The description of king Riplakish’s reign was exactly antithetical to the rule of a righteous king. In Israel, the “Paragraph of the King” in Deuteronomy 17:14–20 imposed a remarkable set of limitations on the lawful power, assuring that the king remained as “one from among thy brethren” (Deuteronomy 17:15). But this Hebrew expectation of kingship was not codified until after the time of Moses. Even so, Riplakish is portrayed in Moroni’s abridgment in direct contrast to King Benjamin, who came after the laws were codified, and who gave an accounting of his stewardship in his famous speech at the temple. King Benjamin likely had access to passages about righteous kings in the Brass Plates, and Benjamin closely followed the wording of the Paragraph of the King himself as he reported to his people that he had met the standards of a righteous king in Israel. Deuteronomy 17:17 says of a good king, “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”
In contrast, we read of Riplakish’s behavior as king in Ether 10:5: “[H]e did have many wives and concubines, and did lay that upon men’s shoulders which was grievous to be borne; yea, he did tax them with heavy taxes; and with the taxes he did build many spacious buildings.” Then in verse 7: “Wherefore he did obtain all his fine work, yea, even his fine gold he did cause to be refined in prison; and all manner of fine workmanship he did cause to be wrought in prison.”
An integral part of the Paragraph of the King was the warning to kings not to use their power to gain wealth and satisfy their own lusts. King Benjamin delineated how he obeyed that requirement. Perhaps there was, long before the publication of the Paragraph of the King, a similar expectation for righteous rule and Ether was expressing that, or perhaps Moroni used the Paragraph of the King as a guide in demonstrating that Riplakish was a bad king. King Mosiah must have noted, and perhaps even accentuated, the contrast between his father Benjamin and the behavior of Riplakish.
John W. Welch, “Democratizing Forces in King Benjamin’s Speech,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 110–126.
John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., King Benjamin’s Speech: That Ye May Learn Wisdom (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1998).