Moroni was forbidden to write more (v. 13), just as his father Mormon had been restrained (see 3 Nephi 26:11). Great and marvelous were the prophecies of Ether, and they will be recognized as even greater as we are given them and see how meticulously and completely he was shown and recorded them.
In this writer’s opinion, Ether’s hiding in a cave by day and viewing the destruction by night has often been misunderstood. Some read the text to say he did not sleep in the daytime and went about counting captured cities and dead bodies at night. The text says, “By night he went forth viewing the things which should come upon the people” (Ether 13:13; italics added). He was shown in vision the future battles and events at nighttime. While hiding in his cave in the daytime, he engraved upon the plates that which he had seen, and slept as he was able “viewing the destruction which came upon the people, by night” (v. 14). The viewing came to him at night, not the destruction.