Literature: Mormon makes another contrasting parallel. His conclusion to the first fifteen years of the reign of the judges appears to encompass Nehor’s story (Alma 1) through the missions of Mosiah’s sons. Mormon is juxtaposing the results of those events to show the benefits of following Yahweh and the cost of not doing so.
He begins with the idea of “inequality” and “cunning plans which [the devil] hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men” (v. 13). By inequality he means the Nehorite social stratification. Certainly, Nehorite preaching was “cunning” and captured many, with the city of Ammonihah being the prime example of both ensnarement and the ultimate destruction it leads to. At this point, Ammonihah’s destruction is both literal and metaphorical, the literal representing the spiritual destruction which had already occurred.
In contrast stands the gospel. While the most recent battle has given all Nephite believers the sad opportunity to have hope in the resurrection, the examples of the people of Ammon illustrates Mormon’s strongest point of the virtues of faith. Their defenseless death has its only hope in the gospel. Thus these verses summarize the moral of the first fifteen years of the reign of the judges.
Text: There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition.