Mormon 6

#Mormon Chapter 6

#Scripture Mastery

Mormon 6 The Great and Final Battle Between the Lamanites and Nephites

1 And now I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites. 2 And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the Lamanites, and desired of him that he would grant unto us that we might gather together our people unto the land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them battle.

verse 2 “Cumorah” The most plausible etymology for Cumorah is the Hebrew Kemorah, meaning “priesthood,” a noun based on the word komer or “priest.” Some have privately objected that this explanation is unlikely because the term komer is always used in the Old Testament in reference to false priests (see 2 Kings 23:5; Hosea 10:5; Zephaniah 1:4), while the word kohen is used to denote Israelite priests. It seems more likely that the term komer was simply used to denote a priest who was not of the tribe of Levi, while Kohen in all cases refers to a Levitical priest. Since Lehi’s party did not include descendants of Levi, they probably used komer wherever the Book of Mormon speaks of priests (see John A. Tvedtnes, Ensign [October 1986], 65).

3 And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites did grant unto me the thing which I desired.

4 And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites.

5 And when three hundred and eighty and four years had passed away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah.

6 And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.

verse 6 “these few plates” This phrase likely refers to the set of plates consisting of the plates of Mormon plus the appended small plates of Nephi.

7 And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them.

8 And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers.

9 And it came to pass that they did fall upon my people with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war.

10 And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me, and I fell wounded in the midst; and they passed by me that they did not put an end to my life.

verse 10 We will learn that twenty-three Nephite captains were each given command over ten thousand Nephite soldiers. Mormon and Moroni were two of these military leaders.

11 And when they had gone through and hewn down all my people save it were twenty and four of us, (among whom was my son Moroni) and we having survived the dead of our people, did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, the ten thousand of my people who were hewn down, being led in the front by me.

verse 11 This verse makes clear that the approximately 230,000 Nephites who had come up to battle against the Lamanites had all been killed the previous day, save only twenty-four survivors and a few others who had either fled the battle or surrendered to the Lamanites. These twenty-four had fled to the top of the hill Cumorah and are viewing the dead Nephites on the ground below.

The number 230,000 may, at first, seem impossibly large (James E. Smith, “How Many Nephites?: The Book of Mormon at the Bar of Demography,” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited, ed. Noel B. Reynolds, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997, 255–293). One wonders how an army of 230,000 people could exist during a time when the entire population of the world was probably only around 206 million (K. Klein Goldewijk and G. van Drecht, “HYDE 3.1: Current and historical population and land cover”, in Eds. A. F. Bouwman, T. Kram, and K. Klein Goldewijk, “Integrated modelling of global environmental change. An overview of IMAGE 2.4”, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, MNP, Bilthoven, The Netherlands). It is impossible to know exactly why these numbers are so high, but there are a few possibilities.

1.Mormon may have exaggerated. The first thing to consider is that ancient texts often exaggerate population sizes (“In contrast to the texts of other ancient Near Eastern cultures which typically provide relatively little information about the size of their armies, the Bible includes a great deal of information about the number of Israelite troops. Unfortunately, much of this information is problematic. . . The numbers appear quite high, especially considering the apparent size of the armies of other, better established contemporary nations. . . This difficulty has led many to discount the biblical numbers altogether, or consider them to be intentional exaggerations. Clearly, the Bible does include exaggerations. . . Thus, some argue that the biblical numbers often also exaggerate to make certain points, such as glorifying the God of Israel” (Boyd Seevers, Warfare in the Old Testament: The Organization, Weapons, and Tactics of Ancient Near Eastern Armies, Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2013, 53. Herodotus, the ancient Greek author, is similarly known for his tendency to never let historical accuracy get in the way of a good story. See Lee L. Brice, Greek Warfare: From the Battle of Mmarathon to the Conquests of Alexander the Great, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2012, 74). In the Old Testament for example, 600,000 Israelite males are said to have left Egypt (Exodus 12:37) (The Exodus account gives a number that could be read differently, but the figures in Numbers are much less ambiguous and show clear exaggeration. See Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003, 264; James K. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005, 153–159). When one considers the women and children that left at the same time, this would mean that 2.5 million Israelites likely left Egypt at the same time. Seeing that the entire population of Egypt at the time was likely only 2.8 million, these numbers seem to be clearly exaggerated (Carol A. Redmount, “Bitter Lives: Israel In and Out of Egypt,” in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. Michael D. Coogan, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998, 70). It is therefore possible that Mormon, like other ancient historians, simply exaggerated when talking about numbers this large (William J. Hamblin, “The Importance of Warfare in Book of Mormon Studies,” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin, Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990, 495–496).

