Chapter 15
Millions of the
Jaredites are slain in battle—Shiz and Coriantumr assemble all the people to
mortal combat—The Spirit of the Lord ceases to strive with them—The Jaredite
nation is utterly destroyed—Only Coriantumr remains.
After Coriantumr recovered from his wounds, he remembered
Ether’s words.
“And in the second year the word of the Lord came to Ether,
that he should go and prophesy unto Coriantumr that, if he would repent, and
all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the
people—
“Otherwise they should be destroyed, and all his household
save it were himself. And he should only live to see the fulfilling of the
prophecies which had been spoken concerning another people receiving the land
for their inheritance; and Coriantumr should receive a burial by them; and
every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr” (Ether 13:20-21).
Nearly two million men, women, and children had died in the
war. His heart was filled with sorrow over the loss of so many.
Seeing the words of the prophets had been fulfilled, Coriantumr
was moved to repent of the evil he had done. His soul mourned and he could not
be comforted.
He wrote and epistle
to his enemy, Shiz. He told him he wanted to spare the people more war. He also
offered to give up the kingdom for the life of his people.
“After
losing millions of people in battles, Coriantumr ‘began to repent’ and wrote to
Shiz, ‘desiring him that he would spare the people, and he would give up the
kingdom for the sake of the lives of the people’ (Ether 15:3—4). It was of
course a personal feud—the world polarizes around over-rated individuals—and
Shiz agreed, ‘if [Coriantumr] would give himself up, that [Shiz] might slay him
with his own sword’ (Ether 15:15). That was going too far—nobody repented, and
both sides ‘were stirred up to anger’ (Ether 15:6) and would have nothing but
total victory.”[1]
Coriantumr’s forces
were losing to Shiz’s army. Seeing his army was about to fall, Coriantumr fled
to the waters of Ripliancum. There, they pitched their tents. Shiz followed him
and pitched tents nearby.
The battle continued. Coriantumr was wounded and passed out
from the loss of blood. Coriantumr’s army was able to force Shiz’s army to
retreat, fleeing southward. They pitched their tents at the hill Ramah. Moroni
reminds us this is where Mormon hid the Nephite records. All the people in the
land were gathered there.
Ether was able to observe what was happening. “And as he
dwelt in the cavity of a rock he made the remainder of this record, viewing the
destructions which came upon the people, by night” (Ether 13:14). The gathering
of the people took place over a period of four years.
All the people were armed, including women and children.
They were given shields, breastplates, and head plates. The battle lasted all
day. At night, they were weary from the battle. Causalities were identified. So
many died, “their cries, their howlings and lamentations, that they did rend
the air exceedingly” (Ether 15:16).
[1] The
Prophetic Book of Mormon, Hugh W. Nibley, Maxwell Institute website.
No comments:
Post a Comment