Chapter 20
Lamanite daughters are
abducted by the priests of Noah—The Lamanites wage war upon Limhi and his
people—They are repulsed and pacified. About 145–123 B.C.
1 NOW there was a
place in Shemlon where the daughters of the Lamanites did gather themselves
together to sing, and to dance, and to make themselves merry.
2 And it came to pass
that there was one day a small number of them gathered together to sing and to
dance.
3 And now the priests
of king Noah, being ashamed to return to the city of Nephi, yea, and also
fearing that the people would slay them, therefore they durst not return to
their wives and their children.
4 And having tarried
in the wilderness, and having discovered the daughters of the Lamanites, they
laid and watched them;
5 And when there were
but few of them gathered together to dance, they came forth out of their secret
places and took them and carried them into the wilderness; yea, twenty and four
of the daughters of the Lamanites they carried into the wilderness.
6 And it came to pass
that when the Lamanites found that their daughters had been missing, they were
angry with the people of Limhi, for they thought it was the people of Limhi.
7 Therefore they sent
their armies forth; yea, even the king himself went before his people; and they
went up to the land of Nephi to destroy the people of Limhi.
8 And now Limhi had
discovered them from the tower, even all their preparations for war did he
discover; therefore he gathered his people together, and laid wait for them in
the fields and in the forests.
9 And it came to pass
that when the Lamanites had come up, that the people of Limhi began to fall
upon them from their waiting places, and began to slay them.
10 And it came to pass
that the battle became exceedingly sore, for they fought like lions for their
prey.
11 And it came to pass
that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them; yet they
were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. But they fought for their lives,
and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves
and like dragons did they fight.
Mosiah 20:1-11
The people of Limhi have made peace with the Lamanites, but
at a high cost. They are taxed at the rate of 50% of all they own. Even so,
there is peace.
The priests of Noah did not return to their families because
they feared they would be killed. We later read that their children disown them.
“And it came to pass that those who were the children of Amulon and his
brethren, who had taken to wife the daughters of the Lamanites, were displeased
with the conduct of their fathers, and they would no longer be called by the
names of their fathers, therefore they took upon themselves the name of Nephi,
that they might be called the children of Nephi and be numbered among those who
were called Nephites” (Mosiah 25:12).
“These priests of Noah, part of a Nephite colony in the
midst of Lamanites, had abandoned their homes and families in an effort to
avoid death at the hands of an invading Lamanite army (see Mosiah 19:9—23). Two
years later (see Mosiah 19:29), the priests crept back to the outskirts of
their former colony and, presumably in order to stay alive, ‘carried off
[fellow colonists’] grain and many of their precious things,’ coming ‘by night,’
which made their thievery potentially a capital crime (Mosiah 21:21).”[1]
The priests of Noah found a place where “the daughters of
the Lamanites” gathered. “This seems to say that the place was a customary one.
The place may have been at an outlying shrine or sacred spot. It was not in the
wilderness as such, for the priests went from there into the wilderness (see
Mosiah 20:5), but neither was it inside a city.”[2]
Where there was a small group, they “laid in wait” for them.
“The Hebrew idiom translated ‘lying in wait’ usually connotes premeditation and
planning, implying that the priests may well have known of this place and the
custom for young women to be there.”[3]
When the time was right, the priests kidnapped twenty-four
of the Lamanite women. They escaped into the wilderness.
Not surprisingly, when the Lamanites learned their daughters
had been kidnapped, they were exceedingly angry. The figured the only ones who
could have done the dastardly deed was the people of Limhi. They organized for
war and attacked the Nephites.
We also learn about law in the Book of Mormon.
“The decree of death to the priests, issued by both the
Lamanite king and the Nephite ruler Limhi (see Mosiah 20:7, 16), strongly
suggests that some of the young women were already betrothed to be married—and
therefore were considered to be under a marriage obligation—and that their
kidnappers were thought of as rapists. In such a situation, the men would be
sentenced to die.”[4]
Limhi was on his tower when he saw the Lamanites making
preparations for war. He gathered his armies together and had them gather in
their fields and in the forests. When the Lamanite army arrived in the land
inhabited by Limhi’s people, they were ready for them.
It was a vicious battle. Limhi’s people were able to defeat
the superior Lamanite army. Mormon wrote they “fought for their … wives and for
the children.” This is the first mention of what would become General Moroni’s
title of liberty. “And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a
piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and
freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the
end of a pole” (Alma 46:12).
At the end of verse 11, we have an interesting metaphor. Mormon
records the fought like dragons.
“That’s a very interesting thing that it uses the word dragons here.
There was this surprising ferocity. You wouldn’t think dragons, a
concept from the Old World, would be found among these people, but it is. The
one-horn and the two-horn societies get themselves up as savagely as possible,
and you know in Central America this is common. The warrior phratries, every
one of them, had monsters for their emblems, and they wore the mask. You see
this on the vase paintings and the murals, etc. They wore these monster masks
for emblems, and there was nothing more popular than the snake with the horns
and all the rest. The dragons, and other monsters appear there.” (emphasis in
original)[5]
The way Mormon worded the way the Nephites fought follows
Hebrew grammatical style. In English, we would have written, “they fought like
dragons.” Mormon wrote, “like dragons
did they fight.” This follows traditional Hebrew grammar.
[1] Marriage
and Treaty in the Book of Mormon: The
Case of the Abducted Lamanite Daughters, S. Kent Brown, Maxwell Institute.
[2] Dancing
Maidens and the Fifteenth of Av, John W. Welch, Robert F. Smith, Gordon C.
Thomasson, Maxwell Institute .
[3] ibid.
[4] Marriage
and Treaty in the Book of Mormon: The
Case of the Abducted Lamanite Daughters, S. Kent Brown, Maxwell Institute .
[5] The
Daughters of the Lamanites, Maxwell Institute .
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