Possibly Mormon here foreshadows the conflict with Korihor that will begin in verse 6 as a conflict between the law of Moses (represented by Alma) and the doctrine Korihor preached. This is not a very satisfactory possibility, however, as the real conflict is between Korihor’s doctrine and the belief in the Atoning Messiah, which Mormon has not tied closely to the law of Moses. Furthermore, since Mormon wrote after the law of Moses was done away in Yahweh-Messiah, we might expect him to perceive a great conceptual distance between the law of Moses and Yahweh-Messiah’s gospel.
The second possibility is that this verse refers to the just-described mourning rituals which presumably followed the law of Moses. Thus, there may have been a greater tie between the Old World funeral customs listed above and those of the Nephites, even though they are described so briefly.