King Noah, like many despots before and after him, listened to the flattery of his craven priests, and gave no heed to the warning cries of the would-be benefactor of his people. He did not repent, nor did he admonish his subjects to. He was dead as to the counsel of God's servant. His conscience, dulled by prolonged debauchery, was insensible to the demands of justice, to right and to wrong. "Who is this Abinadi, that he should judge my people?" he cried. "Who is the Lord," that He should be so vengeful? "Bring Abinadi hither, that I may slay him," for he seeks only to stir up my people to anger one with another. These were the words of one stupefied by habitual drinking. The people, now blinded by the promises and the flattery of King Noah, were ready to follow him in whatever action he wished to take. They sought Abinadi and, with the cowardly priests of Noah, would have put him to death if they could have found him. However, Abinadi was saved by the power of the Almighty; he was to come again to warn these people of Lehi-Nephi of the punishment to be meted out to them unless they abandoned their wicked ways, and cried to the Lord their God for deliverance.