Context for Zenos: The reversal of direction continues. Zenos begins in local congregations, and now moves to the location of his enemies, from whom he was cast out. The literary sense of this passage is a reversal of directions, where the prayerful worship moves from the outside in, and once firmly established internally, supports Zenos as his body moves from the inside to the outside, with the presence among enemies as the farthest outside.
Context for Alma’s discourse: The tie for these farmers under Zoramite control is obviously the concept of being cast out. Of course there is a difference between the general conception of “enemy” as used in Zoram and for these farmers. For Zenos, the “enemy” was another people. Israel would have been the people of God, and the Gentiles would be the enemies. For Alma’s context, the Zoramites were not enemies in precisely the same way. They were still nominally under the Nephite hegemony, but their religious apostasy had made them enemies to God in a different way.