This fourth generation has followed the call of the people in the spacious building. Apparently they are the group in Lehi’s dream who tasted the fruit but became ashamed when those in the building taunted them. While individual Nephites maintained righteousness, as a people they were among those who tasted, then fell away.
Variant: The 1830 edition has “Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God.” This was changed in the printer’s corrected manuscript and in editions from 1837 on to “Messiah who is the Lamb of God.”
A more interesting variant is the “word of the justice of the Eternal God.” This phrasing follows the printer’s manuscript but was the result of Oliver Cowdery’s misreading a different scribe’s handwriting in the original manuscript, which reads: “sword of the justice of the Eternal God,” a phrase which also appears in Ether 8:23.