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CHAPTER 6
The Nephites gather to the land of Cumorah for the final battles— |
Mormon gathers all from the surounding remaining Nephite lands who would join him as his people to the land of Cumorah to fight for 'liberty' and 'religious freedom' or 'death' in one great and final battle—Mormon hides all the Nephite records in a room prepared in the hill of Cumorah—The Lamanites are decidedly victorious as the Nephites as a nation are destoryed with few individuals remaining—Nearly a quarter of a million Nepites are slain at Cumorah by the Lamanites and at least as many if not more Lamanites. [A.D. 385] | |
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1 AND now I finish my
recorda concerning the
adestruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came
to pass that we did march forth before the
Lamanitesb.
2 And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the Lamanites, and desired of him that he would grant unto us that we might gather together our people unto the aland of bCumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them battle. 3 And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites did grant unto me the thing which I desired.
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1a now I finish my record
Mormon had given a discussion of matters from Mormon 5:8 for the last 17
verses of that previous chapter.
The last contiguous historical
statement
was that the Nephites had 'taken flight, and those whose flight was swifter
than the Lamanites' [chase/march] did escape, and those whose flight did
not exceed the Lamanites' [chase/march] were swept down and destoryed.'
Mormon both refused and was commanded not to give the horrible account of this
'flight of doom' over the next number of years. The last stand battle before
this continual 'flight of doom' was about the land of Jordan.
The course of that battle and
beginning of the 'flight of doom' was written to Moroni and is found in
Moroni chapter 9 which only begins to give a taste of the
deprivity of that final 'flight of doom'.
Mormon would pick up Moroni
and the vaious
peoples to his north whom he had
attempted to protect by his stand about Jordan. By the time Mormon
resumes his record he simply states that they had marched forth before the
advancing Lamanites.
1b And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites When Mormon was protecting the land north of their defensive line he did call the land the land that was 'before' them. And when that battle line failed, the Nephites had to flee and if their flight was not swift enough before the Lamanites, they were destroyed. Now in this next contiguous statement, though some years have passed, we can only presume that this 'march forth before the Lamanites' was not one in which they were advancing toward the pursueing enemy who would destroy all who did not flee fast enough. Just as the protected lands to the north were 'before' the Nephite line of defense, now they were marching on before, further to the north away from the enemy who did persue them and would destroy them if they did not flee swift enough before them. Such a multiple year flight of ever staying ahead of the advancing enemy certainly would have caused the Nephites to have covered great distances on their retreat toward Cumorah.
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1a
1 Ne. 12:19 (19-20); Jarom 1:10; Alma 45:11 (9-14); Hel. 13:5 (5-11) 2a Ether 9:3 b Morm. 8:2; D&C 128:20;
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4 And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of
Cumoraha,
and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a
land of amany waters, rivers, and fountains; and here
we had hope to gain advantage over the
Lamanitesb.
5 And *when athree hundred and eighty and four years had passed away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah. |
4a we did march forth to the land of
Cumorah Now for the limit Mesoamerican model of the Book of Mormon
geography to work the supporters have to ignore that the Nephites had been
retreating at rapid rates least they be caught and hewn down by the Lamanite
who did sweep the Nephites before them as the sun does the dew for 10 years
from 375 to 384 A.D. And then instead of marching 'forth' to the land of
Cumorah where Mormon had a logistic hope of gaining an advantage, they
interpret of themselves that forth mean back down to a prescribed hill
Cumorah which is near their prescribed narrow neck of land than the narrow
neck of land is wide. And though Mormon had already set forth that all that
land had been 'overthrown' and taken over by the Lamanites, we are led by
them to suppose that Mormon would lead all the Nephites he could gather back
into the very midsts of the now lands of the Lamanites with such a suicidal
death wish as opposed to taking a stand in a land were they truly had some
chance of advantage such as the many hills and rivers of the land of Cumorah
of New York State far away from the Lamanite homelands? Where is the logic
and reasoning?
4b here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites Those who toute a limited geography to the Book of Mormon would have one believe that the hill Cumorah is as near to the hill Shim as their proposed narrow neck is wide, a day's journey for a Nephite?. For years the Nehpites had been being swept off of the face of the land as dew before the sun. Their last few years which Mormon refused to record where those that if their retreat was not swift enough, the Lamanites would totally annihilate any remaining inhabitants so stragling or bypassed, who could not flee fast enough. And then in order to have 'hope to gain some advantage', they would have one believe that Mormon would gather all remaining Nephites and travel right back into the middle of what was by then inhabited and totally controlled by the Lamanties, being less than a few days journey from the narrow neck? Where have the Nephites been running to for years to now return to within days of the narrow neck? Have they been running around in circles that this is the nearest place of retreat and refuge to plunge themselves in the midst of the enemy? What advantage is there to this? There is none and any who seriously consider the matter objectively will understand that Mormon would not do this, that this is a contrivance to boaster a flawed theory. Mormon's retreating Nephites would be hundreds upon hundreds of miles north of any such site so near the narrow neck and what was by then the Lamanite homelands. Mormon would not be so foolish to march himself back into the midst of his enemy and irrationally 'hope to gain an advantage' in so doing. The only matter that does make for good logic is for Mormon to arrange to meet the Lamanites in a land which is unfamiliar to the Lamanites yet familiar to the Nephites, a land whose climate and conditions the Lamanites are not prepared for, a land with many refuges and retreats, a land which affords many positions of defense such as multiple confusing hills to attack the enemy from advantageous positions. Mormon does not give an account of the battle, how many days it raged and just how his strategies of defense played out. All Mormon gives is a list of the final statistics, some 230,000 men dead, a quarter of a million people on the Nephite side and more likely a much higher death rate among the Lamanites. Why else a battle's end with still 24 surviving Nephites? The Lamanites had withdrawn themselves to lick their wounds rather to hunt the Nephite survivers at that moment in time. |
4a
Mosiah 8:8;
Alma 50:29; Hel. 3:4 (3-4) 5* [A.D. 385] a WofM 1:2
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6 And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our
people in one to the land of
Cumoraha, behold I, Mormon,
began to be oldb; and knowing
it to be the last struggle of my
peoplec, and having been commanded
of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by
our fathers, which were asacred, to fall into the hands of
the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would bdestroy them)
therefore I made cthis record out of the plates of Nephi,
and dhid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had
been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were
ethese few plates which I gave unto my son
fMoroni.
"I lived right in the country where the plates were found
from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and I know a great
many things pertaining to that country. I believe I will take
the liberty to tell you of another circumstance that will be
as marvelous as anything can be. This is an incident in the life
of Oliver Cowdery, but he did not take the liberty of telling
such things in meeting as I take. I tell these things to you,
and I have a motive for doing so. I want to carry them to the
ears of my brethren and sisters, and to the children also, that
they may grow to an understanding of some things that seem to
be entirely hidden from the human family. Oliver Cowdery went
with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates. Joseph
did not translate all of the plates; there was a portion of them
sealed, which you can learn from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.
When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry
them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that
when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they
walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room.
He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light
of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light
as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table
that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of
plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in
this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were
piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they
went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they
went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across
the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these
words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the
kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his
Christ." I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver
Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it, and who understood
it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting, enjoying
the day, and by and by we separate and go away, forgetting most
of what is said, but remembering some things. So is it with other
circumstances in life. I relate this to you, and I want you to
understand it. I take this liberty of referring to those things
so that they will not be forgotten and lost. Carlos Smith was
a young man of as much veracity as any young man we had, and
he was a witness to these things. Samuel Smith saw some things,
Hyrum saw a good many things, but Joseph was the leader."
