Having introduced the story by defining the moral that will be highlighted, Mormon now turns to the story itself. This story is now told from the perspective of Alma's people, and further indicates that Mormon was in possession of a record created by Alma or under Alma's direction.
Social: Verses 25 and 26 continue to display an accurate picture of the conceptual Mesoamerican village.
In verse 25 we see the important distinction between the land of Helam and the city of Helam. The "land" would be the land area attached to the central city location. It is therefore appropriate while they are in the "land of Helam" they were tilling the "land." This is precisely the reason for the attached areas, they are the farming land that is beholding to, and supports, the central "city" location.
Because these people are out in the lands, they are in a position to notice a Lamanite army in "the borders of the land." When they see the threat of the army, they leave the fields and repair to the city, which would have the more defensible positions, as well as perhaps be the seat of any possible organized resistance.
This description of the discovery of the Lamanite armies contrasts with the discovery of the armies of the Lamanites when they approached Lehi-Nephi while Gideon and Noah were on the tower. In that episode, the tower allowed Noah to see the Lamanites gathering, and the alarm was sounded from the city, not from the "borders of the land." Similarly, Limhi is able to see the armies amassing from this same tower.
On the other hand, there appears to be no such centralized indication of the approach of the Lamanite army. Indeed, the army appears to come upon those tilling their fields fairly suddenly, though not without sufficient visual distance that the people were unable to flee, or to take the time to consult with Alma about their course of action.
These facts lead us to some presumptions about the land of Helam and the city of Helam.
First, the tilled agricultural area were not a long distance away from the city, as the people were able to flee there within a reasonable length of time.
Second, the visual field allowed those in the fields to see the Lamanites while the army was yet a way off, perhaps even hours away. This tells us that the distance between the tilled land and the "borders" was relatively open. Since Helam is in an area of mountains and valleys, Helam would be in a valley that was large enough that it would allow for an hour or two from a pass into the valley to the tilled lands. The picture of Helam in a fertile valley also fits well with the description of Helam as a land of "pure water" which may suggest a lake, and inevitably a river or copious stream. These, of course, are to logically in some type of depression, and a valley is the most likely.
Our last speculation has to do with the size of the city. Calling Helam a "city" is probably stretching the technical definition. Not too long before Helam is founded we are told that there are four hundred and fifty members of Alma's church/people.
It is hard to fit more than a few short years in between Alma's departure to the waters of Mormon and this discovery by the Lamanite army. This suggests that there could not have been a significant population explosion resulting from natural increase. As with the original Nephites, it is possible that Alma's people incorporated other groups, but once again the record is painfully silent on this point.
In any case, even with the building of buildings, it would appear that they have not yet built a large "tower," or Mesoamerican style pyramid. If they had such an edifice, it was not very large. Had they a large one, they could have been similarly forewarned of the Lamanite approach by someone on the tower (assuming that someone would have been posted there for this purpose - since Alma's group had fled the Lamanites, one would expect some wariness and watchfulness on their part). If they did not have the tall tower, it could point to the paucity of manpower (and time) required to build it.
Our final indication that this remains a fairly small population is that they fear the Lamanite army, and as we will see, do not even appear to consider armed resistance as an option.
We do not know the size of the Lamanite army, but as a army that was chasing a fleeing people, it would necessarily stretch out its supply lines, and it would be difficult to march with a tremendously large army. This would be more likely to be a smaller force that was able to travel quickly rather than the massed armies that would be possible closer to Shemlon.
Translation: Verse 25 contains a peculiar construction:
Mosiah 23:25 "For behold, it came to pass that while they were in the land of Helam, yea, in the city of Helam, while tilling the land round about…."
We have a very odd grammatical construction that has people in the "land of Helam" and the "city of Helam" at apparently the same time. That the people were "tilling the land round about…" places them most certainly in the "land of Helam" rather than in the heart of the city. It is easy for us to pull the meanings apart, and note that the "land of Helam" is subject to the sovereign authority of the "city of Helam." This unusual designation is somewhat awkward in English, but may have been more readily intelligible to one who understood the conventions of politics in the New World. They were not in the physical city of Helam, but rather in the land dominated by the polity in the city of Helam.
Textual: The printer's manuscript has Helaman here which was corrected prior to the first printed edition to Helam. See the analysis which follows Mosiah 18:12 for details.