Redaction: Mormon feels obvious antipathy toward Ammonihah’s lawyers and judges. It is not clear how Mormon knew the lawyers and judges stirred up the people to get more “business,” since they probably did not make official documents describing such activities. I read this passage as one of Mormon’s interpretations. As with King Noah, when Mormon dislikes an individual, he makes no effort to be neutral. (See commentary accompanying Mosiah 11:1–2, 8–9).
This verse echoes the statement in Alma 10:32: “Now the object of these lawyers was to get gain according to their employ.” This bracketing of the discussion of the system of weights and measures is therefore opened and closed by the same basic statement (here, “it was for the sole purpose to get gain”). This suggests that Mormon understood that his discussion of the units of measure was intrusive on his text. (See commentary accompanying Alma 17:16–17.)