According to research by Gordon Thomasson, John Welch and Robert Smith, both of Abinadi’s speeches deal with the themes of Pentecost. He reversed the festival’s blessings and rejoicing, and turned them into curses and predictions of gloom.
At the time when a bounteous grain season would have been at hand, Abinadi cursed the crops: he prophesied that hail, dry winds, and insects would ruin their grain (Mosiah 12:6). While Israel’s deliverance from bondage was traditionally being celebrated, Abinadi called upon Exodus terminology to proclaim that bondage and burdens would return to the wicked people in the city of Nephi: “They shall be brought into bondage; … and none shall deliver them” (Mosiah 11:21, 23), “and I will cause that they shall have burdens lashed upon their backs” (Mosiah 12:2, 5; compare Exodus 1:11). [Gordon C. Thomasson, John W. Welch and Robert F. Smith, “Abinadi and Pentecost,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, pp. 135-138] [See the commentary on Mosiah 12:33]
Mosiah 12:6 I shall send forth hail … the east wind; and insects … to devour their grain (Illustration): Chart: “Did Abinadi Prophesy against King Noah on Pentecost?” [John W. & J. Gregory Welch, Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching, F.A.R.M.S., Chart #124]
“I Shall Send Forth Hail the East Wind and Insects to Devour Their Grain”
According to Amy Hardison, along with covenant blessings, ancient Near Eastern treaties and covenants contained covenant curses. Curses were basically a reversal of blessings, though the curses were typically far more detailed and extensive. For instance, in Deuteronomy 28, fourteen verses are dedicated to describing covenant blessings; the covenant curses go on for fifty-four verses. The curses are graphic and horrifying. They are filled with images of devouring beasts, cities that are conquered and deserted, the end of all joyous sounds, parents eating their children because of the privations of famine resulting from siege, etc. “The curses aim at total destruction of the offender, all he is and all he has.” They were meant to strike horror and fear into the vassal, for, human nature being what it is, the loss of a blessing is not nearly as powerful a deterrent to rebellion as the fear of impending doom and the curse of the gods. Some may wonder at the appropriateness of such explicit and grisly curses in a religious record, but virtually all the curses in the scriptures represent common, ancient Near Eastern treaty/covenant curses.
An understanding of the curses also grants us understanding of the words of the prophets. Whenever Israel was in spiritual danger (which was the precursor of temporal danger), a prophet was sent to raise a warning voice. The prophets who cited covenant curses were not limited to the eastern hemisphere. Abinadi warned King Noah and his court that:
This generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek; yea, and shall be driven by men, and shall be slain; and the vultures of the air, and the dogs, yea, and the wild beasts, shall devour their flesh… . And it shall come to pass that I will send forth hail among them … and they shall also be smitten with the east wind; and insects shall pester their land also, and devour their grain. (Mosiah 12:2, 6)
These curses of Abinadi in Mosiah 12 are of the same pattern as Old World scriptural curses. Abinadi was citing covenant law.
We also read of similar curses from Nephi, son of Helaman, as he castigated the people from the tower (Helaman 7:19), from Samuel the Lamanite (Helaman 13:9), and from Alma to the inhabitants of Ammonihah (Alma 9:24). [Amy Blake Hardison, “Being a Covenant People,” in Covenants Prophecies and Hymns of the Old Testament, pp. 28-30]