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6a when we had gathered in all our people
in one to the land of Cumorah In paralleling the circumstances of
the last years of the Nephites and Jaredites, there are great contrasts to be
made which when studied carefully set to light some apparent misnomers because
many tend to treat them as being similar in all circumstances. First, the Lamanites had been persuing and slaughtering the Nephites, vastly out numbering them for over the last 10 plus years. The two opposing Jaredites forces were approximately equal in force whereas the Nephite forces where immeasuribly at a disadvantage. The circumstance was not similar at all. Second, the Jaredites would spend some four years gathering all of the Jaredite people either to the army of Shiz or the army of Coriantumr over the whole face of the land. Orson Pratt seems to be primarily to whom we can look for making the 'quick assumption' that the Nephites also took a similar four years to gather their remaining cornered population. And Book of Mormon scholars have been quick to pick up the same notion. The Book of Mormon never states this to be the case. What was left of the Nephite people after years of pursuit and slaughter was but a small fraction of the land which the Nephites had once dwelt upon. This 'gathering' did not have the same effect upon the vast lands of the Lamanite which they now occupied and controlled up to, including and beyond Jordan. Mormon took only about one season or one year's time, 384 A.D., to gather the cornered Nephites together to Cumorah, leaving many 'pockets of Nephites' who Moroni would later report on, as the Lamanites continued to scower the land for remaining Nephite groups. The Nephite gathering was not an all-inclusive gathering as had been the case with the Jaredites. Third, the Jaredite gatherings began from the site of the hill Ramah (Cumorah). And while both Shiz and Coriantumr did gather all the people either unto the one army or the other, there is nothing in the Book of Mormon which establishes that their ultimate local after four years of gathering was still in the region that hill. In fact a logical assessment would conclude otherwise, for what hosts of two armies of millions of people could sustain life for that long confined to just the local of Cumorah? Perhaps to the befudalment of many a Book of Mormon scholar, it is likely that the final battle of the Jaredites was not fought at the hill Ramah at all. But the Nephite major battle of anilation was. Mormon specifically gathered his forces to Cumorah, which was the same hill of Ramah involved in the wars of the Jaredites prior to their four year gathering. And after one year's gathering, Mormon had prepared the room within the hill of Cumorah and had deposited the records safely there. This was perhaps more of the reason for the attempted 'stall' of gathering forces for one last great battle, as Mormon knew in any event the Lamanites would triumph and the Nephites were fated to be destroyed. 6b behold I, Mormon, began to be old This was one of those great understatements. At the age that most men have retired from war, Mormon had just began his last 10-15 year war of anilation of the Nephites. Mormon had been made the chief captain over the Nephite army at the age of 16 [327 A.D.]. Now some 57 years later Mormon was about 73 years old. Over the last '10' years, from 375 to 384/5, Mormon had rejoined the Nephite army defense for the last time to fight these last battles, ranging from Central America to the hill of Cumorah and beyond. Mormon was thus fighting at the head of the Nephite armies in his 60's and 70's. And after the disasterous battle of Cumorah, Mormon would fight again, dying according to the account of Moroni at some later battle, perhaps at an age somewhere between 75 and 80. Coriantumr was not that old at the last battle of the Jaredites. Lehi was not that old when he landed in the land of promise. 6c know it to be the last struggle of my people Mormon knew that the Nephite people were doomed and would be destroyed. But unlike lesser men who would have thrown in the towel and given up, Mormon not only prepared and fought that last great battle at the hill of Cumorah, he lived beyond it and continued to battle with what residue of the people where left about the landscape, likely, as indicated, down in the 'country southward' of Cumorah, which would be the southern states regions where some Nephites had escaped and were continued to be persued. |
6a
TG
Sacred b 2 Ne. 26:17; Enos 1:14 c Morm. 2:18 d Ether 15:11 e Morm. 9:24; Moro. 10:2; D&C 17:1; JS-H 1:52; c Morm. 8:1
Now with that understanding that Mormon wrote his own unabridged book upon the large plates of Nephi, we now again read verse 6 of Mormon 6. Mormon states that 'I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records...entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord. That implies that all the records including Ether's Jaredite record(s) and the whole of the plates of Nephi both small and large, and also his own abridged record on his golden plates, for there was no need for Moroni to carry those about with him. That is 'except' for "these few plates" which I gave unto my son Moroni. Those few plates did not contain anything more that Mormon's own small abridged book which he had abridged from his full account record that was also upon the large plates of Nephi, which he secured in the hill of Cumorah along with the small plates of Nephi which Mormon had attached to it, it pleasing Mormon and for some unknown reason of the Lord. It was NOT the entire abridgment of Mormon from the book of Lehi to and including his small book abridgment and the small plates of Nephi. There was no reason for Moroni to carry all that with him that was upon 'many' plates both the abridge record of Mormon and of Nephi upon Nephi's small plates. And when Moroni states that there was no more room on those few plates after he finished his father's abridged book with chapters 8 & 9, it was only those few plates that had that limited additional room left upon them. And that is all that Moroni had at that point. And when Moroni added that small amount we have as chapter 8 & 9 of the small book of Mormon, Moroni did not know how much longer he would even remain alive. It was at a later time that Moroni would again return to the hill of Cumorah and per a further direction of the Lord also abridge the Jaredite record which had also been previously abridged by Mosiah II. Whether Moroni used Mosiah's abridgment of Ether's Jaredite record or just Ether's record alone it does not say that he did. It just states that he abridged the Jaredite record in making the book of Ether. But to do that, he would have returned to the hill of Cumorah. And he would have also returned there to put together his 'Book of Mormon' bundle which consisted of Mormon's adbridgement with that which Moroni completed of his father's little book as will as the small plates of Nephi; and Moroni would have added to that the abridged record of Ether of the Jaredites and Moroni's own little small book of Moroni. And Moroni would have included the Urim and Thummim that Joseph Smith found with the Golden Plates to translated them with. How many times Moroni returned to the hill of Cumorah and entered into that chamber within the hill is not known. Our understanding is that he had visited it and entered into it any number of times. When shown the golden plates, the accounts from the three witnesses also stated that they saw the sword of Laban. That had been stored in the hill of Cumorah as well. And from President Brigham Young's address given in the first column here, we are to understand that Joseph Smith accompanied by Oliver Cowdery returned the Book of Mormon plates to the Angel Morori and they entered that room of records with Moroni then. Often the things of the Lord stretches a person's mind and their belief. I fully believe President and Prophet Brigham Young's account he delivered in Davis County shortly before he died that year. Some there are that contend with it and hedge around it for their own subjective purposes of mind. I guess that is what is called quibbling, hopefully in their testimony it is no more than that which can be repented of. |
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7 And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their
children, did now behold the aarmies of the Lamanites
marching towards them; and with that awful bfear of death
which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them.
