Mormon’s emotion overpowers his ability to describe. We have in these verses sentence fragments. Mormon appears so overcome that he cannot complete the sentence or the thought.
[how can a people like this]: The Lamanites. There is no other logical reference. He cannot be speaking of the Nephites, for they are the ones being victimized. The reference therefore is to the Lamanites who are committing these atrocities.
[that are without civilization]: This moral judgment is directly related to the practice of human sacrifice and the eating of human flesh. For Mormon, no one who is civilized would do such things, and therefore those who do must necessarily be uncivilized. This is not a determination of the city/rural life, or a description of the political complexity of the Lamanites. This is not similar to the older common Nephite description of Lamanites as wandering savages. This is a direct result of their practices as Mormon describes them.
[they were a civil and a delightsome people]: For over two hundred years there were no “ites.” This people who has become so depraved in Mormon’s eyes were part of the great gospel community. They are far from that, and Mormon is noting the fall from Grace. They were a “delightsome” people, a phrase that the Book of Mormon uses to describe those who follow the gospel. They were civil. This is meant to contrast with their current lack of civilization, as defined by these actions.
[how can a people like this, whose delight is in so much abomination]: This is a fragment of a thought that Mormon never finishes. The implied ending is how can God allow such an atrocity. Mormon is experiencing the shock of many who have learned of the Holocaust. Faced with such gross inhumanity, one begins to wonder where God is in the process. For many, such terrible inhumanity leads them to doubt the existence of God, for they suppose that God ought to have intervened. Not understanding the nature of agency, but understanding their hope in a merciful God, they assume that God ought to have intervened.
Mormon’s reaction is similar, and his question similarly involves God, but in a different way, as in his concluding statement:
[How can we expect that God will stay his hand in judgment against us?]: Here is where Mormon asks his “why” question. Rather than deny the existence of God, as do many who cannot reconcile the great evils of the world, Mormon affirms God, but wonders why God’s intervention does not simply destroy those who would use their agency in such a way. It must have been powerfully painful for him to see his Nephite people destroyed, and this “uncivilized” people remain.
Interestingly, Mormon expands his wonderment from only the Lamanites to all of his known people. He asks how God would stay “his hand in judgment against us.” Even though the Nephites are not said to be guilty of the same atrocities, they are yet being destroyed. Mormon wonders why, with such failure of righteousness on all sides, God does not simply give us and destroy them all. Perhaps Mormon is thinking of the time of the flood, where the wickedness was so great that the Lord had to remove everyone and start over. Mormon is wondering why the Lord does not do it again.