Overview

John W. Welch

In these three chapters, readers continue and complete King Benjamin’s incomparable speech. While Mosiah chapters 1–3 are filled with reports of preparations for Benjamin’s solemn assembly, his declarations about his own kingship, his son’s coronation, and prophecies about the promised coming of and atoning powers of Jesus Christ, the Heavenly King, Mosiah chapters 4–6 deal with the response of the people to Benjamin’s words, as they express their willingness to enter into a covenant with God, as Benjamin instructs them concerning their obligations under that covenant (chapter 4), as they then actually enter into that covenant (chapter 5), and as their names are recorded as being bound under this covenant with God, as well as with their new mortal king, God’s servant on earth (chapter 6). Not only is King Benjamin’s speech masterfully organized and literarily cohesive, but it is ceremoniously cohesive and ritually rich. All six chapters in Benjamin’s speech must be read together as one great whole, in spite of the verse breaks and chapter divisions necessarily helpful for convenient referencing.

John W. Welch Notes

References