Not only to prove their contention that the wicked priests who had fled into the wilderness were the abductors of the daughters of the Lamanites, but also to punish them for the misery and destruction which they had caused to come upon his people, King Limhi commanded his people to capture the priests so that they could be tried and punished.
Another cause for which the people of Limhi wanted to seize the priests was that they had come into the lands of the Nephites by night and had stolen much grain and many other precious things. To the end that they might capture them, the Nephites "laid wait for them."