2. A “thousand” may not actually mean a thousand. It is also possible that “ten thousand” represents a military unit and not an exact number of soldiers. In Hebrew, the word eleph can mean the literal number 1,000, but it can also mean a military squad (Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 264; Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 153–159). If this is the case, each military commander could simply have been in charge of 10 “squads” of unknown numbers, putting the number of casualties much lower than they might seem at first (Other ancient cultures used terms like this as well. The Roman military unit “century” was also the word for 100, but these units often did not have 100 people in them. See Smith, “How Many Nephites?” 286).

3.The army may actually have been massive. While it is important to be aware of these different possibilities, some evidence suggests that these figures are accurate. The population of pre-Columbian America was much larger than many people assume. In fact, during many periods, the Americas were more populous than Europe (Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, 94). Thus, 230,000 casualties may have been a reasonable figure in Mormon’s day. The Book of Mormon’s own population data is consistent with this figure. As one examines the occasions when population size is mentioned throughout the Book of Mormon, and assumes normal population growth, 230,000 deaths in the final battle at Cumorah would make sense (James E. Smith, “Nephi’s Descendants? Historical Demography and the Book of Mormon” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6, no. 1, 1994: 284–294).

One sees this from the size of actual armies in pre-Columbian America. In Mesoamerica, for example, even after rounding down significantly to account for the above-mentioned tendency of authors to exaggerate, the Aztecs gathered together more than 300,000 people for a war against a neighboring kingdom, and this was not noted as a remarkable event. The Quiche, similarly, were able to put an army of 232,000 men into the field, even though many refused to fight (John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book, Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013, 397– 398). This demonstrates that the casualty figures in Mormon are at least feasible.

4. 230,000 could represent the entire population. One disturbing possibility presented by Mormon 6 is that most of the Nephite population, including women and children, fought in this battle and were killed (Smith, “How Many Nephites?” 286). Mormon stated that, “[all his] people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them” (Mormon 6:7, emphasis added).

Later, Mormon lamented, “O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!” (Mormon 6:19, emphasis added). Although it is impossible to say for sure, these verses strongly imply that the entire population fought the Lamanites, and that the 230,000 figure represents that (Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex, 286).

There are two overarching approaches one can take when reading the Book of Mormon. One is to assume that the book is false, stating that each confusing element in the book proves it to be a fraud. The other is have faith, give the book the benefit of the doubt, look at it through an ancient lens, and realize that ancient texts are rarely as clear cut as modern readers would prefer. This second approach means that readers of the Book of Mormon need to read it in the same way that they might read other ancient sacred texts. They need to be patient with the book, consider it thoughtfully, and not dismiss details that seem strange as a sign that the book is not authentic.

As one examines the possible answers to the question of such high casualty figures, interesting implications arise:

1. If the numbers are exaggerated, this is a reminder to the reader that the Book of Mormon was written like many other ancient texts.

2. If the word “thousand” actually represents military units, this gives the reader a fresh insight into the translation of the Book of Mormon.

3. If the numbers are accurate, this shows attention to accuracy of details that is exceptional in an ancient text.

4. If the number actually represents the whole population, this reminds of the reader of the tragic nature of this final battle of the Book of Mormon.

Exploring difficulties and potential solutions available—rather than dismissing them out of hand—creates opportunities to learn, discover, grow, and ultimately increase in faith. If something about the Book of Mormon seems confusing, out of place, or unexpected, this is what one would expect. This simply means that the Book of Mormon joins the Bible as a book that needs to be pondered and considered carefully if one is to understand seeming oddities in the text.

Regardless of whether there were 23,000 soldiers killed or 230,000 men, women, and children killed, the destruction was an absolute tragedy, and a horror for Mormon and Moroni to witness. This is the appalling climax of action for the whole Book of Mormon narrative. A people who were blessed and righteous for so long ultimately destroyed themselves in senseless acts of violence and carnage.

In a day when senseless acts of violence frequently trouble modern nations, it is easy to imagine the emotional effect on the Nephites. Similarly, wars raging across the earth today kill millions. If the modern reader feels compassion and heartbreak for the victims and families of wars and shootings that people from the US experience, then how much more should the reader feel compassion and heartbreak for the destruction of the chosen and blessed Nephites. Yet if the reader feels such poignancy for the Nephites, how much more should they now turn with compassion to those suffering the ravages of war and violence today. And if the reader is filled with compassion for those suffering today, consider how much more God weeps and is heartbroken over the destruction of His children (Moses 7:29, 32).

12 And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni.

13 And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst.

14 And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each.

verse 14 The use of the name “Josh” in the Book of Mormon has been criticized since it is a non-biblical name. Perhaps, the critics say, Joseph Smith just made up the name. The critics are right in one sense—“Josh” is not found in the Bible, and it is found in only two places in the Book of Mormon (this verse and 3 Nephi 9:10). It is interesting that this name is found in some writings found in Palestine—in a city called Lachish, located in Judah south of Jerusalem. These are the Lachish Letters and are thought to have been written in the period 600-590 BC. It is notable, though certainly coincidental, that in the Lachish Letters, Josh (Jaush) is a high ranking military officer (Hugh Nibley, “Dark Days in Jerusalem,” a FARMS reprint). See also the supplemental article, Names in the Book of Mormon.

“Gilgal” For commentary on the derivation of the name Gilgal, see the supplemental article, Names in the Book of Mormon.

15 And it came to pass that there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even all my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a few who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.

verses 11-15 What about the Nephite men, women, and children who did not fight in the final battle. Were there any? Did they survive? We will learn from the prophet Moroni that following the final battle, the remaining Nephites were hunted down and slaughtered (see Mormon 8:7).

To “molder” is to decay, disintegrate, turn to dust (Webster).

verses 16-22 Mormon concludes this chapter with heart-felt and heart-sick lament for the spiritual fate of his people.

16 And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:

17 O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!

18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.

verses 17-18 Mormon’s “soul was rent with anguish” as he witnessed “the slain of [his] people” (Mormon 6:16). That anguish pours out onto the page as one reads his sorrowful lament: “O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return” (Mormon 6:19–20).

Perhaps because mourning the loss of a loved one is among the most universal aspects of human experience, laments are among the earliest forms of literature in the world, going back to at least the third millennium BC (See F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, ed. David Noel Freedman, Grand Rapid, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000, 784–785). “From ancient Sumer,” wrote Nancy C. Lee, a religious studies professor, “the laments of poets and singers still resonate with the agony of those who today suffer from war and deprivations” (Nancy C. Lee, Lyrics of Lament: From Tragedy to Transformation, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010, 24).

The same could be said of Jeremiah’s lamentations upon the fall of Jerusalem and its people to the Babylonians in 586 BC (Lamentations). Or centuries later, when the Savior would also lament over the city’s unwillingness to follow the Lord (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34) (For more on biblical laments, see Lee, Lyrics of Lament, 73–179).

