Neal A. Maxwell
"Ether’s great love for the people reflected a selflessness and lack of concern for his own life. Ether said, ’Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God.’ (Ether 15:34.) The willingness to die which is born of a despair and a disdain for life is not the same thing as Ether’s courage, in which he was willing to suffer before death and then to die, if necessary—even though he loved life.
"We see in the book of Ether intimations that this very special prophet might have been translated, but we never do learn what actually happened to him. The silence concerning his circumstance is not unlike the disappearance of Alma the Younger, of which it was written,
’And when Alma had done this he departed out of the land of Zarahemla, as if to go into the land of Melek. And it came to pass that he was never heard of more; as to his death or burial we know not of.
Behold, this we know, that he was a righteous man; and the saying went abroad in the church that he was taken up by the Spirit, or buried by the hand of the Lord, even as Moses. But behold, the scriptures saith the Lord took Moses unto himself; and we suppose that he has also received Alma in the spirit, unto himself; therefore, for this cause we know nothing concerning his death and burial.’ (Alma 45:18-19.)“ (Ensign, Aug. 1978, ”Three Jaredites: Contrasting Contemporaries")