8 And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers.
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7a
1 Ne. 12:15 b TG Fearfulness
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9 And it came to pass that they did fall upon my people with the
sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and
with all manner of weapons of war.
10 And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my aten thousand who were with mea, and I fell wounded in the midst; and athey passed by me that they did not put an end to my life.
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10a my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me Now Mormon speaks only of his men, and we must presume so concerning the other 22 armies of 10,000 each. He does not speak of women and children. Where have all the children gone and the women? We read it quickly and presume them dead for Mormon does not state it to us. And Moroni eventual reports that all Nephites are gone except himself. Whether to horrible for Mormon to account it to us or for whatever reason we can only contemplate. I suppose it would be against logic to hope that Mormon found some way to preserve them. But perhaps Mormon uses the generic 'men' which history uses when it also includes women counted among them. |
10a
Judg. 1:4 10a Morm. 6:11; Morm. 8:3 & 5
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The Error of Condensation in Reading the Book of MormonIt is a long held consideration that I have had that the understanding people gain from their reading of the Book of Mormon suffers from that which I term 'the error of condensation.' That is since the Book of Mormon is but a one hundreth part abreviated adbridgment, according to Mormon's own words, we obtain a very limited view of the whole of the story and life of the Nephite and Lamnaite people. In the wars of Captain Moroni in Alma, there would be a few battles reported and a year would have passed by. Neither the full story would be told of the full military actions of that year, just the highlights of a few critical battles and moments told so briefly many presume them to be but a day's affair in many cases. It is like powdered milk or dried condenensed soup, you have to reconstitute it for it to have its full beneficial health benefit. Else what are the Nephite people doing all the rest of those years that are so highly condensed into but a few lines of Mormon's highly abridged account? Here it reports the great battle of Cumorah into but 3 verses, a mere fraction of the paragraph that spoke about it in the 1830 edition. Many read in it that the battle 'took one day' and this presumed from the line Mormon writes that states, '...on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, the ten thousand of of my people which were hewn down, being led in the front by me...". That one expressed 'morrow' of a one hundreth part abridgment is taken by the quick study Book of Mormon reader to mean that battle had lasted one day.The Book of Mormon never does state how long the great battle lasted. What it did say, is the day after it had finished, when the Lamanites had left and returned to their camps, we then looked upon the scene from the top of the hill Cumorah. But analyze it a bit. What do you suppose the Lamanites did? Did they fight the one day away and then stay there and sleep with the dead through out the night and then got up the next day and then withdrew to their camps? That makes little sense. If the battle finished 'yesterday' would not they have left 'yesterday' and not just stood around all night or just slept with the dead that one night? And does the slaughter of a quarter of a million if not millions of people take only one day's time and no longer than that? What did the Nephites do, lay down on the ground before them so they could be 'hewn down' without any time wasting effort of resistance? When it speaks of the Lamanites returning to their camps on the 'morrow', the next day, after the battle was completed, the camps spoken of were their 'home' camps which contained their women and children. If one has studied the Book of Mormon and noted that wars take years at a time, it becomes evident that the armies did not march for such long distances and periods of time without their women and family in tow 'behind them in their camps'. When the Lamanites came 'down' to Desolation to war against the Nephites there in Desolation and also in Jordon and and other such places, there were reports of the evil the Nephite soldiers would do the Lamanites' women? Where did the Lamanite women come from? Did the Nephi soldiers run right down into the land of Zarahemla, that was by then the land of the Lamanties, pick up the Lamanite soldier's women and bring them back to the battle fields? NO! The women and their families did 'march with the soldiers' on such long campaigns that were hundreds of miles and years of time away from the homelands. And that is who the Lamanites soldiers were returning to 'on the morrow,' after the great battle that had lasted any number of days, which were required to accomplish it were completed. And then they'd return to the camps of their women who they had left some distance, perhaps a day or more away from the battle fields. In our readings of the highly abridged Book of Mormon we have all been 'drinking' our powdered milk without adding the reconstituting life giveing fluid which gives it much more benefit than trying to drink and comprehend the drinking of powder without disolving in life giving fluid before we drink it. We've been eating 'instant potato flakes' dry without adding the reconstitution of the life giving fluid and cooking it to disolve the flakes into to make the 'potatoe paste' that is the beneficial essence of eating instant potatoes correctly. The Great Battle of Cumorah was not 'one and done' in a day's time. It took more time than that to go through the resistence accompanying killing of over a million people. But Mormon had long