Verse 7 noted that there were many men, women, and children who were taken prisoner from Sherrizah. This verse tells us that there were many “widows and their daughters” who remained in Sherrizah. The Lamanite army has killed or captured most of the men, and had taken many prisoners. The context in which we hear of those prisoners suggests strongly that they were taken for sacrificial rites.
However, not all of the people were taken for sacrifice, and therefore there are many “widows and their daughters” who remain. We should not read too much into the absence of “sons” in the list of people who remain. Mormon is writing to play on the shared sympathies of his son, and the natural protectiveness of the men for the women explains the emphasis on the remaining females. While it is possible that the Lamanites captured or killed all male children, it is more likely that there were younger sons who did remain as well as the daughters.
Zenephi is given as the name of the Lamanite general. The name certainly contains the element “nephi,” and that is easy to see as a traditional Nephite name, but not a traditional Lamanite name. Indeed, it is very doubtful that any of the first generations after Laman and Lemuel would ever have used the element “Nephi” in a name.
The history of the Lamanites for the previous five hundred years has been one of accepting dissenters from the Nephites, with several examples occurring in the latter part of the Book of Alma. We have the ironic probability that one of the generals destroying the Nephites had lineage ties to the Nephite nation, though probably from many years before. It does serve as a sobering reminder of what the destruction of the Nephites really meant, however. There were many who were once Nephite who are now Lamanites, and the people survived regardless of their lineage. What was destroyed was their nation.
The description of localized famine as an aftermath of war is also an authentic indication of the nature of this type of warfare. The Lamanites have large armies marching through foreign lands. The Maya economy was not one that produced large surpluses of food (David Webster. The Fall of the Ancient Maya. Thames & Hudson, 2002, pp. 330-332). When an invading army came through, that army would need supplies, and the longer their distance from their homeland, the more they relied upon the available food in the conquered lands. With so many extra people appropriating the stores of food, those who remained in their wake would be left with either much less, of simply not enough. Localized famine came from the appropriation of the foodstuffs for the invading army.