When the wicked Zoramites heard of the kind reception their injured fellow-citizens had received in Jershon they were greatly angered. They were not content to spoil them themselves, but they wanted to make them fugitives and vagabonds on the face of the whole earth. Their leader, a very wicked man, sent messengers to the Ammonites, desiring them to expel the refugees, adding many threats of what would follow should his cruel demand not be complied with. But the Ammonites were a brave people; they had already suffered unto death for the cause of God; and they were not of the kind to desert their afflicted brethren.
The refusal of the Ammonites to drive them out, or to force the converted Zoramites to abandon their newly found homes in their midst, further angered their haughty antagonists from the south to all kinds of depredations. The hatred of the apostate Zoramites knew no bounds. They began to incite the cruel Lamanites to again make war on the peaceful Ammonites. Nevertheless, the Ammonites remained firm in their resolve not to bow to the demands made of them to be unfaithful to their trust. Rather than do so, they would again forsake their homes and find in some other region a land of peace: for we must remind our readers that the Ammonites had entered into covenant with God never again to bend the bow, or draw the sword to take human life. They therefore withdrew to the Land of Melek, and the armies of the Nephites occupied the Land of Jershon that they might better contend against the combined forces of the Lamanites and the wicked Zoramites.