Once again we have Zeniff’s presumption that king Laman was stirring up his people to wars and contentions. However, the general evidence suggests that this might not have been so. In verse 12 Zeniff notes that the Lamanites wanted to bring them into bondage (which does, in fact, happen to Zeniff’s grandson, Limhi). Nevertheless, the evidence Zeniff gives of the contentions is a violent and murderous attack on a farming community in the south of Shilom.
The description of this attack is more in line with thieves than an army bent on conquest and bondage. The difference is in the subjugation of a people versus killing them. If you kill someone who owns something else, you can take what they own. However, if you can subjugate them, you can demand of them some of what they produce now and in the future. The description of killing this small group indicates that the intention was not subjugation, but the immediate gain of flocks and grain. That would be very shortsighted for king Laman, who certainly could have done that at any time in the last twelve years. Since there is no mention of famine, and the Lamanites do not appear to have retreated that far from the lands given the Zeniffites, we may presume that a famine among the Lamanites was not the cause. While we cannot reconstruct the motivation of that band of Lamanites, it would not appear that their actions should have been laid at the feet of king Laman.