Culture: The Zoramite leaders intended the farmers whom they cast out to suffer from this punishment—severing them from their land and their kin. In Jershon, however, they were accepted into a new kinship, one that relied on the gospel rather than family relationships. By mitigating the effects of Antionum’s expulsion of the Zoramite converts, the people of Ammon became targets for the Zoramites’ wrath. Their leader, already identified as Zoram (Alma 31:1), ordered Jershon to likewise expel the refugees.
Why would he assume that Jershon might comply? No doubt he phrased his demand in political terms. The Zoramites were still part of the Nephite hegemony, though tenuously. He had expelled a group as social deviants; therefore, they must also be a threat to government of other cities. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Zoram was accurately informed about the history of Jershon or that the missionaries were also in Jershon, since they would have told a different story and vouched for the goodheartedness of the Zoramite refugees. In fact, the very reason they were expelled from Antionum would actually make them excellent citizens of Jershon.