Mosiah 9

The following chapters (numbered 9 through 21 in the current version of The Book of Mormon, and 6 through 10 in the original 1830 version) are the record that Limhi gave Ammon to read. They are a history of the people led by Zeniff, who left Zarahemla for the land of Nephi about 80 years before their rediscovery by Ammon. The departure of Zeniff’s group was briefly mentioned by the prophet and scribe Amaleki in the Book of Omni.

I was part of two expeditions to the land of Nephi to reclaim the land of our forefathers from the Lamanites, wrote Zeniff. On the first expedition I was assigned the job of spying on the Lamanites, because I knew the country. In the course of my spying I had an opportunity to see a lot of good things about the Lamanites. I quit wishing for their destruction, and thought we should make a treaty with them. My views were not popular with many of my companions, and when conflict arose over this matter, our leader ordered me killed. This order led to even greater conflict. Members of our party began killing each other, until most of us were dead. Those of us who returned to Zarahemla told a sorry story to the wives and children of our fallen friends. [200BC]

In spite of our first failure in the land of Nephi, many of us still believed in the idea of returning to our ancestor’s lands and gathered together another group for a second attempt. During our journey through the wilderness, we met with trouble and starvation because we were slow to remember God. After many days of wandering, we found ourselves near the land of Nephi and back in the place where our previous party had camped and battled with each other.

This time, our group supported my idea of a treaty with the Lamanite king, so I went to his city with four of my men. We asked if we could live in the land of Nephi in peace with them. King Laman2 agreed and ordered his people to move out of the land of Nephi so that we could possess it. We constructed buildings and repaired the walls around the city of Nephi and the city of Shilom. We farmed the land, growing crops of corn, wheat, barley, peas and many varieties of fruit. We multiplied and prospered.

The reason that King Laman had so easily assented to our occupation of the land was because he had a tricky plan to bring us into bondage. We lived in peace for 12 years. During that time, King Laman grew uneasy with us because as we grew stronger, his ability to overpower us diminished. Because the Lamanites were lazy, idolatrous people, they wanted to have us work the land for them as slaves. If their plan succeeded, they could glut themselves on the fruits of our farms and the livestock from our fields. [188 BC]

In the 13th year of my reign in the land of Nephi, King Laman stirred up his people to fight with us, and the wars began. A large party of Lamanite warriors attacked a group tending plants and feeding flocks of animals. They began to kill us, and took the harvest and the animals for their own. Those who were not killed fled to the city, asking for my protection. I armed them with bows and arrows, swords, scimitars, clubs, slings and other kinds of weapons. Then we went into battle, praying to God for support against our enemies. Just as he had delivered our ancestors from their enemies, God answered our prayers and helped us to defeat the Lamanites. In a single day we killed 3,049 of them and drove them from our land. With my own hands, I helped to bury the Lamanites, along with our own 279 dead. [187 BC]