Helaman 11:20-38

The famine caused the people to repent and keep the Lord’s commandments. They began to prosper in the land.

Over the next two years, the church spread throughout the land. Both Nephites and Lamanites belonged to the church. There was peace throughout the land.

Peace continued the next year. There were disagreements over points of doctrine.

After three years, the disagreements increased. Nephi and Lehi and other in the church knew the true points of doctrine. They received revelations daily. They resolved the disagreements and put an end to the problems.

After four years, we see the return of the Nephite dissenter. They had become a part of the Lamanites, considering themselves Lamanites. The dissenters were able to convince the Lamanites to begin a war with the Nephites.[1]

The designations Lamanite and Nephite are frequently used in the Book of Mormon more to signify one’s loyalty than one’s genealogy ... Nephite dissenters, for example, fell under the general category of “Lamanites” once they were thus allied, and no doubt other, non-Nephite populations, did so as well. And the same is true for groups that allied themselves with the Nephites; they took on the designation “Nephites” even though genetically unrelated to any in Lehi’s party; see, for example, John L. Sorenson, “When Lehi’s Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There?” JBMS 1/1 (1992): 1–34.[2]

They began to murder and plunder, they retreat back to their secret hiding places. Dissenters were added to their numbers daily.

After destroying the Gadianton robbers, it only took a few years before they returned. “[A]t one point, when the Gadianton robbers were under intense military pressure, they “concealed their secret plans in the earth” (Helaman 11:10). (The reference here is, quite plainly, to written materials, perhaps even to secret books.) Unfortunately, only a few years later, when they had regained their strength and self-confidence, ‘they did search out all the secret plans of Gadianton’ once again (Helaman 11:26).”[3]

The robbers caused chaos and destruction among both the Nephites and Lamanites.  It was decided they must be defeated.  An army was sent to find them and destroy them.

They were unsuccessful in their efforts and driven back to their lands.  They again went against the robbers.  While destroying many, they suffered severe losses.

They again had to retreat from the wilderness and the mountains.[4]  The robbers had far more people to fight than did the Nephites. 

The robbers continued to gain strength.  They were able to defeat whole armies of both the Nephites and Lamanites.  They spread fear and terror throughout the land.  They continued to raid throughout the land, bring destruction wherever they went.  The killed man and took women and children as prisoners.

Defeat, once again, caused the people to realize this was happening because of their wickedness.  This caused them to remember the Lord.  It was as though the Lord told them, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early” (Hosea 5:15).

Here, we see a form of progression parallelism.

And in the eighty and second year

they began again to forget the Lord their God.[5]

And in the eighty and third year

they began to wax strong in iniquity.

And in the eighty and fourth year

they did not mend their ways.

And it came to pass in the eighty and fifth year

they did wax stronger and stronger in their pride, and in their wickedness.

(Helaman 11:36–37)

The odd lines (lines one, three, five, and seven) are parallel with the identification of the subsequent years of the reign of the judges: eighty and second year, eighty and third year, and continuing to the eighty and fifth year. The even lines (lines two, four, six, and eight) are parallel with a listing of iniquities: forgetting God, waxing strong in iniquity, failing to repent, and being prideful and wicked.

In a single passage of scripture, a view of the deteriorating condition of the Nephite nation is portrayed with parallel lines that also set forth a progression of the sense. With each succeeding year, the people become more and more wicked, moving from simple forgetfulness to becoming iniquitous, to refusing to repent to becoming more and more prideful and wicked. By creating progression parallelism the writer set forth an important truth in a dramatic way.[6]

“And thus we see that they were in an awful state, and ripening for an everlasting destruction” (Helaman 6:40).

“And thus ended the eighty and fifth year” (Helaman 11:38).

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[1] Around 25 years earlier, dissenters had unsuccessfully tried to convince the Lamanites to go to war against the Nephites. “And it came to pass that they did endeavor to stir up the Lamanites to war against the Nephites; but behold, the Lamanites were exceedingly afraid, insomuch that they would not hearken to the words of those dissenters” (Helaman 4:3).

[2] Were the Ammonites Pacifists? Duane Boyce, Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 18/1 (2009): Footnote 4, pg. 45.

[3] Exploratory Notes on the Futuwwa and Its Several Incarnations, Daniel C. Peterson, pg. 305.

[4] “And it came to pass that the ninety and third year did also pass away in peace, save it were for the Gadianton robbers, who dwelt upon the mountains, who did infest the land; for so strong were their holds and their secret places that the people could not overpower them; therefore they did commit many murders, and did do much slaughter among the people” (3 Nephi 1:27).

[5] “And now I say unto you that it was expedient that there should be a law given to the children of Israel, yea, even a very strict law; for they were a stiffnecked people, quick to do iniquity, and slow to remember the Lord their God;” (Mosiah 13:29).

[6] Poetic Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon, Donald W. Parry, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship Brigham Young University, pg. xxix.