“The Nephites Greatly Feared That the Zoramites Would Enter into a Correspondence with the Lamanites”

Alan C. Miner

In Alma 31:4 it says that "the Nephites greatly feared that the Zoramites would enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites." What exactly was this "correspondence" and why did the Nephites fear it? As the reader will see in Alma 43:4, this correspondence amounted to a political alliance in which "the Zoramites became Lamanites." This immediately led to a Lamanite invasion. This same phrasing, ("a correspondence with") was used in Alma 23:18 to describe what happened between the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and the Nephites which angered the Amalekites, Amulonites, and the Lamanites to the point that they forced the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to flee to the land of Zarahemla. [See the commentary on Alma 23:18; 43:4]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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