As Amulek recites his genealogy to his own people, he refers to an experience of his great grandfather that is apparently known among them, and so he does not enlarge upon it. Three generations earlier, the ancestor of Amulek had interpreted the writing that God had written with his finger upon the wall of the temple (v. 2). We assume this temple was in the land of Zarahemla since Ammonihah was close to this land, and there is no mention of a temple in other lands that surround the city of Zarahemla. King Benjamin had preached his great sermon at this temple (see Mosiah 2:1–9).
The temple writing incident reminds us of one recorded in the book of Daniel; when Belshazzar, king of Babylon, and his guests were drinking wine from the golden and silver vessels that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem (see Daniel 5:1–4). “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote” (Daniel 5:5). The Prophet Daniel interpreted this writing as God taking the kingdom from Belshazzar.
25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. [Daniel 5:25–28]
In that night the interpretation given by Daniel was proven to be correct as “Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans [was] slain.” (Daniel 5:30)
We know nothing more about what was “written by the finger of God” (Alma 10:2), or what interpretation was given by Aminadi, but it is a second witness from God that he could and does communicate to his people through this medium.
The genealogy of Aminadi is traced back to Nephi and his father Lehi (v. 3). This genealogy is the only place in the Book of Mormon that identifies Lehi as a descendant of Manasseh, son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt. Lehi learned he was a descendent of Joseph of Egypt in the genealogy found upon the plates of brass (1 Nephi 1:17), but he says nothing of Manasseh at that time. The book of Lehi that Nephi abridged (see 1 Nephi 1:17) also revealed that Ishmael, the family that joined with Nephi’s family, was a descendant of Ephraim. Thus, both of Joseph of Egypt’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were represented in Lehi’s expedition from Jerusalem in 600 B.C.