Alma 44

At Moroni’s command, the Nephite army stopped their combat, and withdrew one pace from the Lamanite warriors with whom they’d been fighting.

“Zerahemnah,” Moroni call out to the Lamanite commander, “we do not want to be men of blood. You know we could kill you all, but we don’t want to. We haven’t come to battle to kill for power, nor do we want to enslave any of you. But these are the reasons you’ve come against us. You hate us because of our religion. But now you can see that God is on our side, and has delivered you into our hands. You need to understand that our victory was won because of our religion and our faith in Jesus Christ. Now you can see that you cannot destroy our faith.”

“Therefore Zerahemnah, if you wish to live, I command you to hand over all your weapons of war. If you do this, we will spare your lives as long as you agree to go away, and quit your warring against us. I make this command in the name of that all-powerful God who has given us victory through our faith in our religion, our devotion to the rites of worship, our dedication to our church, through the support of our families, and by the sacred word of God to whom we owe all of our happiness. If you don’t lay down your arms, I will order my men to exterminate all of you. Then you will see who has power over the other.”

When Zerahemnah heard this he stepped forward and gave his sword and his bow to Moroni and said, “We will give you our weapons of war, but we won’t make any promises to you that we, or our children, cannot keep. Take our weapons and let us go back into the wilderness, or we will keep our swords and fight to the death. We do not agree with your religion, nor do we believe that God has given you victory. We think it is your cunning and your armor that has defeated us.”

Moroni gave Zerahemnah his weapons back. “Unless you promise to quit your warring against us we will destroy you,” said Moroni. “Either submit to the conditions I have proposed or die.”

When Moroni said this, Zerahemnah rushed forward to kill him with his sword. But as he raised it to strike, one of Moroni’s guards struck Zerahemnah’s sword to the ground and broke it. When Zarahemnah dodged into the midst of his armed warriors, one of Moroni’s guards struck Zarahemnah and a piece of his scalp fell to the ground. The guard picked up the fallen scalp by the point of his sword and stretched it out to the Lamanites saying, “Just as your chief’s scalp has fallen to the ground, so too will any of you who don’t surrender your weapons and give us a promise of peace.”

Hearing this ultimatum and seeing how things were, many of the Lamanite warriors were afraid for their lives. These men came forward, threw down their weapons at Moroni’s feet, and made a promise of peace. All of those who did so were allowed to freely go back to the wilderness.

This made Zerahemna extremely angry. So he rallied the remainder of his army to make a mighty fight with the Nephites. By this time Moroni was angry too. He ordered his army to kill them all. Their bare bodies fell swiftly beneath the Nephite assault, just as Moroni had prophesied.

Just before they were about to be destroyed entirely, Zerahemnah cried out to Moroni and promised to end the warfare forever if their lives would be spared. So Moroni ordered his soldiers to stop the killing again. After he relieved them of their weapons and received their promises, Moroni let them go.

There were so many dead among both the Lamanites and Nephites that no one bothered to count the bodies. The dead were thrown into the river, and carried away for burial at sea.

At the end of the 18th year of elected judges, the Nephite army returned to their homes and families. [73 BC]