Noah's Power Collapses

The king’s army returned, having searched for the Lord’s people in vain. Noah’s army was small, and the rest of his people began to be divided among themselves. The minority were those who threatened the king. Among them was Gideon, a strong man who hated the king. He drew his sword and vowed in his anger that he would kill King Noah.

Gideon fought with Noah, and when Noah realized that he could not beat Gideon, he ran and climbed to the top of his tower near the temple. Gideon chased Noah, and was about to climb the tower to kill him, when from the top of the tower, King Noah looked toward the land of Shemlon and saw a Lamanite army approaching. He cried out in the anguish of his soul, “Gideon, spare me, for the Lamanites are coming to kill my people!” King Noah was more concerned for his own life than for his people, but Gideon spared him anyway.

Noah commanded his people to run from the Lamanites. Then he ran ahead of them into the wilderness. As the Lamanites began to catch up with Noah’s people and kill them, Noah commanded the men to leave their families behind and run with him. Many fathers disobeyed the king, preferring to die with their families rather than leave them behind. The rest of the fathers ran with Noah.

The fathers who stayed with their wives and children had their fair daughters stand and plead with the Lamanites not to kill them. The Lamanites had compassion on the people, being charmed by their beautiful women. But the Lamanites still captured them and forced them to return to the land of Nephi. They allowed them to keep their lands on two conditions. First, they had to bring King Noah to them. Second, they had to pay an annual fifty percent tribute to the Lamanite king. This meant giving up half of everything they owned, and half of what they would acquire each year.

Among Noah’s captured sons was Limhi. He did not want his father to die, but being a just man himself, he knew his father had been sinful. Gideon sent spies into the wilderness to find the king and his followers. They found the men who had run away with the king, but not the king and his priests. The men who had gone with the king had sworn in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi, and that if their wives, children, and the men who had stayed behind had been killed, they would seek revenge, even if they had to die in the process. Noah had commanded them not to return, but they had heard enough from the king and put him to death by fire. They would have also killed his priests, but they escaped.

Just as they were about to return to the land of Nephi, they met Gideon’s spies, who told them that their wives and children had been spared, and that the Lamanites had let them keep their land if they would pay a fifty percent tribute. The men told Gideon’s spies that they had killed the king, and that his priests had escaped into the wilderness.

After a peace ceremony with Gideon’s men, they returned to the land of Nephi. They rejoiced because their wives and children had been spared, and they told Gideon they had killed the king. Then the Lamanite king made an oath that his people would not kill them.

Because Limhi was the king’s son, the kingdom was conferred upon him by the people. He made an oath to the Lamanite king that his people would pay the tribute. Then Limhi began to establish his people’s kingdom in peace.

The Lamanite king set guards around their land to keep Limhi’s people from escaping into the wilderness. These guards were supported out of the Nephite tribute. King Limhi had peace in his kingdom for two years because the Lamanites were pacified by the tribute and did not hurt them.