Episode 41: Drunken Lamanites

Alma 54-58

Moroni’s correspondence with Ammoron

54 ¹ In 63 BCE, Ammoron, the king of the Lamanites, offered to exchanged prisoners with Moroni. ⁴ In response Moroni sent a letter to Ammoron, saying: ¹¹ “You are a child of hell. I won’t exchange prisoners with you unless you release one Nephite family (man, wife, and children) for one Lamanite prisoner that I release. ¹² If you don’t agree to this, I will come with my armies, along with my women and children, and we’ll kill every last one of you. ¹⁴ Goodbye for now, Moroni.”

¹⁵ After Ammoron read Moroni’s letter, he sent a letter to Moroni, saying: ¹⁶ “I’m Ammoron, the king of the Lamanites, the brother of Amalickiah whom you murdered. I will avenge his death upon you by sending my armies. We’re not afraid of you. ¹⁷ Your forefathers robbed the people of their right to govern themselves. If you lay down your weapons and allow the people to be governed by those who have a right to govern them, then we won’t fight you anymore. ^19-20 Although you’ve threatened us many times, I’m still willing to exchange prisoners with you. ²¹ As for the God that you say we’ve rejected, we don’t know that such a being exists and neither do you. But if there is, he made us as well as you. ²² And if there is a hell, you’ll be going there for murdering my brother. ²³ I’m Ammoron, a descendant of Zoram, whom your forefathers drove out of Jerusalem.”

Drunken Lamanites

55 ¹ When Moroni received Ammoron’s letter, he said, ^2-3 “I won’t exchange prisoners with Ammoron. I know where the Lamanites keep their prisoners, so I’ll go kill the Lamanites and release the Nephite prisoners.”

⁴ Moroni searched the men to see if he could find a descendant of Laman among them. ⁵ And he found one, whose name was Laman. ^6-7 Moroni sent Laman and some others to the city of Gid, where the Lamanites kept their prisoners. ⁸ After they arrived, they waited until dark. Then they approached the guards, and Laman said to them, “Don’t be afraid. I’m a Lamanite. We escaped from the Nephites while they were asleep. And we brought some of their wine.”

⁹ The Lamanites said, “Give us the wine.” ^13-14 So Laman gave them the wine and the Lamanites got drunk. ¹⁵ Laman and his men returned to Moroni and told him what had happened.

^16-17 Moroni went to the city of Gid, and armed all the Nephite prisoners, including the women and children, while the drunken Lamanite guards slept. ^18-22 When the Lamanite guards woke up, they saw that they were surrounded by the Nephites. ²³ So they surrendered, handed over their weapons, and became slaves of the Nephites.

Helaman’s letter to Moroni

56 ¹ On the second day of 62 BCE, Moroni received a letter from Helaman, saying: ^3-7 "Four years ago two thousand young men from the people of Ammon decided to fight with us and they made me their leader. I led these young men, whom I call my sons, to the city of Judea to assist Antipus, whom you appointed leader of that city. ^54-55 We fought the Lamanites, and my sons fought bravely. They killed many Lamanites and forced the others to surrender. And not a single of my 2000 sons was killed.

57 ¹ Then I received a letter from the Lamanite king, Ammoron, saying that he was willing to give up us the city of Antiparah to us, if we’d deliver our prisoners of war to him. ² I sent a letter to him saying that we could take the city by force, and we would only give him our prisoners if he agreed to return ours. ³ Ammoron refused my offer, so we prepared to attack. ⁴ But the people of Antiparah ran away, so we took the city without using force.

⁶ Meanwhile, we received sixty more sons of the Ammonites, making our total 2060. ⁹ Several times the Lamanites of the city of Cumeni attacked us at night, but each time we killed them off. ¹² Soon the Lamanites gave up and gave us the city of Cumeni.

^13-14 We had so many prisoners that it was hard to manage them. They tried to fight us with stones and clubs, so we killed about 2000 of them after they surrendered to us as prisoners of war.

^16-17 We decided to send the remaining prisoners to Zarahemla, but while doing so, we were attacked by Lamanites. ¹⁹ Luckily my band of 2060 killed them all. ²⁵ Two hundred of them fainted from loss of blood, but they all miraculously recovered. One thousand of our regular soldiers were killed in battle, but I didn’t lose one of my 2060 sons. ^31-36 The Lamanites attacked us once more, but God delivered us from them.

58 ^1-10 We continued to be attacked by the Lamanites now and then, so we asked God to help us fight against them. ¹¹ And God promised to help us. ^13-17 Knowing that God would help us, we traveled to the outskirts of the city of Manti, where I sent Gid, Teomner, and some men to hide in the wilderness. ¹⁸ When the Lamanites attacked us, we retreated into the wilderness. ^19-21 While the entire Lamanite army chased us in the wilderness, Gid and Teomner killed the guards in the city of Manti and took possession of it.

^26-27 That night I ordered the army to return to the city of Manti, and we arrived there before the Lamanites. ²⁸ In this way, we took possession of the city without killing anyone. ²⁹ When the Lamanites finally arrived, they were astonished and afraid and ran into the wilderness.

³⁸ It’s nearing the end the year 63 BCE, and we have taken back our lands from the Lamanites, who have fled to the land of Nephi. ⁴¹ That’s all for now. I’m Helaman, the son of Alma.