Chapter 7
Orihah reigns in
righteousness—Amid usurpation and strife, the rival kingdoms of Shule and Cohor
are set up—Prophets condemn the wickedness and idolatry of the people, who then
repent.
Orihah, son of Jared, was a righteous king. We are told his
“days were exceedingly many” (Ether 7:1).
This is a good example of a problem with the book of Ether.
Our record contains little information about a people who had lived in the
Americas for a long period of time. When King Mosiah translated the Jaredite
record, we know Ether’s record contained information dating back to the
creation of Adam (see Mosiah 28:11-17).
Mormon tells he will abridge the plates at a later date (see
Mosiah 28:19). When Moroni abridge the record of Ether, did he have the
original record or did he have his father’s abridgement as his source. We don’t
know.
Returning to the record, we read Orihah had thirty-one
children. One of his sons, Kib, was born while he was old. Again, how old is
old, we do not know. We do have an
example in the Old Testament, Abraham and Sariah.
“Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age;
and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
“Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am
waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also” (Genesis 18:11-12).
After Orihah’s
death, Kib was made king. Kib had a son, named Corihor.
For the first time,
we see what will become a pattern among the Jaredites – the son rebelling against
his father, the king. “In the New World, Jaredite
monarchs endured countless security problems and military campaigns. Jaredite
history, in fact, was characterized by one ‘fierce and unrelenting struggle for
power’ after another. Beginning with
Corihor's rebellion against his king-father Kib (Ether 7:4—5), rivals to the
throne often withdrew into the wilderness to gather materials and manpower
sufficient to challenge the crown. ‘When
the aspirant to the throne finally becomes strong enough to dispose of his
rivals by assassination, revolution, or a pitched battle, the former bandit and
outlaw becomes king and has to deal in turn with a new crop of rebels and
pretenders.’”[1]
Corihor rebelled
against his father and left the land to dwell in the land of Nehor.
“In his message to
the people, Mosiah noted that ‘he to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong has
declined, and will not take upon him the kingdom. And now if there should be
another appointed in his stead, behold I fear there would rise contentions
among you. And who knoweth but what my son, to whom the kingdom doth belong,
should turn to be angry and draw away a part of this people after him, which
would cause wars and contentions among you. (Mosiah 29:6-7].
“Such a situation
had never occurred among the Nephites, but it was common among the Jaredites
for brother to rebel against brother or father and draw away part of the people
to wage war (Ether 7:4-5, 15-17; 8:2-3; 9:11-12; 10:3, 8-10, 14, 32; 11:4,
15-18]. Indeed, the idea in Mosiah 29:7 of ‘drawing away’ supporters is known
in the Book of Mormon only from the Jaredite record (Ether 7:4, 15; 9:11; 10:32).”[2]
When he gathered an army large enough to attack his father,
he attacked him in the land of Moron. His father was taken captive. Moroni
reminds of the warning the brother of Jared gave the people when they wanted a
king. “And now behold, this was grievous unto them. And the brother of Jared
said unto them: Surely this thing leadeth into captivity” (Ether 6:23).
In identifying the location of the land of Moron, Moroni used
Nephite geography to give the reader an idea of its location. Moron is near
Desolation. Mormon described the land of Desolation as “And it bordered upon
the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came
into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have
spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the place of
their first landing” (Alma 22:30.
[1] Ancient
Aspects of Nephite Kingship in the Book of Mormon, Todd R. Kerr, Maxwell
Institute website.
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