refused to give the details of his battles, the horrors of them were too much for him to report. He really reported next to nothing concerning the last four years of continual retreat from the battles such battles as fought like that at in places such as Jordan, Moriantum and Sherrizah. And those were but a single brief snippet report, less than one hundreth part of all that was happening, day in day out, week in week out, month in month out, and year in and year out, year after year for over four year that were not even included in the abridged little book of Mormon and his one letter to Moroni preserved in Moroni's little condensed book chapter 9. Hugh Nibly and also most others 'presume' that when Mormon made arrangements to gather the Nephite people to Cumorah, that he had been given and had taken four years to do so becuse the paralleled account of the Jaredites gathering all the people in had stated in the Book of Mormon that that is what the Jaredites did. NOT! The Book of Mormon DOES NOT report that Mormon had four years to do that. The Lamanties had been murdering and slaying the Nephites from off the face of the land for years (5 years) in a scortch hate Nephites manner. The Nephite lands had been swollowed up and had long become the lands of the Lamanites as they were so sweep clean of Nephites as 'dew before the morming sun'. By the time that Mormon put forth his petition to King Aaron of the Lamanites, the lands of the Nephites had been greatly deminished and all that Mormon had lef to gather of the Nephites in in his day at that time were from what remaining lands of the Nephites there were. It was NOT four years needed but merely one single season of message sending and canvasing the remaining lands of the Nephites that were but few, and King Aaron of the Lamanites only gave Mormon one season to gather them in, and that was likely from the point when the request was made to the beginning of the next year, likely from the fall weather onset until the next spring—a half a year at best. [Note: Reality of messages sent and people gathered within 3 to 6 months, even in winter, can be of a distance and radius of say 1,000 miles [trail of tears], but I don't think even that was the size of the remaining Nephites lands. Don't believe? Pony express riders covered 250 miles per day. A stage or buckboard 75 to 125 miles per day. And the limited model fans really can't cry foul, their lands were but about 400 miles radius to begin with and their proposed 'Cumorah' was within the same distance from the narrow neck as their proposed narrow neck was wide or there abouts - a day and a half's journey for a Nephite.] Some who maintain the limit land model of Central America, that being primarily the size of the state of Utah in land size from the land of Nephi to the hill of Cumorah and beyond, even sell the idea that Mormon was able in his 'four years' alotted to cover bring in all remaining Christ believing Nephites in to fight at Cumorah to the death. It was not the death of all remaining Nephites as such that took place at Cumorah, it was the death of the Nephite nation. For years and years after Cumorah the Lamanites would still be going about rooting out Nephites and killing them if they would not deny Christ and Moroni had to remain in hiding & seclusion all the rest of his years of life from 384 to 421 A.D. and possibly more, to avoid the continued pattern of rooting out of any remaining Nephites. That is according to Moroni's report if read and understood. Even Mormon had apparently regrouped with a band of Nephites that would still do battle with the Lamanites intent with extermination of the Nephites. Moroni does not say how long his 75 and older father lasted in that continued occupation, he just reports that Mormon did eventually also die in battle, a subsequent battle after the final great battle of Cumorah. People just do not make the effort to 'reconstitute the 'dry condensed Book of Mormon' as such as Mark Twain viewed it as 'ether' being an appropriate name of the book. In short, the final battle of Cumorah took a matter of days if not weeks to conclude. Mormon who was a great military mind and planner, a student of Captain Moroni and a man of military strategy, had hoped to gain an advantage of the Lamanites at Cumorah with the drummin hills, streams and forests. With 23 divisions of 10,000 men each distrubuted round about Cumorah, Mormon had a strategy that would have taken advantage of his surroundings, he would have built up strongholds of defense and places of retreat as he did about the land of Desolation. Yes his was a good plan of strategy that could have worked if he would have had but two thing and just one thing really. First he was outrageously out numbered and over matched, his army of a quater of a million fighting men was nothing compared to King Aaron's millions. And second, the Lord was no longer with the Nephites in their battles. With that power and support of God, all things were possible. Without it men would be left to their own strength to rely on. Enough said. But a challege, 'The next time you read the Book of Mormon' attempt to reconstitute it from its highly condensed abridgment, that is to it full size, in time, in place and in its people. Under stand time and events are summarized and selective as to what is said and very little is said but much is put into few verses that do need to be given back the fluid of life expansion into times, people and into many more places and events. |
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 12 And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni. 13 And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst. 14 And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each. 15 And it came to pass that there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even aall my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a bfew who had escaped into the south countriesa, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.
