Samuel the Lamanite’s prophecies to which Mormon refers are found in Helaman 13:18-23 and 30-37. One of the fulfilled facets of that property has to do with Mormon’s “slippery” earth:
Helaman 13:31-37
31 And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them.
32 And in the days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts. And then shall ye lament, and say:
33 O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out. Yea, in that day ye shall say: O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches, and then they would not have become slippery that we should lose them; for behold, our riches are gone from us.
34 Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the day we have sought them for battle.
35 Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land.
36 O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.
37 Behold, we are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls. Behold, our iniquities are great. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us? And this shall be your language in those days.
This is the prophecy of Samuel concerning the days of the Gadiantons. It is an important characteristic of Gadiantons or secret combinations when they are at their most destructive stage. Note that similar conditions of “slipperiness” existed just before the end of the Jaredites:
Ether 14:1-2
1 And now there began to be a great curse upon all the land because of the iniquity of the people, in which, if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon his shelf, or upon the place whither he would keep it, behold, upon the morrow, he could not find it, so great was the curse upon the land.
2 Wherefore every man did cleave unto that which was his own, with his hands, and would not borrow neither would he lend; and every man kept the hilt of his sword in his right hand, in the defence of his property and his own life and of his wives and children.
Mormon has certainly read the book of Ether, even though it will remain to Moroni to include it. Nevertheless, Mormon intends that it be included because it is part of the evidence for the destructive nature of the secret combinations.
In addition to fulfilling the prophecies of Samuel the Lamanite, Mormon suggests that the prophecies of Abinadi are equally fulfilled. Mormon’s reference to Abinadi is more difficult to find. Reynolds and Sjodahl suggest Mormon refers to Mosiah 17: 14-20 (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl. Commentary on the Book of Mormon. Deseret Book Company, 1976, 7:256 is Abinadi’s dying condemnation of Noah. The verses that might form Mormon’s reference are:
Mosiah 17:15-18
15 Behold, even as ye have done unto me, so shall it come to pass that thy seed shall cause that many shall suffer the pains that I do suffer, even the pains of death by fire; and this because they believe in the salvation of the Lord their God.
16 And it will come to pass that ye shall be afflicted with all manner of diseases because of your iniquities.
17 Yea, and ye shall be smitten on every hand, and shall be driven and scattered to and fro, even as a wild flock is driven by wild and ferocious beasts.
18 And in that day ye shall be hunted, and ye shall be taken by the hand of your enemies, and then ye shall suffer, as I suffer, the pains of death by fire.
This prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of the wicked by fire during the volcanic catyclism that accompanied the death of the Savior. While this is a prophecy that has a fulfillment later in the text, it does not appear to be the one to which Mormon refers, as there is no clear tie to the specifics he notes.
Unless Mormon is referencing a prophecy of Abinadi that he did not put into his narrative, Mormon’s reference to Abinadi is oblique rather than specific, as it is to Helaman. For Abinadi, the fulfillments are generalized and pertaining to the appearance of the Savior. At this point, we do not have the kind of direct tie to a recorded prophecy for Abinadi as we do for Samuel the Lamanite.
Textual: There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition.