Moroni(1)’s epistle to Ammoron continues. We will learn that Moroni(1) has quite a temper
and doesn’t suffer evil willingly.
9 And now behold, we are prepared to receive you;
yea, and except you withdraw your purposes, behold, ye will pull down the wrath
of that God whom you have rejected upon you, even to your utter destruction.
10
But, as the Lord liveth, our armies shall come upon you except ye
withdraw, and ye shall soon be visited with death, for we will retain
our cities and our lands; yea, and we will maintain our religion and the cause
of our God.
Alma 54:9 – 10 (Emphasis mine)
Moroni(1) makes it clear what will happen “except [Ammoron]
withdraw [his] purposes.” He will unleash
the “wrath of that God whom you have rejected upon you, even to your utter
destruction.”
Even so, he offers an out.
These things will happen “except [he] withdraws.” If he does, Moroni(1) will no longer pursue
Ammoron. If he doesn’t, he would “soon
be visited with death.” The choice was
his.
“The first half of Moroni's letter builds on a formula
repeated four times: ‘except ye repent and withdraw’ (Alma 54:6, 7) or ‘except
ye withdraw’ (Alma 54:9, 10) your armies and your murderous intentions, God's
wrath and death will come upon you. Moroni
breaks off this theme with his angry declaration, ‘But behold, it supposeth me
that I talk to you concerning these things in vain; or it supposeth me that
thou art a child of hell’ (Alma 54:11).”[1]
11 But behold, it supposeth me that I talk to you
concerning these things in vain; or it supposeth me that thou art a child of
hell; therefore I will close my epistle by telling you that I will not exchange
prisoners, save it be on conditions that ye will deliver up a man and his wife
and his children, for one prisoner; if this be the case that ye will do
it, I will exchange. 12 And behold, if ye do
not this, I will come against you with my armies; yea, even I will arm my women
and my children, and I will come against you, and I will follow you even into
your own land, which is the land of our first inheritance; yea, and it shall be
blood for blood, yea, life for life; and I will give you battle even until you are
destroyed from off the face of the earth.
13 Behold, I am in my anger, and also my
people; ye have sought to murder us, and we have only sought to defend
ourselves. But behold, if ye
seek to destroy us more we will seek to destroy you; yea, and we will seek our
land, the land of our first inheritance. 14 Now I close my
epistle. I am Moroni; I am a leader of
the people of the Nephites.
Alma 54:11 – 14 (Emphasis mine)
He continues, telling Ammoron he’s under no illusion he will
accept his terms, for “it supposeth me [Moroni(1)] that thou art a child of
hell.” When the Savior was confronting
Jewish leaders, He told them, “[y]e are of your
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).
Moroni(1) then lays out his terms for prisoner
exchange. He will trade one Lamanite for
one Nephite man, his wife, and his children.
If he refuses, “I will come against you with my armies; yea, even I will
arm my women and my children, and I will come against you.”
“The same basic duty to serve in the army existed in Nephite
law and society. Indeed, Moroni had power to punish any person in the land of
Zarahemla who would not ‘defend [his] country’ (Alma 51:15; Alma 46:35). Like
Saul and Yaqim-Addu, he symbolically portrayed the brutal fate of those who
would not fight (see Alma 46:21-22). Under extreme and desperate circumstances,
this duty fell even upon old men, women, and children (see Mosiah 10:9;
Alma 54:12).”[2]
(Emphasis mine)
Moroni(1) reminds Ammoron that “ye have sought to murder us,
and we have only south to defend ourselves.”
He threatens to destroy him only if he attempts to destroy the Nephites.
Once again, we see that Moroni(1) is
fighting a defensive war. If Ammoron ceased
his attack, he would be allowed to go free.
“Note that those people were living in desperate,
violent times. Even the great Nephite leader Moroni1 could fall
into the hatred rhetoric of the day. In a chilling forecast of the
total Cumorah slaughter still four centuries ahead, he threatened the Lamanite
king, Nephite dissenter Ammoron, that if he did not cease his campaign of
attempted conquest he would turn the tables on him: ‘I will come against you
with my armies; yea, even I will arm my women and my children . . . , and I
will follow you even into your own land, yea, and it shall be blood for blood,
yea, life for life; and I will give you battle even until you are destroyed
from off the face of the earth. Behold I am in my anger, and also my people’
(Alma 54:12–13).”[3] (Emphasis
mine)
[1] "Their
Fathers" - Letters and Autobiography, Richard Dilworth Rust, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 30, 2012.
[2] Exemption
from Military Duty, John W. Welch, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed April 30, 2012.
[3] Last-Ditch
Warfare in Ancient Mesoamerica Recalls the Book of Mormon, John L. Sorenson,
Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed April 30, 2012.
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