Sunday, June 4, 2017

Ether 7:1-6

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.
[2] King Mosiah and the Judgeship, John A. Tvedtnes, Maxwell Institute website.

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