“It is Not Expedient That We Should Have a King”

Alan C. Miner

According to Avraham Gileadi, Alma's chiastically structured statement emphasizes human inequality as the reason his people should have no king:

a. Behold, it is not expedient that we should have a king;

b. for thus saith the Lord:

c. Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another,

c' or one man shall not think himself above another;

b' therefore I say unto you

a' it is not expedient that ye should have a king.

Alma nonetheless qualifies that statement. He says, "If it were possible that ye could always have just men to be your kings it would be well for you to have a king" (Mosiah 23:8). [Avraham Gileadi, The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, p. 209]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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