Textual: Mormon begins an inserted moral conclusion at this point. He has shown that there has been tremendous destruction and loss of life, and he relates this loss of life and territory to the wickedness of the people. This is not simply Mormon’s opinion, but for Mormon, a direct result of prophecy. It is the logical outgrowth of the Nephites’ foundational promise:
2 Nephi 1:9
9 Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.
Since the Nephites are losing their land of promise, it must therefore be wickedness that allows that loss, otherwise the Lord would have protected them.
Mormon’s use of Lehi’s promise also tells us something of Mormon’s perception of the promised land of the Nephites. For Mormon the promised land was localized so that the loss of Zarahemla and many of its attendant lands could be a fulfillment of the curse portion of the promise. However, the Nephites had already lost the land of Nephi, which was their original land. Thus Mormon sees the promise of land as attached to the Nephite polity more than it was attached to the earth. The promise followed the people, even when they changed geography.