With that story finished, Mormon prepares to move to the next story which will concern Pahoran, the Chief Judge. At this point, Mormon appears to notice that he had not introduced Pahoran, so he must take a few sentences to inform his readers about this man. This information is now almost sixteen years in the past, dating to the ninth year of the reign of the judges when Alma the Younger gave up the position of Chief Judge to a man who, at that time, was unnamed (see Alma 4:11, 16). Now we find out that his name was Nephihah.
Even though the Nephties were operating under the reign of the judges, the voice of the people worked perhaps more as confirmation than election. Pahoran fills the judgment seat, not by election, but by right, as son of the sitting Chief Judge.
This is the end of a chapter in the 1830 edition. Mormon has just introduced Pahoran, who will be the focus as the next chapter begins. It appears that Mormon elected to end this chapter because there was another break representing a five-year set. This is the end of the twenty-fourth year, and the next chapter begins in the twenty-fifth.