Alma 54:15-24

An angry Ammoron responds.

¹⁶ I am Ammoron, the king of the Lamanites; I am the brother of Amalickiah whom ye have murdered.  Behold, I will avenge his blood upon you, yea, and I will come upon you with my armies for I fear not your threatenings. ¹⁷ For behold, your fathers did wrong their brethren, insomuch that they did rob them of their right to the government when it rightly belonged unto them.

¹⁸ And now behold, if ye will lay down your arms, and subject yourselves to be governed by those to whom the government doth rightly belong, then will I cause that my people shall lay down their weapons and shall be at war no more. ¹⁹ Behold, ye have breathed out many threatenings against me and my people; but behold, we fear not your threatenings.

Alma 54:15 – 19 (Emphasis mine)

Ammoron informs Nephi that one of the reasons for the battle is to avenge his brother, Amalickiah.  Then we get the Lamanite reason for their hatred of the Nephites.  “For behold, your fathers did wrong their brethren, insomuch that they did rob them of their right to the government when it rightly belonged unto them.” “Ammoron's spin on the story in Alma 54:16–17 must have come either from a tradition among his own (sub-) lineage or from the Lamanites whom he now claimed to represent.”[1]

“There's something wrong here. How does the smartest man of all the Nephites write the silliest letter of all the Nephites, an idiotic letter? He is bound to defeat his purpose in writing it … [T]he deal falls through completely when Ammoron replies in the same terms. When he saw the epistle he was angry too. Remember, Moroni said, ‘I am in my anger.’ So they engage in this stichomythia [exchange insults to get yourself worked up so you won't be just cold-blooded murderers].

“This gives the case of the Lamanites. They have a case too supposedly. Alma 54:16: ‘… I am the brother of Amalickiah whom ye have murdered. Behold, I will avenge his blood upon you, yea, and I will come upon you with my armies for I fear not your threatenings … For behold, your fathers did wrong their brethren, insomuch that they did rob them of their right to the government when it rightly belonged unto them.’  Laman and Lemuel were robbed [according to Ammoron] because they were the older brothers.”[2]

²⁰ Nevertheless, I will grant to exchange prisoners according to your request, gladly, that I may preserve my food for my men of war; and we will wage a war which shall be eternal, either to the subjecting the Nephites to our authority or to their eternal extinction. ²¹ And as concerning that God whom ye say we have rejected, behold, we know not such a being; neither do ye; but if it so be that there is such a being, we know not but that he hath made us as well as you. ²² And if it so be that there is a devil and a hell, behold will he not send you there to dwell with my brother whom ye have murdered, whom ye have hinted that he hath gone to such a place?  But behold these things matter not.

²³ I am Ammoron, and a descendant of Zoram, whom your fathers pressed and brought out of Jerusalem. ²⁴ And behold now, I am a bold Lamanite; behold, this war hath been waged to avenge their wrongs, and to maintain and to obtain their rights to the government; and I close my epistle to Moroni.

Alma 54:20 – 24 (Emphasis mine)

Ammoron is tired of feeding Nephite prisoners.  He is willing to exchange prisoners under Moroni(1)’s terms “gladly, that I may preserve my food for my men of war.” 

Ammoron informs Moroni(1) “concerning that God whom ye say we have rejected, behold, we know not such a being; neither do ye; but if it so be that there is such a being, we know not but that he hath made us as well as you.” 

If there was a God and hell, Ammoron claims, “will he not send you there to dwell with my brother whom ye have murdered, whom ye have hinted that he hath gone to such a place?  But behold these things matter not.” 

Ammoron informs Moroni(1) that he is a descendant of Zoram and claims that “your fathers pressed and brought out of Jerusalem.”  This claim contradicts Nephi(1)’s account of what occurred with Zoram. 

And now I, Nephi, being a man large in stature, and also having received much strength of the Lord, therefore I did seize upon the servant of Laban, and held him, that he should not flee.

And it came to pass that I spake with him, that if he would hearken unto my words, as the Lord liveth, and as I live, even so that if he would hearken unto our words, we would spare his life.

And I spake unto him, even with an oath, that he need not fear; that he should be a free man like unto us if he would go down in the wilderness with us…

And it came to pass that Zoram did take courage at the words which I spake.  Now Zoram was the name of the servant; and he promised that he would go down into the wilderness unto our father.  Yea, and he also made an oath unto us that he would tarry with us from that time forth…

And it came to pass that when Zoram had made an oath unto us, our fears did cease concerning him.

1 Nephi 4:31 – 33, 35, 37

Who is correct?  John L. Sorenson looks at this situation.

“Since Laban seems to have played some military role at Jerusalem (1 Nephi 3:31), Zoram likely was also part of the Jewish military apparatus, which may in part account for the military role his descendants later played (Alma 48:5). He aligned himself with the Nephi faction in subsequent disputes (2 Nephi 1:30; 5:6), and a generation or more later his descendants formed one of the small tribes within the broad Nephite category (Jacob 1:13). (Still, a tradition among part of his descendants centuries later [Alma 54:23] suggests that he had been ‘pressed and brought out of Jerusalem’ against his will by Nephi. Perhaps in weak moments, he confessed privately to his children that, like the Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo, he ‘went willingly, because he had to.’)”[3] (Emphasis mine)

This tradition may have been responsible for the Zoramites becoming dissenters.  “A reason for their split with the Nephites was evidently recollection of what had happened to their founding ancestor: Ammoron, dissenter from the Nephites and king of the Lamanites in the first century B.C., recalled: ‘I am … a descendant of Zoram, whom your fathers pressed and brought out of Jerusalem’ (Alma 54:23).”[4]

He closes his response to Moroni(1) by proclaiming, “I am a bold Lamanite,” rejecting his Nephite heritage.  He reminds Moroni(1), once again, why there is a war.  “[T]his war hath been waged to avenge their wrongs, and to maintain and to obtain their rights to the government.”

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[1] The Book of Mormon as a Mesoamerican Record, John L. Sorenson, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed May 1, 2012.

[2] Lecture 71: Alma 54-57, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed May 1, 2012.

[3] The Composition of Lehi's Family, John L. Sorenson, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed May 1, 2012.

[4] Peoples of the Book of Mormon, John L. Sorenson, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed May 1, 2012.