16 And now there was
one of the sons of the king among those that were taken captive, whose name was
Limhi.
17 And now Limhi was
desirous that his father should not be destroyed; nevertheless, Limhi was not
ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man.
18 And it came to pass
that Gideon sent men into the wilderness secretly, to search for the king and
those that were with him. And it came to
pass that they met the people in the wilderness, all save the king and his
priests.
19 Now they had sworn
in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi, and if their wives
and their children were slain, and also those that had tarried with them, that
they would seek revenge, and also perish with them.
20 And the king
commanded them that they should not return; and they were angry with the king,
and caused that he should suffer, even unto death by fire.
21 And they were about
to take the priests also and put them to death, and they fled before them.
22 And it came to pass
that they were about to return to the land of Nephi, and they met the men of
Gideon. And the men of Gideon told them
of all that had happened to their wives and their children; and that the
Lamanites had granted unto them that they might possess the land by paying a
tribute to the Lamanites of one half of all they possessed.
23 And the people told
the men of Gideon that they had slain the king, and his priests had fled from
them farther into the wilderness.
24 And it came to pass
that after they had ended the ceremony, that they returned to the land of
Nephi, rejoicing, because their wives and their children were not slain; and
they told Gideon what they had done to the king.
Mosiah 19:16-24
Among the people who became subject to the king of the
Lamanites was a man named Limhi. Limhi
was son of Noah. He did not was his
father to be killed; yet, he knew he was a wicked man.
First, we should notice a few
unusual things about Limhi as an individual. Whereas Zeniff "did confer
the kingdom upon" Noah (Mosiah 10:22–11:1), Limhi had "the kingdom
conferred upon him by the people" (Mosiah 19:26).1 Limhi
was just "one of the sons of the king" (Mosiah 19:16), for Noah
"had many wives and concubines" (Mosiah 11:2, 14). It is unknown
whether Limhi was chosen because he was the oldest of Noah's sons "among
those that were taken captive" (Mosiah 19:16) when "the king
commanded [his people] that all the men should leave their wives and their
children" (Mosiah 19:11), or the only one so taken. We might have thought
that his docile nature made him the choice of the king of the Lamanites had the
record not stated that it was "the people" who chose him (Mosiah
19:26). We could hazard a guess that Limhi was a young man at the time he took
over the kingdom, being left among the children.[1]
A man named Gideon sent men out to search for Noah and those
who were with him. They met people in
their search, but the king and his priests were not among the group.
Some of those who abandoned their wives and families chose
to return to the land of Nephi. If their
families were dead, they vowed revenge and they would die with them. Noah was the one who ordered them to abandon
them. “Now it came to pass that the king commanded them that all the men
should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites”
(Mosiah 19:11).
Noah commanded them they should not return. They had had enough. They killed the king, a death by fire. This was a fulfillment of the words of
Abinadi. “And it shall come to pass that
the life of king Noah shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace; for
he shall know that I am the Lord” (Mosiah 12:3). “And in
that day ye shall be hunted, and ye shall be taken by the hand of your enemies,
and then ye shall suffer, as I suffer, the pains of death by fire” (Mosiah 17:18).
“In this case, an earthly [king] had failed to recognize
that he was a [subject] to the heavenly [king]. King Noah did not heed the
prophetic warning, and the consequence for him was death by burning (see Mosiah
19:20). King Noah's refusal to recognize the Lord as God was catastrophic both
for himself and, frighteningly, for his people (see Mosiah 11:2–23).”[2]
They were about to execute the priests, but they ran and preserved
their lives. They began their journey to
find their families when they ran into Gideon and his party. They told them what had occurred and all that
had happened to their families. They also
learned about the terms the Lamanite king forced on the Nephites.
They were happy their families survived. I have to wonder about the meeting when the
men returned after abandoning their families to save their sorry hides. To steal a line from the 3 D’s, I did notice
there is a scorch mark around the footnotes to verse 22.
They then told Gideon and his group what they had done to
the king.
[1] Limhi
in the Library, John Gee, Maxwell Institute, accessed November 3, 2014.
[2] Treaties
and Covenants: Ancient Near Eastern
Legal Terminology in the Book of Mormon, RoseAnn Benson and Stephen D.
Ricks, Maxwell Institute, accessed November 3, 2014.
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