Alma 48:22-25

Brant Gardner

Even though Mormon has repeated text that suggests that he is ready to reenter his planned text, he does not move to do so immediately. As a writer, he is still thinking about the last information that he inserted into the story, that of the relationship of the Nephites towards the Lamanites. These verses finish his ideas, noting that even though there was often warfare, “they were sorry to take up arms against the Lamanites, because they did not delight in the shedding of blood.”

Perhaps one of the reasons that Mormon notes this of the people under Chief Captain Moroni’s charge was the stark contrast to the people Mormon had to lead, a people who had become as bloodthirsty as the Lamanites. In these verses, at least, Mormon can show what the Nephites should have been like, even though those he knew no longer had those qualities.

Book of Mormon Minute

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