Redaction: The essence of these passages is that the Lord led the people of Jared on their journey. What is interesting is the way in which this leading is couched. We have the Lord “in the cloud” leading the Jaredites in the wilderness. This is strongly reminiscent of the Exodus story. The Lord was “in the cloud” for Israel under Moses (Exodus 16:9). Quite specifically, the Lord led Israel from the cloud:
Exodus 13:20-22
20 ¶ And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
As noted before, the story of the Jaredites is being framed in terms of the Biblical stories, even though those stories take place after the time of the Jaredites. While this might seem anachronistic, we must also remember that the probable redactors here are Mosiah and Moroni, both of whom are well after both events, and have access to the Biblical stories through the brass plate record.
Up to this point we have been unable to tell whether this typologically cast came from Mosiah or Moroni. While it is no more sure at this point, there is in this section some evidence of the relationship of Moroni to the text in question. From verse 9 through the beginning of verse 13 we have a very clear insertion by Moroni in the text. We also have a slight repetition of events where verses 6 and 7 give the story of the barges briefly, but then later in greater detail. All of this points to a significant hand of Moroni in the text. The repetition of the mention of the barges tells us that Moroni is not citing his source. Moroni is retelling his source. In the process of the retelling, Moroni is seeing that text in its typological relationship to both ancient and future history. We may therefore suggest that it is Moroni who is the author of these close parallels to the typological stories of Abraham, Noah, and the Exodus.