This specific refuge area of the Nephites was apparently small enough for the robbers to "lay siege" (3 Nephi 4:16, 21). There had been a larger Nephite zone which the Nephites had apparently been using for some subsistence, because the robbers thought they could hurt the Nephites by cutting them off from those lands. The Nephites must have occupied a very favorable defensive position, from which defenders could "march out" to harass the robber armies (3 Nephi 4:21).