Now
that we have been introduced to King Limhi and his people, our
narrator/abridger Moroni takes us back to how Limhi’s grandfather Zeniff
brought a group of Nephites and settled in this Lamanite-controlled land. The
story of the three generations that follow span the next 14 chapters, 16 if you
count the follow-on story of the prophet Alma (the Elder) and the group of
people who fled the larger group because of its wicked leadership before Limhi.
Apparently a record was kept by Zeniff’s family line (with a separate one kept
by Alma) and was ultimately given to King Mosiah, to combine with the larger
record handed down from Nephi and his descendants over—at this point—about 500
years.
So
as we rewind to Zeniff’s time, we go back from about 120 B.C. (the time of
Limhi and Ammon) to 200 B.C. Zeniff starts as a spy on the first expedition to
reclaim the land of Nephi, and when he sees good among the Lamanites, he tries
to convince the expedition leader not to fall upon the Lamanites in violence,
but to seek negotiations with them. The resulting disagreement leads to conflict
among the Nephites who were together on the expedition, and after many are
killed, Zeniff and the other survivors regroup at their homes in Zarahemla
(verses 1-2).
Zeniff
still wants to possess the land of Nephi, so he recruits those who are
like-minded, and himself leads the next expedition. A telling remark in verse 3
admits that the people are slow to remember the Lord, and therefore meet with
famine and other afflictions on their journey.
Once
they reach the same place, Zeniff takes a few of his men and goes into the city
to meet the Lamanite king, whose name is Laman. The king agrees to let Zeniff’s
people possess some of the land and orders his own people on that land to
relocate (verses 5-7). We don’t hear about anything King Laman requires in
exchange for allowing these Nephites to come in. That should give us an
immediate clue that this might be “too good to be true.”
We
then learn that King Laman had a plan all along to bring the Nephites into
bondage. After 12 years, they have made the lands that they received prosperous.
Before the Nephites get to the point where they are also too strong and
numerous for the comparatively lazy Lamanites to overpower, Laman stirs up his
people to make war with them. The Lamanites’ main objectives are (first) to
ensure that they always have the upper hand in strength, and (second) to enrich
themselves at the Nephites’ expense by taking the fruits of Nephite prosperity
(verses 12-14).
But
initially, even though the Lamanites have superior strength and numbers, they
cannot overtake the Nephites’ defense of their cities, because the strength of
the Lord bolsters the Nephites. The Nephites gather from their farms into the
two stronghold cities of Shilom and Lehi-Nephi, Zeniff arms them for battle,
and they proceed to inflict on the Lamanites more than ten times the casualties
(3,043) that they suffer (279) (verses 15-19). The Nephites successfully fend
off the Lamanites—for now. But they still have cause to mourn great loss.
The
Nephites’ illusion of being able to live in a world without serious adversity
has been rudely overthrown. It sets the scene for the action that will take
place between Nephites and Lamanites for the rest of the book. Because of their
proximity, they can’t ignore each other. So, for the next 600 years, either
they fight one another, or they find a way to transform their relationships
from that of enemies to friends. War will be the rule, and transformation the
exception, with transformation only possible through the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ to hearts open enough to receive it.
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