As King Noah was put to death, his priests fled into the wilderness (Mosiah 19:21). They were the ones who abducted twenty-four Lamanite maidens "and carried them into the wilderness" (Mosiah 20:5). The abduction of the "daughters of the Lamanites" (20:1) caused the Lamanites such anger that their sudden disappearance "led to an immediate rupture in the treaty" that had just been established with the recently conquered Nephites (Mosiah 19:25–29). This rupture was so severe that it "brought a military reprisal against the Nephites," with the Lamanites launching an assault on Limhi’s people in the capital city of Nephi (Mosiah 20:6–11). The Lamanites had incorrectly assumed that the people of Limhi were connected with the taking of their daughters.
The Lamanites, in attacking the city of Nephi, had jumped to a conclusion based on an unfounded assumption that turned out to be wrong. Jumping prematurely to an erroneous conclusion is a form of selfishness. It happened to Moroni, as can be seen from his letter to Pahoran in Alma 60. People seem to naturally jump to negative conclusions. It is always better to give—without being gullible—the benefit of the doubt.
In this instance, the people of Limhi and the King of the Lamanites solved their problem by talking about it. Although the text never states that there were twenty-four priests of Noah, it makes sense that there were that many (as discussed in the previous set of notes). Either because of their location or their number, Gideon connected the priests with the twenty-four missing daughters (20:18).
The Nephites also importantly showed mercy to the seriously wounded Lamanite king, even though he had attacked them (20:13). Together they all honored their previous oath (20:22), and unarmed they returned the Lamanite king to his people (20:26). While this peace treaty gave these people a chance to reconcile, unfortunately, it only temporarily solved the problem, as the rancor remained and the Lamanites again began to rule unjustly over the people of Limhi.
Book of Mormon Central, "Why did the Lamanites Break Their Treaty with King Limhi? (Mosiah 20:18)," KnoWhy 98 (May 12, 2016).
S. Kent Brown, "Marriage and Treaty in the Book of Mormon: The Case of the Abducted Lamanite Daughters," in From Jerusalem to Zarahemla: Literary and Historical Studies of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1998), 100.