The next portion of the Messiah’s message is a roll-call of destroyed cities, two of which are familiar names and the rest of which are mentioned only here (see vv. 6–8). All, however, fall under the rubric of being wicked. In addition to the literal reality, this catalogue stands as the type of last-days’ destruction. The same natural violence and destruction of the wicked will also accompany the Messiah’s second and final coming.
The first city listed is Zarahemla, chief city of the Nephite polity since for more than two hundred years. Only fifty-three years earlier, its inhabitants had embraced rule by the Gadiantons (Hel. 6:33). Even after their expulsion and the people’s brief return to faithfulness, the major disruptions of a new secret combination among the judges had brought down the Nephite government three years earlier (3 Ne. 7:9–14). The dissolution of the government is evidence that Zarahemla had too few righteous to rescue the government. Now, not only the government but its former capital have been destroyed. Mentioning Zarahemla first symbolizes the purging of the entire Nephite nation.
The city of Zarahemla will be rebuilt in approximately twenty-five years (4 Ne. 1:6, 8), but it apparently never returned to its former status as capital of the Nephite polity. The geographic shift northward begins in earnest after this point, with Bountiful apparently serving as the Nephite capital.