Neal A. Maxwell
"And as he dwelt in the cavity of a rock he made the remainder of this record, viewing the destructions which came upon the people, by night. (Ether 13:13-14.)
"Finally, in Ether’s time too, the anarchy became absolute: ’Now there began to be a war upon all the face of the land, every man with his band fighting for that which he desired.’ (Ether 13:25.) Destruction produced its own intoxication: ’And when the night came they were drunken with anger, even as a man who is drunken with wine; and they slept again upon their swords.’ (Ether 15:22.)
“Preceding the second coming, will there be such similar and widespread violence, disorder, and anarchy again? Yet even in the midst of such destruction, the Lord’s purposes unfold, not only generally but individually, as He keeps His individualized promises to His servants.” (Plain and Precious Things, p. 90)
Ether had prophesied to Coriantumr that his people would be spared if he would repent, but if he would not, they should be destroyed, and all his household save it were himself (Ether 13:21). Ether 14, in large measure, records the fulfillment of that prophecy as Coriantumr faces one determined foe after another.
Neal A. Maxwell
"In contrast to Ether’s righteousness, Shiz and Coriantumr, Ether’s contemporaries, are classic examples of ruthless military rivals who finally reached the point where they did not care for their own lives or for the lives of their people.
"Shiz was the brother of Lib, a previous military leader who was killed by Coriantumr’s forces. Our first encounter with Shiz in the scriptures introduces his insensitivity, for he ’did slay both women and children, and he did burn the cities.’ (Ether 14:17.)
"We see in the rivalry of Shiz and Coriantumr, as in other Book of Mormon episodes, an awful cycle of family vengeance. Those who are caught up in revenge lose all perspective concerning the sanctity of life.
"Shiz swore to ’avenge himself upon Coriantumr of the blood of his brother.’ (Ether 14:24.) That Shiz was an intimidating individual is made perfectly clear by the quailing question, ’Who can stand before the army of Shiz?’ (Ether 14:18.)
"There are some lyrical lines from a twentieth century musical, Kismet, that remind us all of the transitory nature of human power as seen in men like Shiz and Coriantumr.
Princes come, princes go
An hour of pomp
An hour of show
"There are some men at arms who—unlike Shiz and Coriantumr—learn from war and can distill immense, important lessons from the terrors of war. One such modern man was Douglas MacArthur, general of the United States armies and veteran of three great wars. In May of 1962, at age eighty-three, he spoke movingly and eloquently without notes of any kind to young soldiers at West Point. Significantly, General MacArthur noted in his benedictory address some of the things he had distilled from his experiences ’in twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires,‘ such as how we must ’master self before we seek to master others,‘ how important it is to ’have a heart that is clean,’ how divine help is needed to sustain the soldier, and of right and wrong. Reading of Shiz and Coriantumr, one has difficulty envisioning them learning such lessons from their many battles. As he recounted the lessons of life he had learned amid ’the strange mournful mutter of the battlefield,‘ General MacArthur also spoke of the ’judgment seat of God‘ and of man’s being created in the image of God. While the soldier pines for peace, MacArthur knew human nature well enough to cite Plato‘s comment that ’only the dead have seen the end of war.’ (Reminiscences, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1964, pp. 423-26.)
“The senseless slaughter of which Shiz was a part is described with poetic vividness: the armies marched ’from the shedding of blood to the shedding of blood.’ (Ether 14:22.)” (Ensign, Aug. 1978, “Three Jaredites: Constrasting Contemporaries”)