Redaction: This quotation is the only passage that unquestionably comes from Ether’s record. The specificity of Moroni’s introduction reinforces the probability that much, if not most, of the book of Ether is in Moroni’s words rather than Ether’s. We may have Ether’s story, but we have it through Moroni (from Mosiah’s translation).
These words must have made a great impression upon Moroni, since he was in the same situation when he began work completing his father’s record: “Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not” (Morm. 8:5).
Text: This is the end of the chapter and book of Ether.