| Zeezrom, Alma 14:6 | Alma, Alma 36 |
| he also knew concerning the blindness of the minds, which he had caused among the people by his lying words; | Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction (36:14) |
| and his soul began to be harrowed up under a consciousness of his own guilt; | But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. (36:12) |
| yea, he began to be encircled about by the pains of hell. | Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell (36:13) |
As part of his repentance, Zeezrom reverses his accusations and defends Alma and Amulek’s innocence. It is unfortunate that we have no details about the setting of this defense, but possibly it occurred as part of the hearing before the chief judge. While we might be tempted to see Zeezrom as the equivalent of Alma and Amulek’s defense attorney, the text does not support such a conclusion. Indeed, the reaction of the people appears to occur almost independent of the ruling of the chief judge—an enforcement of prevailing opinion by force of numbers. Nevertheless, this action is taken at least with the judge’s tacit approval (v. 14).
Significantly, this popular, almost mob, action manifests Alma’s prescient fear when first confronted by Nehor himself. Ironically, Alma as chief judge condemned Nehor and now faces a condemning Nehorite judge. On that occasion, Alma had said: “Behold, this is the first time that priestcraft has been introduced among this people. And behold, thou art not only guilty of priestcraft, but hast endeavored to enforce it by the sword; and were priestcraft to be enforced among this people it would prove their entire destruction.” (Alma 1:12).
Alma’s fear was that Nehor’s religious ideas would “prove” so divisive to the Nephite social fabric as to bring about “their entire destruction.” In Ammonihah, the differences in ideas not only result in the persecution of Alma and Amulek but will lead to the martyr-deaths of all those who believed the words of Alma and Amulek.
Variant: The printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition included several “and it came to passes” in this verse. It read: “And it came to pass that he began to cry unto the people saying behold I am guilty and these men are spotless before God and it came to pass that he began to plead for them from that time forth but they reviled him saying art thou also possessed with the devil and it came to pass that they spit upon him and cast him out from among them and also all those who believed in the words which had been spoken by Alma and Amulek and they cast them out and sent men to cast stones at them.”