Abinadi’s words, "It shall come to pass that the life of King Noah shall be valued even as a garment in the furnace" constitute a very interesting form of prophecy. It is a Hebrew poetic form called a simile curse. Such statements conveyed actual predictions and real curses. They portrayed very severe consequences to the listeners. Such curses, to ancient people, were very serious and were considered to have numinous powers to bring evil upon people. We might even say that curses such as Abinadi’s words were deadly serious.
John A. Tvedtnes, "As a Garment in a Hot Furnace," in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 127–131.