Textual: This verse is the structural conclusion to the preceding section. It is easily separated from the next verse because of the “and now” beginning, which Mormon uses to mark new subjects.
With this verse, Mormon concludes the picture of the Nephite church, and concludes the positive picture with the positive statement that they “began to have continual peace again.”
While this may have described external affairs, it is certain that it did not apply to the internal climate of opinion. The underlying differences in Zarahemlaite society did not go away. They may have hit a lull, but they were not eradicated. Those same issues lay smoldering under the surface, waiting for another incident to stir them again into civil strife. Mormon’s next section discusses the next major upheaval of Zarahemlaite society.