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]