Ether 10:14-16

Brant Gardner

This time the rebellion becomes a brother rising against a brother, rather than a son against his father. The father had led a time of basic prosperity, and perhaps that allowed all of his sons to bask in the benefits of that prosperity. The change in rulership to the last-born son, one born in Morianton’s exceedingly great age, may have been the trigger for one of the brothers to rise up.

Even though the brother becomes king, he is not the expected king following the traditional pattern. Not only isn’t he named in the king list, he isn’t even named in the text of this chapter (nor of Chapter 9), which lays out the chronological history of the kingdom. Similar to other cases, the previous king is not killed, but kept in a type of captivity which still allowed him to have children. One of those, Levi, serves the function of restoring the kingdom. It is Levi who next becomes the king. He begets Corom.

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