Chapter 2
Mormon leads the
Nephite armies—Blood and carnage sweep the land—The Nephites lament and mourn
with the sorrowing of the damned—Their day of grace is passed—Mormon obtains
the plates of Nephi—Wars continue. About A.D. 327–350.
War has broken out with the Lamanites. The young Mormon
(sixteen years-old) was chosen to lead the Nephite army.
The Lamanite army outnumber the Nephite army. The army
refused to fight and retreated to the north country. Mormon has referred to
this part of the land earlier. “And thus [Moroni1] cut off all the
strongholds of the Lamanites in the east wilderness, yea, and also on the west,
fortifying the line between the Nephites and the Lamanites, between the land of
Zarahemla and the land of Nephi, from the west sea, running by the head of the
river Sidon—the Nephites possessing all the land northward, yea, even all the
land which was northward of the land Bountiful, according to their pleasure”
(Alma 50:11).
The Nephites retook the city of Angola. They fortified the
city, which was a common move by the Nephites defending a city. For example, “[governor
Lachoneus] caused that fortifications should be built round about them, and the
strength thereof should be exceedingly great. And he caused that armies, both
of the Nephites and of the Lamanites, or of all them who were numbered among
the Nephites, should be placed as guards round about to watch them, and to
guard them from the robbers day and night” (3 Nephi 3:14).
However, the Lamanites drove the Nephites out of the land of
David.
The next move by the Nephite army was into the land of
Joshua. On the west, there was a body of water. “The information in the Book of
Mormon is too inadequate for even guessing the distance of this western
transect; the Nephites largely ignored this coast. The only other coastal city
we know of is Joshua, occupied by General Mormon’s army in their doomed retreat
from the land of Zarahemla to their final stand at the hill Cumorah (Mormon
2:6).”[1]
The army gathered the people so they could get into one
place.
Despite the destruction, the Nephites experiences, the land
was still filled with robbers and the Lamanites. This is similar to what they
faced just after Christ’s birth. “And it came to pass in the thirteenth year
there began to be wars and contentions throughout all the land; for the
Gadianton robbers had become so numerous, and did slay so many of the people,
and did lay waste so many cities, and did spread so much death and carnage
throughout the land, that it became expedient that all the people, both the
Nephites and the Lamanites, should take up arms against them” (3 Nephi 2:11).
Mormon referred to this earlier, in 4 Nephi. “And it came to
pass that the robbers of Gadianton did spread over all the face of the land;
and there were none that were righteous save it were the disciples of Jesus. And
gold and silver did they lay up in store in abundance, and did traffic in all
manner of traffic” (4 Nephi 1:46).
“[V]ery recent findings suggest a picture of warfare and
sociopolitical disintegration at the very beginning of the period that the older
archaeologists used to think of as peaceful. This also happens to be the time
period when, according to Mormon’s record, the Nephites were driven out of
their homeland and “one complete revolution” was going on ‘throughout all the
face of the land’ (Mormon 2:8).”[2]
The king of the Lamanites, heading the army, was Aaron. This name might have been a reminder of an
earlier Aaron. “The Lamanite king of Mormon’s time was named Aaron (see Mormon
2:9). This may have been a family name originally adapted from Aaron, brother
of Ammon, who had converted the Lamanite king (see Alma 22). If so, then the
Lamanites of Mormon’s time can be tied to those of the time of Ammon.”[3]
The Lamanite army consisted of 44,000 troops. The Nephite
army consisted of 42,000 troops. Population estimates around this time could
very well have provided this many troops.[4]
[1] Revisiting
“A Key for Evaluating Book of Mormon Geographies.” John E. Clark, Mormon Studies Review 23/1 (2011): 27.
[2] Last-Ditch
Warfare in Ancient Mesoamerica Recalls the Book of Mormon, John L.
Sorenson, Journal of Book of Mormon
Studies 9/2 (2000): 50.
[3] Book of
Mormon Tribal Affiliation and Military Castes, John A. Tvedtnes, Maxwell
Institute.
[4] Nephi’s
Descendants? Historical Demography and the Book of Mormon, James E. Smith, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon
6/1 (1994): 292.
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