This scene probably impresses modern readers with the inherent cowardice of the chief judge in striking and mocking bound men who cannot retaliate. However, he may also be following a Mesoamerican custom for important captives. The Maya kept important captives alive but tortured them periodically. In conjunction with the fact that Alma and Amulek are not executed, these blows and the mockery may communicate their status as “important” captives.
Also significantly, the chief judge sarcastically asks if they will still preach that the Ammonihahites will end up in a lake of fire and brimstone now that their own believers have perished by fire. This language is no coincidence. The judge has clearly connected the martyrdoms with Alma and Amulek’s “heresy.” The believers were killed for religious reasons and perhaps even by a form of execution that had religious overtones. That the chief judge saw “a lake of fire and brimstone” as analogous to these human sacrifices strengthens the possibility that he misread scriptures about the burning of the wicked at the coming of the Triumphant Messiah as indicating a suitable death for these “wicked” Ammonihahites.