Translation: The phrases are borrowed from Paul (1 Corinthians 15:42) but the context of the phrase is made horribly literal. Mormon is seeing (actually or in memory by the time this is written) the corpses of men and women that he personally knew lying on the fields. Their corruption would soon be very literal. Mormon knows that there will come a resurrection, so this is not a completely final state. However, since these are people who had rejected the gospel they had been given. Nevertheless, Mormon does not believe that every single person lying there would be lost eternally. There were certainly some who continued to follow the Lord in the midst of the greater social apostasy. It is for those faithful that he notes that they may be “blessed with your fathers who have gone before.”