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11a save it were twenty and four of us -
we having survived the dead of our people Mormon and his son
Moroni both survived the battle of Cumorah. Mormon was strong enough though
about 74 years old, not only to complete his record, as it is he who is still
speaking, but Mormon did live to fight another day with the escaped
survivors of the battle as later recorded by Moroni.
15a and also a few who had escaped into the south countries Now where are the 'south countries'? Since the Nephites gave unto the Lamanites all of the lands south of the narrow neck and passage back in 350 A.D., and that since that date only the one short lived invasionary Nephite force did even attempt to go into that land and failed, and since that time, especally for the last 10 years the Nephites has been pursued ever northward, retreating with the Lamanites sweeping them off the land as dew before the sun (Mormon 4:18) and since the failed Jordan defense only those that could retreat faster than the Lamanites advanced forward had remained (Mormon 5:7); it is quite unlikely, despite the 'limited theorest's appeals' that they escaped all the way back down southward beyond the narrow neck. Thus the more logical conclusion is to presume and look to another land region that would logically be termed by Mormon as these 'south countries, being south of the land and hill of Cumorah. Now with that perspective and remaining faithful to the concept that Cumorah was in New York state, that means the Nephite 'south countries' here mentioned cannot be anything but what we know as the southern states today of the United States of America. Moroni will state that these remaining few were sought and destroyed by the Lamanites as they did pursue them from city to city until none were left. Moroni even states that his father Mormon, who would have likely been well over 75 and even possibly 80 or more at the time of his eventual death, was killed during battle. This would preclude the idea that Mormon live to fight another day if not in a number of additions skirmishes with the Lamanites as the remaining surviving Nephites were so pursued from city to city. The concept that the Nephites ended at Cumorah is not totally correct. That was the last great battle, but the surviving 24 along with these who had escaped into the 'south countries', fought on as they would not deny Christ or submit unto the Lamanites by dissenting and or submitting unto them. |
11a
1 Ne. 12:19 (19-20); Hel. 15:17 (16-17); Morm. 3:2 15a Alma 9:24 b Morm. 8:2
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16 And my soul was rent with aanguish, because of
the slain of my people, and I cried:
17 aO ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! 18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I amourn your loss. 19 O ye afair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have bfallen! 20 But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.
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16a
TG
Despair;
TG
Mourning; TG Sorrow 17a 2 Ne. 26:7 18a Lam. 2:11 19a Ether 13:17 b 1 Ne. 13:15
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21 And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality,
and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become
aincorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before
the judgment-seat of Christ to be judged according to your
worksa and if it so be
that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone
before you.
22 O that ye had repented before this great adestruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, bknoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his cjustice and dmercy.
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21a ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ to be judged according to your works Even all the fallen of the Nephites whose wickedness was ripen in inequity, yea, even all the wicked, yea, even all who ever have lived upon the earth must come and stand before the judgment bar of God, even the judgment seat of Christ. And there we will be judged according the our works whether they were unto righteousness or unto wickedness. |
21a
1 Cor. 15:53 (53-54) 22a 2 Sam. 1:27 (17-27) b 2 Sam. 7:20; D&C 6:16 c TG God, Justice of d Ps. 36:5 (5-6); Alma 26:16; D&C 97:6
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| *Verse 5 [A.D. 385]. | ||
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