(19:1-4) In the last chapter, King Noah sent his army after Alma and his people. They managed to escape the pursuing army. When the king's army returned, there was a division among the people. One strong man, Gideon, sought to slay the king.

(19:1) "The army of the king returned, having searched in vain for the people of the Lord."

(19:2) "The forces of the king were small, having been reduced [by] a division among the remainder of the people."

(19:3) "The lesser part began to breathe out threatenings against the king."

(19:4) "There was a man among them whose name was Gideon, and he ... swore in his wrath that he would slay the king."

(19:5-8) Gideon and the king fought, and just as Gideon was about to slay him, King Noah ran away to his tower. Noah saw that the Lamanites were preparing to attack the city. He told Gideon that he shouldn't kill him now, or else his people will be killed by the Lamanites. His ploy works, and Gideon spares his life.

(19:5) "The king ... got upon the tower. "

(19:6) "Gideon pursued after him and was about to get upon the tower to slay the king, and the king cast his eyes round about ... and behold, the army of the Lamanites were within the borders of the land."

(19:7) "The king cried out ... saying: Gideon, spare me, for the Lamanites are upon us."

(19:8) "Gideon did spare his life."

(19:9-10) Noah commanded his people to flee into the wilderness. They do, but the Lamanites quickly catch up and start killing people.

(19:9) "The king commanded the people that they should flee before the Lamanites."

(19:10) "The Lamanites ... began to slay them."

(19:11-14) Then Noah tells his people to abandon their wives and children, and to run for their lives. Some of them do, and the others choose to stay and try and defend their families by other means: whoring out their daughters.

(19:11) "The king commanded them that all the men should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites."

(19:12) "Now there were many that would not leave them, but had rather stay and perish with them. And the rest left their wives and their children and fled."

(19:13) "Those who tarried with their wives and their children caused that their fair daughters should stand forth and plead with the Lamanites that they would not slay them."

(19:14) "The Lamanites had compassion on them, for they were charmed with the beauty of their women."

So the Lamanites took them captive, and let them live their lives relatively unchanged, except for a 50% tax.

(19:15) "The Lamanites did spare their lives, and took them captives and carried them back to the land of Nephi, and granted unto them that they might possess the land, under the conditions that they would deliver up king Noah into the hands of the Lamanites, and deliver up ... one half of all they possessed."

(19:16-24) The Nephites who fled into the wilderness were angry at King Noah for not letting them return to the land of Nephi. So they burned Noah to death and made his righteous son, Limhi, king. Then they returned to the land of Nephi.

(19:16) "There was one of the sons of the king ... whose name was Limhi."

(19:17) "Limhi was desirous that his father should not be destroyed; nevertheless, Limhi was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man."

(19:18) "Gideon sent men into the wilderness secretly, to search for the king."

(19:19) "They had sworn ... that they would return to the land of Nephi."

(19:20) "The king commanded them that they should not return; and they were angry with the king, and caused that he should suffer, even unto death by fire."

(19:21) "They were about to take the priests also and put them to death, and they fled before them."

(19:22-24) "They met the men of Gideon ... and ... the people told the men of Gideon that they had slain the king ... and ... they returned to the land of Nephi."

(19:25-26) Limhi, the new "King", agreed to the Lamanite king's demands.

(19:25) "The king of the Lamanites made an oath unto them, that his people should not slay them."

(19:26) "And also Limhi, being the son of the king, having the kingdom conferred upon him by the people, made oath unto the king of the Lamanites that his people should pay tribute unto him, even one half of all they possessed."

(19:28-29) The Lamanite king was clever, though. He knew that Limhi's people might try running away again, so he posted guards around the city. In spite of the crippling tax that was upon them, there was continual peace in the land for two years.

(19:28) "The king of the Lamanites set guards round about the land, that he might keep the people of Limhi in the land."