This instruction has two sections. The first is the curse on the land, and the second is that Helaman must withhold the information about these secret oaths so that his people will not become subject to the curse. Of course, his people learn these secret oaths independently and readily; and of course, they do cause destruction. (See Helaman, Part 1: Context, Chapter 3, “The Gadianton Robbers in Mormon’s Theological History: Their Structural Role and Plausible Identification.”)