Literary: Mormon builds up a hope, and then dramatically crushes it in the following verse. The hope is built in his readers because we have been accustomed to Mormon’s writing in which desperation leads to repentance and to a return to the Lord. The return to the Lord has been accompanied by a return to victory. Mormon is well aware that he has written this pattern, and he uses our expectations to allow us to feel some of the despair that he felt. First he builds up our hope with the words that indicate a sorrow to repentance, knowing that our expectations will be hopeful. He even describes his own process through that hope in that he had joy for the sorrows of the people for he assumed that it would lead them to repentance. These three verses are the buildup of the expectation. We know how this story is supposed to end, and we expect that ending.