Mormon catalogues the particular Nephite sins, and they are the same sins against which Benjamin preached a generation after the Nephites’ arrival in the land of Zarahemla. (See commentary accompanying Mosiah 4:22–26.) Each of these sins is directly related to accepting values from the larger culture surrounding the Nephite nation. Mormon again asserts that the Nephites fell because they abandoned God for these worldly values.
He concludes his list of great sins with deserting to the Lamanites. This social movement has been consistent but is now increasing so rapidly that Nephite dissenters are unwilling to await what must, from a worldly perspective, be the inevitable change in their own land. They therefore leave their homeland and move to Lamanite cities to enjoy what they see as the benefits of life there.
(For the sins of “murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, [and] committing adultery,” see commentary accompanying Alma 17:14, 50:21, and Helaman 6:17.)