Mosiah 22

Ammon, Limhi, and the people held a freedom rally to discuss strategies. The upshot: they had to clear out of the area, like Israel out of Egypt. No point to a violent clash. They’d lose.

Gideon visited the king, he verbally flashed his credentials as a warrior, they went through some formalities, and Gideon proposed this: Lamanite guards by the city’s back wall got drunk every night. He’d make sure they had double their usual vintage on whatever night the king wanted to tell the people to leave. They’d either be stone drunk or passed out. Not a very original plan, but Limhi gave thumbs up. He had the people gather all their stuff, including livestock, and sent alleged gifts of wine to the guards. They took the bait, passed out, and the whole city walked away. Some guards, eh?

Ammon and his brothers led them as they trudged through Shilom on the way to Zarahemla, boxes of gold, bleating goats, sacks of grain, and anything else they could carry or herd. Weeks later they arrived. Mosiah was glad to see them but seemed even more interested in all the engraved plates they’d brought. A typical book hound.

It actually didn’t dawn on the Lamanites for awhile that the whole city was gone. Apparently too much of a laissez-faire method of governing. But when they realized what had happened, they sent armies into the wilderness. Two days of hunting and the trail vanished. Another miracle. Or rain.

No matter: the Lamanites wrote them off for the time being. Maybe the strangest response to runaway slaves ever.

[Here ends Zeniff’s Book]