“A Great Dearth Upon the Land”

In Ether 9:30 we are told that "there began to be a great dearth upon the land, and the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceeding fast because of the dearth, for there was no rain upon the face of the earth." According to Warren and Palmer, assuming a Mesoamerican setting, destruction by famine suggests that maize agriculture was not fully developed in this early period. According to the chronological records, this famine happened in roughly 2250 B.C. The location was probably in the rather dry highland valleys surrounding the present city of Oaxaca [Bruce W. Warren and David A. Palmer, The Jaredite Saga, 7-4; 7-12, unpublished]

“It Came to Pass That There Began to Be a Great Dearth Upon the Land”

In Ether 9:30-31 we have the following account:

And it came to pass that there began to be a great dearth upon the land, and the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceeding fast because of the dearth, for there was no rain upon the face of the earth. And there came forth poisonous serpents also upon the face of the land, and did poison many people. and it came to pass that their flocks began to flee before the poisonous serpents, towards the land southward, which was called by the Nephites Zarahemla.

Bruce Warren uses these verses as a commentary on Jaredite geography--that the Jaredite land northward appears to be a relatively small area. For example, in a time of extreme drought, "flocks," apparently in search of water and feed, wandered from the Jaredite lands "towards the land southward, which was called by the Nephites Zarahemla." One might ask the question, How far would "flocks" wander in extreme drought conditions? The answer would probably be, Not very far--certainly not in excess of a hundred or so miles. Thus, the land of the Jaredites could not have been that far away from the Nephite land of Zarahemla. [Bruce W. Warren, Blaine M. Yorgason, Harold Brown, New Evidences of Christ in Mesoamerica, Unpublished Manuscript]