CHAPTER 17
Alma runs across the four sons of Mosiah (Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni)--Mosiah's sons had been
preaching to the Lamanites for 14 years--The Lamanites were cursed by God and thereby became wild and
ferocious--Ammon was captured by the Lamanite King Lamoni--Ammon watched Lamoni's flocks--Lammonites
scattered the flocks--Ammon killed seven Lamanites
with his sling, and cut off the arms of the others and brought the arms back to King Lamoni. (91-77 BCE)
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Alma runs across the sons of Mosiah, and they catch up
17:1-6
1 And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of
Gideon southward, away to the land of Manti, behold, to his astonishment, he met with the sons of Mosiah journeying
towards the land of Zarahemla.
2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma
did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his
brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound
understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.
3 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit
of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.
4 And they had been teaching the word of God for the space of fourteen years among the Lamanites, having
had much success in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth; yea, by the power of their words many were brought
before the altar of God, to call on his name and confess their sins before him.
5 Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their journeyings, for they had many afflictions;
they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the
spirit.
One day when Alma was traveling south from the land of Gideon, he ran across the sons of Mosiah,
who had been preaching to the Lamanites for the last fourteen years. [1]
6Now these were their journeyings: Having taken leave of their father, Mosiah, in the first year of the
judges; having refused the kingdom which their father was desirous to confer upon them, and also this was the minds of
the people;
Now I'm going to tell you about their 14-year mission to the Lamanites. [2]
Fourteen years ago, Mosiah's sons go to preach to the Lamanites
7 Nevertheless they departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and took their
swords, and their spears, and
their bows, and their arrows, and their slings; and this they did that they might provide food for themselves while
in the wilderness.
8 And thus they departed into the wilderness with their numbers which they had selected, to go up to
the land of Nephi, to preach the word of God unto the Lamanites.
When Mosiah's sons left Zarahemla to preach to the Lamanites, they took their swords [3], spears, bows, arrows, and slings.
9 And it came to
pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and prayed much
that the Lord
would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument
in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to
the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.
While they wandered for many days in the wilderness,
10 And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said
unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.
the Lord visited them with his Spirit and said to them,
Be comforted.
11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word;
yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I
will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.
12 And it came to pass that the hearts of the sons of Mosiah, and also those who
were with them, took courage to go forth unto the Lamanites to declare unto them the word of God.
13 And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders
of the land of the
Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet
again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken.
When they arrived in the land of the Lamanites, they split up to preach to different groups.
14 And assuredly it was great, for they had undertaken to preach
the word of God to a wild and a hardened and a ferocious people; a people who delighted
in murdering the Nephites, and robbing and plundering them;
and their hearts were set upon riches, or upon gold and silver, and precious stones; yet they sought to obtain these
things by murdering and plundering, that they might not labor for them with their own hands.
he Lamanites were lazy, murderous, robbers and idol-worshipers,
15Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols,
and the curse of God had fallen
upon them because of the traditions of their fathers; notwithstanding the promises of the Lord were extended unto them
on the conditions of repentance.
16 Therefore, this was the cause for which the sons of Mosiah had undertaken the work, that perhaps they
might bring them unto repentance; that perhaps they might bring them to know of the plan of redemption.
17 Therefore they separated themselves one from another, and went forth among them, every man alone,
according to the word and power of God which was given unto him.
whom God had cursed because of the traditions of their fathers. [4]
Ammon kills six Lamanite flock-scatterers and chops off the arms of many more
17:18-39
18 Now Ammon being the chief among them, or rather he did administer unto them, and he departed from them,
after having blessed them according to their several stations, having imparted the word of God unto them, or
administered unto them before his departure; and thus they took their several journeys throughout the
land.
19 And Ammon went to the land of Ishmael, the land being called after the sons of Ishmael, who also became
Lamanites.
Ammon blessed his brothers, and then left for the land of Ishmael, which was named after the sons of Ishmael who became Lamanites.
20 And as Ammon entered the land of Ishmael, the Lamanites
took him and bound him, as was their custom to bind all the Nephites who fell into their hands,
and carry them before the king; and thus it was left to the pleasure of the king to slay them,
or to retain them in captivity, or to cast them into prison, or to cast them
out of his land, according to his will and pleasure.
As soon as Ammon arrived, the Lamanites captured him, tied him up, and threw him in prison.
21 And thus Ammon was carried before the king who was over the land of Ishmael; and his name was Lamoni;
and he was a descendant of Ishmael.
