The simple weapons made by the Nephites included bows, arrows, swords, cimeters, clubs, and slings. People have wondered about the cimeters. The word "cimeter" is an old spelling of the word "scimitar," which is a curved sword that usually has a cutting edge on the convex or outer side of the sword, but many ancient scimitars had a sharpened interior curve in addition to or in place of the exterior curve. It used to be thought that this weapon was first developed during the rise of the Muslims. However, it is now known that scimitars were used in both the Old World and the New, in both biblical and Book of Mormon times. Thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars now know that the ancient Hebrew term "kidon" refers to a scimitar. In 1 Samuel 17:45, when David faced Goliath, he declared, "You come against me with a sword [hereb] and spear [hanit] and scimitar [kidon], but I come against you with the name of Yahweh Sabaoth, god of the ranks of Israel." Some writers have thought it strange that the Lamanite chieftain Zerahemnah would carry both a sword and a cimeter, but as Paul Hoskisson has observed, the biblical text says the same about Goliath.
Book of Mormon Central, "Why Does the Book of Mormon Mention Cimeters?" KnoWhy 472 (October 2, 2018).
Matthew Roper, "Swords and ‘Cimeters’ in the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 1 (1999): 35–43.
Paul Y. Hoskisson, "Scimitars, Cimeters! We have scimilars! Do we need another cimeter?" in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William B. Hamblin (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 352–359.
William J. Hamblin and A. Brent Merrill, "Notes on the Cimeter (Scimitar) in the Book of Mormon," in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William B. Hamblin (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 360–364.