“The description of how people were driven out of a land by a plague of serpents that then ‘hedge up the way that the people could not pass’ (Ether 9:31–35) may put a strain on your scientific credulity. … In the thirteenth century A.D. Shah Sadrudin set his heart on the building of a capital which should surpass all other cities in splendor; yet the project had to be abandoned after enormous expense when during a period of drought the place so swarmed with serpents that no one could live in it. It is interesting in this connection that the plague of serpents in Ether is described as following upon a period of extreme drought (Ether 9:30)” (Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, 221).
1. During the righteous reigns of Emer and Coriantum the people prospered exceedingly (Ether 9:15–25).
2. Under the reign of Heth, the people began to join together in secret combinations, and they turned to wickedness (vv. 26–27).
3. The Lord sent prophets to warn the people of their terrible circumstances (v. 28).
4. The people of Heth rejected the prophets (v. 29).
5. The judgments of God fell upon the people (vv. 30–33).
6. The people humbled themselves and repented and the Lord blessed them again with prosperity (vv. 34–35).