22 And the king inquired of Ammon if it were his desire to dwell in the land among the Lamanites, or
among his people.
Then they carried Ammon to the king, whose name was Lamoni, who asked him,
Would you like to live here?
23 And Ammon said unto him: Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until
the day I die.
Ammon replied,
Yes, I'd like to live here. Maybe for the rest of my life.
24 And it came to pass that
king Lamoni was much pleased with Ammon, and caused
that his bands should be loosed; and he would that Ammon should take one
of his daughters to wife.
This king was happy to hear that, and offered Ammon one of his daughters for a wife.
25 But Ammon said unto him: Nay, but I will be thy
servant. Therefore Ammon became a servant to king
Lamoni. And it came to pass that he was set among other servants to watch the flocks of Lamoni,
according to the custom of the Lamanites.
Ammon said,
No thanks. But I'd like to be your servant.
And so Ammon became King Lamoni's servant.
26 And after he had been in the service of the king three days, as he was with the Lamanitish servants
going forth with their flocks to the place of water, which was called
the water of Sebus>, and all the Lamanites drive
their flocks hither, that they may have water --
27 Therefore, as Ammon and the servants of the king were driving forth their flocks to this place of
water, behold, a certain number of the Lamanites, who had been with their flocks to water, stood and scattered the
flocks of Ammon and the servants of the king, and they scattered them insomuch that they fled many ways.
Three days later, when Ammon was watching the flocks near a popular watering hole, named the waters of Sebus,
a group of Lamanites started scattering the flocks.
28 Now the servants of the king began to murmur, saying: Now the king will slay us, as he has our
brethren because their flocks were scattered by the wickedness of these men. And they began to weep
exceedingly, saying: Behold,
our flocks are scattered already.
The other shepherds started panicking, because last time a flock got scattered the shepherds who
were responsible were executed by the king.
29 Now they wept because of the fear of being slain. Now when Ammon saw this his heart was swollen
within him with joy; for, said he, I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is
in me, in restoring these flocks unto the king, that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may
lead them to believe in my words.
30 And now, these were the thoughts of Ammon, when he saw the afflictions of those whom he termed to
be his brethren.
31 And it came to pass that he flattered them by his words, saying:
>My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the
place of water; and thus we will preserve the flocks unto the king and he will not slay us.
32 And it came to pass that they went in search of the flocks, and they did follow
Ammon, and they rushed forth with much swiftness and did head the flocks of the king, and did gather them together
again to the place of water.
Ammon helped the other shepherds round up their flocks.
Before they knew it,
they were back at the watering hole with all of their sheep.
33 And those men again stood to scatter their flocks; but Ammon said unto his brethren: Encircle the
flocks round about that they flee not; and I go and contend with these men who do scatter our flocks.
34 Therefore, they did as Ammon commanded them, and he went forth and stood to contend with those
who stood by the waters of Sebus; and they were in number not a few.
35 Therefore they did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to
their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands;
neither did they know anything concerning the Lord; therefore they delighted in the destruction of their brethren;
and for this cause they stood to scatter the flocks of the king.
But then the flock-scatterers returned to scatter the flocks.
Ammon told the other shepherds to circle the flocks, while he went down to deal with the troublemakers.
36 But Ammon stood forth and began to cast stones at them with his
sling; yea, with mighty power he did
sling stones amongst them; and thus he slew a certain number of them insomuch that they began to be astonished at his
power; nevertheless they were angry because of the slain of their brethren, and they were determined that he should
fall; therefore, seeing that they could not hit him with their stones, they came forth with clubs to
slay him.
Ammon cast stones at them with his sling and killed six of them.
37 But behold, every man that lifted his club to smite Ammon, he
smote off their arms with his sword;
for he did withstand their blows by smiting their arms with the edge of his sword, insomuch that they began to be
astonished, and began to flee before him; yea, and they were not few in number; and he caused them to flee by the
strength of his arm.
Then the others came with their clubs.
38Now six of them had fallen by the sling, but he slew none save it were their leader with his sword;
and he smote off as many of their arms as were lifted against him, and they were not a few.
But Ammon chopped off all of their arms with his sword.
39 And when he had driven them afar off, he returned and they watered their flocks and returned them to
the pasture of the king, and then went in unto the king, bearing the arms which had been smitten off by the sword
of Ammon, of those who sought to slay him; and they were carried in unto the king for a testimony of the things which
they had done.
Then, after watering the flocks, he carried the severed arms to show to King Lamoni.
17:7-17
