The famine was so severe and pervasive that “every soul had cause to mourn,” exacerbated by grief for dead relatives and friends. Under such conditions, the people searched for a source of hope, scrutinized their souls, and began to repent.
These people are supposed to be good Nephites. Of what “abominations” did they repent? Of course, they no doubt reflected on and repented for their individual sins. However, reading this passage primarily as an individual concern would be anachronistic. Like the “Mediterranean personality,” the Nephite personality would almost certainly have been communally oriented. (See commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 1:1.) The law of Moses is designed for a community, and the continuation of that law suggests the continuation of communal concerns over individual ones.
The tension between the way of Yahweh and the way of the world was always present in Zarahemla society. Within recent months, this tension had become so great that the Amlicites not only defected from the Nephites but also attacked them. Yet almost certainly some Amlicite sympathizers stopped short of physically leaving the Nephite community and remained, though drawn to the worldly desires that led to the Amlicite apostasy. I hypothesize that the presence of this dual allegiance was the “abomination” and the most likely reason for repenting. It is certainly the most obvious reason why these humbled and repentant people had a reprieve from contentions, even though they suffered from famine.