Zeniff makes an interesting statement when he says, “I went again with my four men into the city, in unto the king” (Mosiah 9:5). Because of this word “again” we might assume that this was at least the second time, or maybe the third time that Zeniff had gone to talk with King Laman. Zeniff was apparently convinced the first time (on his initial trip) that King Laman was offering “fair promises” (see Mosiah 10:18) and this conviction not only precipitated a civil war among the first Nephite army but motivated Zeniff to be “overzealous” so that he “brought [his] people up [again] into this land” (compare Mosiah 9:3). In Mosiah 9:2 Zeniff explains the reason for this first war: “I contended with my brethren in the wilderness for I would that our ruler should make a treaty with them [the Lamanites].” This contention became so violent that many people died and the expedition had to be aborted.
Why was Zeniff’s proposal of peace with the Lamanites so hard to accept, and how did he ever get so many people to join him on a second expedition to the land of Nephi? In the first mission Zeniff “was sent as a spy among the Lamanites that [he] might spy out their forces, that [their] army might come upon them and destroy them” (Mosiah 9:1). But instead “when [he] saw that which was good among them [he] was desirous that they should not be destroyed” (Mosiah 9:1). Perhaps Zeniff, without the authority of his ruler, had gone to the Lamanite king and unofficially negotiated a peaceful contract. This unofficial contract might have precipitated a violent contention between those favoring peace and those intent on following their “blood-thirsty” leader’s plans to destroy the Lamanites. Zeniff might have returned from this disastrous first trip to the land of Nephi back to the land of Zarahemla carrying the “fair promises” (Mosiah 10:18) of King Laman in order to justify himself to not only king Mosiah1, but to the relatives of the people who had been slain. Perhaps using these promises, Zeniff gathered those sympathetic to these “fair promises” and returned. Upon arriving the second time, Zeniff went again into King Laman to reconfirm the promises that had been made in the first meeting.
Whatever the answer to the use of the word “again,” one has to wonder what gave Zeniff the confidence to not only return to the land of Zarahemla to face the inquiry which was inevitable, but to persuade women and children to come along with him on a second trip when the first mission had consisted of all men (see Mosiah 9:2). [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]