“Rending Their Garments in Token or As a Covenant”

"While twentieth-century readers correctly view this moment as a time of great patriotism, it is important to note that any such feelings of the Nephites were founded in their covenants. The focus in the record is not upon an emotional flagwaving fervor, but upon the necessity of keeping covenants with the Lord in order to be preserved in the land. According to the record, 'the covenant which they made,' as they 'cast their garments at the feet of Moroni,' was: 'We covenant with our God, that we shall be destroyed, even as our brethren in the land northward, if we shall fall into transgression; yea, he may cast us at the feet of our enemies, even as we have cast our garments at thy feet to be trodden under foot, if we shall fall into transgression' (v 22)." (Thomas Valletta, Book of Mormon Symposium Series, Alma, edited by PR Cheesman, MS Nyman, and CD Tate, Jr., 1988, p. 234)