The result of the covenant was to desire baptism. Interestingly, Ammon declines. The important background to this story is made clear in verse 34 where Alma’s people are referenced. Alma had created something that is here called a church, and used baptism as a declaration of the entrance into the covenants associated with that congregation. Limhi’s people contrasted themselves with Alma’s people in that they had perhaps consented to Abinadi’s death, and had suffered the consequences. Alma’s people had repented and had escaped. That was both the temporal and spiritual desire of the people of Limhi.
In addition to Ammon’s declaration that he was an unworthy servant, it is probable that Ammon hesitates because he is unfamiliar with what Alma has done, and creating this kind of a covenant rightly belongs to his king, and not to him.
This ends the chapter that began with our Chapter 17. There is no particular reason evident for the end of the chapter. The next chapter begins the story of this people’s return to Zarahemla. I suggest that the change in chapter was due to Mormon returning to the large plate account. He has been working with the record of Zeniff, but has now returned to the point where he clearly had Ammon’s account. Mormon does not indicate when he returns to the large plates, but only when he uses a different source. Therefore, it would be consistent with his practice to create a new chapter when he moved to a different source, and it would be unmarked because it was a return to the large plates as the source for the story.