That the redemption of the people of Limhi had begun is testified in the statement that “they began to prosper by degrees in the land.” The covenant of the land declared that the righteous would prosper. That also suggests that prospering was evidence of righteousness. In this case, the degrees of improvement in their prosperity are to be seen as parallel to the degrees of improvement in their righteousness.
Further indication that they were truly humbled and changed is that they began to impart of their substance to others. These were the people who, under King Noah, had been happy in a worldly sense. While Mormon did not discuss the people, the worldliness of Noah and the priests was intended to be representative, not exceptional. The Nephite ideal was egalitarianism, and when the text describes the Nephites becoming more socially stratified, it is always a prelude to a form of apostasy. The opposite, as revealed in the people of Limhi, proves the case. Righteousness sees people care for each other and does not have them deem one person above another.