Ether 9

When God warned King Omer of the plot to kill him, in a dream, he and his family escaped to safety. Because of their evil conspiracy, Akish and his friends overthrew Omer’s kingdom, and Jared was again made king. After marrying Jared’s daughter Akish desired to be king himself, so he used his evil alliances to kill his father-in-law, and then crowned himself king. But corruption took hold of the kingdom like a disease. Suspicious jealousy caused Akish to kill one of his sons, and another son fled to unite with the exiled former King Omer. The remaining sons of Akish devised strategies to acquire wealth and power. Wars between Akish and his sons erupted and lasted for years. All of the people ended up killing each other except for the thirty who had fled with Omer, who returned afterwards and again regained his kingdom.

Omer passed the kingdom onto his son, Emer. During Emer’s reign, peace and prosperity again prevailed. Their wealth included an abundance of fruit, grains, fine linen, silks, cattle, oxen, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, asses, and domesticated elephants. They also kept some large domesticated animals of unknown species (which were called cureloms and cumoms) that were especially useful to them. God poured forth his blessings with the understanding that if the people should falter in their righteousness, his wrath and destruction would fall upon them.

Omer passed the kingdom on to his son Coriantum1, who continued the legacy of peace and prosperity throughout his 142-year life. Coriantum passed the kingdom on to his son Com.

Heth, the son of Com, embraced the old and evil ways by personally killing his father, and reigning as king afterwards. Again, the prophets arose and declared that unless the people repented, the land would be cursed and famine and destruction would prevail; but the people and King Heth paid no attention to them. They even went so far as to throw the prophets into pits to die. When the rains didn’t come, the crops failed and the people died. Poisonous snakes arose that killed many people and drove their livestock away. When the people saw that they were doomed to starvation, they repented and cried out to God. After they had humbled themselves sufficiently, God relented and sent rain. After the power of God was shown for all to see, the people revived and the harvests returned.