Samuel pronounced a massive rebuke of the pride, greed, and ingratitude of the wicked Nephites who were willing to embrace false prophets while persecuting and rejecting the righteous prophets. Samuel pulled no punches. He declared God’s divine judgment upon the people. His words reflect God’s law of reciprocal or “talionic” justice: “an eye for an eye.” Alma taught this principle when he stated, “that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored” (Alma 41:15).
Samuel’s warnings were consistent with legal thinking in the ancient world—divine talionic judgment was considered to be righteous, just and fair. In this instance, the suitable punishment for unrighteously and tenaciously holding onto one’s treasures would be that those very treasures would become “slippery” and no one would be able to hold onto them (Helaman 13:31, 36). Of note, Samuel used the word “slippery” three times, and the word “slipped” once, the opposite of “holding,” in his warning to the people (in 13:30–36).
Reliance on this ancient legal principle can be found in the text of early Nephite preaching. Jacob, the brother of Nephi, explained that the loss of prosperity was a result of divine displeasure and a sign of what would be the ultimate fate of “the rich” who “despise the poor” if they did not repent. Jacob stated, “their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also” (2 Nephi 9:30).
Helaman put the attainment of riches in perspective when he taught his sons Lehi and Nephi—who then may have been the missionaries who converted Samuel—that they should seek intangible eternal treasure which cannot be lost: “Lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life” (Helaman 5:8). So there is a good genealogy for the transmission of these ideas through Nephite channels.
Several other ancient texts reflect the understanding that wealth and possessions can become lost in the earth because of iniquity. According to scholar, Blake Ostler, this section of the Book of Mormon and Samuel’s warnings about the land becoming cursed
“is best interpreted from an understanding of the Deuteronomic covenant which required obedience and pronounced resulting curses and blessing upon the land for breach or obedience to the covenant respectively (Deut. 11:26–29). … The ethic prominent throughout the Book of Mormon [is] that seeking wealth while ignoring the poor is abhorrent to God. The ability to obtain riches and keep them was dependent upon obedience to the Deuteronomic covenant: ‘And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, … ye shall surely perish’ (Deuteronomy 8:17–19).”
Here also this makes sense, for Samuel and his Lamanite brethren were strict in obeying the law of Moses, and Deuteronomy would have been one of the main texts on the plates of brass where they would have gone for an understanding of the conditional covenant nature of the Lord’s promises that came with the promised land in the New World.
Hugh Nibley, as well as Ostler, have drawn attention to 1 Enoch as another potential ancient parallel for the curses pronounced by Samuel. 1 Enoch 94:8–10 reads, “Woe to you, ye rich, for ye have trusted in your riches. And from your riches shall ye depart, because ye have not remembered the Most High in the days of your riches.” This thought is continued in 1 Enoch 97:8–10: “Woe unto you who acquire silver and gold in unrighteousness, … for your riches shall not abide but speedily ascent from you; … and ye shall be given over to a great curse.” Enoch (and Zenoch) seem to have figured particularly in the Nephite understanding of prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah.
Book of Mormon Central, “Why Did Samuel Say the Wealth of Some Nephites Would Become ‘Slippery’? (Helaman 13:31),” KnoWhy 539 (November 7, 2019).
Blake T. Ostler, “The Book of Mormon as a Modern Expansion of an Ancient Source,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 71–21.