When Orson Pratt divided this chapter for the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon, he clearly made the division because there was a shift from the story of Korihor to the story of the Zoramites. Verse 1 highlights that transition. What the division doesn’t do, however, is retain the close association between Korihor’s death at the hands (or perhaps, more literally, the feet) of the Zoramites (see Alma 30:59).
Korihor’s story is one of a threat to the Nephite religious and political order. The Zoramites are also a threat, but perhaps an even greater one. Mormon notes that the Zoramites have moved away from the Nephite religion by stating that they had begun to “bow down to dumb idols.” That was sufficient for Alma to understand that they were in apostasy, but the real danger was “the separation of the Zoramites from the Nephites.” The nature of this separation, and the danger it posed, are described in the next verses.