|
31 But behold he met with a disappointment by being repulsed by
Teancum and his men, for they were great warriors; for every man
of Teancum did exceed the Lamanites in their strength and in
their skill of war, insomuch that they did gain advantage over
the Lamanites.
32 And it came to pass that they did harass them, insomuch that they did slay them even until it was dark. And it came to pass that Teancum and his men did pitch their tents in the borders of the land Bountifula; and Amalickiah did pitch his tents in the borders on the beach by the seashore, and after this manner were they driven.
|
32a Teancum and his men did pitch their tents in the borders of the land Bountiful Now here is to be understood a bit of the nature of the geography of the land, for it here states that Teancum did camp upon the border of the land Bountiful, which border would have been that southern border by the east seashore but not yet unto the city of Mulek. Thus Mulek must be considered to be south of the border of the land of Bountiful. Now whether Mulek and its surrounding land had been in the north of the land of Jershon it may be supposed, that is unless by Moroni's divisions of the land into defensive cities did further so divide the lands that Mulek did cut a portion out from the land of Bountiful on its south. But Mulek is a name which dates back to Mulek the son of Zedekiah, which Mulek did first come to take possession of the land of Zarahemla. And it this city Mulek near the seashore was one such city that did date back to the day of Mulek, then certainly it must be considered to be a part of the provincial lands of Jershon rather than the provincal lands of Bountiful. |
|
|
33 And it came to pass that when the night had come, Teancum and
his servant stole forth and went out by night, and went into the
camp of Amalickiah; and behold, sleep had overpowered them
because of their much fatigue, which was caused by the labors and
heat of the day.
34 And it came to pass that Teancum stole privily into the tent of the king, and aput a javelin to his heart; and he did cause the bdeath of the king immediately that he did not awake his servants.
|
34a
Alma 62:36 b Alma 54:16
|
|
|
35 And he returned again privily to his own camp, and behold,
his men were asleep, and he awoke them and told them all the
things that he had done.
36 And he caused that his armies should stand in areadiness, lest the Lamanites had awakened and should come upon them. 37 And thus endeth the twenty and fifth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi; and thus endeth the days of Amalickiah. |
36a
Alma 52:1
|
|
| * Verse 1 [67 B.C.]. | ||
| This BM Book | Previous BM Chapter | Next BM Chapter | Commentary Page | Home Page |