The robbers are hurting. They overhunted the nearby
wilderness and found they had a hard time finding food. They were starving. They
had lost many in the Nephites’ raids. Gidgiddoni sent out armies at night. They
cutoff the way of retreat the robbers could take.
The next morning, the robbers began their retreat. To their surprise,
they found the Nephite armies had cut off their routes of retreat. They faced
armies ready to fight.
Rather than fight, thousands surrendered to the Nephites and
became prisoners. Those who refused to surrender died in battle.
Zemnarihah was taken prisoner as well. He was hung. When he
was dead, the tree was cut down. “Such practices seem odd to us today, but they
would make good sense for an Israelite. Ancient tradition required that the
tree upon which a criminal was hung be chopped down so that it would not serve
as a reminder of the dead criminal. The tree was sometimes even buried with the
body. In fact, the Talmud actually recommended that a dead and detached tree be
used for hanging so that a live tree did not have to be felled.”[1]
The people asked the Lord to preserve them in righteousness
and holiness. They also asked they be able to destroy the secret combinations. “A
prophetic symbolic action accompanied by a curse is found in the hanging of
Zemnarihah on the top of a tree. After his death the Nephites felled the tree
and called, ‘May the Lord preserve his people in righteousness and in holiness
of heart, that they may cause to be felled to the earth all who shall seek to
slay them . . . even as this man hath been felled to the earth’ (3 Nephi
4:28-29). This act predicted the way the wicked would be slain if they
continued their attempts to murder the righteous.”[2]
They cried with one voice asking the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob protect the people. “Yea, and I also remember the captivity of my
fathers; for I surely do know that the Lord did deliver them out of bondage,
and by this did establish his church; yea, the Lord God, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did deliver them out of bondage” (Alma 29:11).
As long as the people are righteous, they asked for
protection. “Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause
you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and
blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid
up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the
Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye
know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your
fathers, O house of Israel” (Ether 4:15).
“THE words of Christ, which he spake unto his disciples, the
twelve whom he had chosen, as he laid his hands upon them—And he called them by
name, saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and
after ye have done this ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay
your hands, ye shall give the Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it, for
thus do mine apostles” (Moroni 2:1-2).
They sang, praising God for preserving them from being
destroyed by their enemies. They cried “Hosanna to the Most High God. And they
did cry: Blessed be the name of the Lord God Almighty, the Most High God” (3 Nephi
4:32).
[1] Review
of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? (1987), by Jerald and Sandra Tanner,
Matthew Roper, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 4/1 (1992): 192.
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