In the ancient Near East, funeral laments “are typically characterized by short [exclamatory] phrases of the kind ‘Oh, my son!’” (Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” 784) not unlike Mormon’s sorrowful refrain: O ye fair ones! In ancient funeral laments, this exclamation is followed by “narrative passages which contrast the gloriously depicted past of the deceased with the mournful present” (Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” 785). This is just as Mormon said: “how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! . . . how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! . . . But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss (Mormon 6:17–18).

As he wrote these words, Mormon was probably envisioning the glorious era of peace and prosperity initiated by the personal visit of the resurrected Lord, which he had read about in the Nephite record. This stark contrast no doubt added to the tragic sting of death that surrounded him.

Ancient poets also applied the forms of funeral laments to whole cities, “as if the city were a deceased person” in city laments (Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” 785). Jeremiah did this as he lamented the destruction of Jerusalem from which Lehi had fled (Lamentations). Centuries later, the Savior too would lament, “O Jerusalem!” (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34).

Mormon similarly applied the form not only to the destruction of an entire city, but the genocide of his people. Like the laments of Jesus, Jeremiah, and other ancient poets and prophets, Mormon’s lament powerfully evokes agony and suffering that readers today can readily feel and relate to.

“When relevant,” funeral laments would often include curses “directed at those responsible for the death of the deceased” (Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” 785). Mormon, however, knew it was the Nephites who were to blame for their own destruction. And so, he concluded with this ominous warning: “And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you. O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy (Mormon 6:21–22).

Instead of cursing the Lamanites, whom he could have blamed for death of his people, Mormon invited them to repent and receive the gospel (Mormon 7), to “lay down your weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of blood” and “believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God” (verses 4–5) (For a more thorough review of the traditional literary form that laments take, see Lee, Lyrics of Lament, 49–70).

Mormon’s careful variation from traditional lament forms is important (According to Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” 785, “there are several literary transformations” of the standard funeral lament in the Old Testament. So, it is not surprising or problematic that Mormon breaks form.). He did not curse the Lamanites, nor even blame them for his people’s destruction, though that would have been easy to do. Instead, he recognized that his people had only themselves and their own wickedness to blame. So, he warned that they would soon stand before God in judgment, and hoped for the best, trusting that God would judge “according to his justice and mercy” (Mormon 6:22). As for the descendants of those who were his enemies (the Lamanites)—he invited them to come unto Christ.

Mormon was deeply affected by the tragedy of his people’s fall and destruction. The carnage he witnessed is hard to fathom. Mormon’s lament was not merely for the loss of a loved one, like that of a funeral lament, but rather for the loss of a people— his people—the Nephites, the “fair ones” (The name Nephite may literally mean fair ones. See Matthew L. Bowen, “‘O Ye Fair Ones’: An Additional Note on the Meaning of the Name Nephi,” Insights: A Window on the Ancient World 23, no. 6, 2003: 2; Matthew L. Bowen, “‘O Ye Fair Ones’—Revisited,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 20, 2016: 315–344).

Despite witnessing what was no doubt emotionally and psychologically traumatizing, Mormon, in his final words, set a worthy example to follow. His people were wicked, yet he loved them deeply, and greatly grieved their loss. He did not seek to blame others, despite his sorrow, and he loved his enemies, inviting them to come unto Christ and put an end to the needless bloodshed.

Readers today can learn to similarly love even those who err, accept personal responsibility for their own choices, and accept the consequences of divine judgments. Instead of blaming others, even those who mourn can find comfort in loving their enemies, praying for those who have despitefully used them, and inviting them to come unto Christ.

19 O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!

verse 19 The destruction of the Nephites is not meant to be read as merely a historical fact, but also as a metaphor of judgment, a shadow of the everlasting destruction known as second death or spiritual death (see Alma 12:16-17). It is obvious that Mormon wants us to understand and feel the destruction of the Nephites on a personal level. For one thing, he has spent much more time on their decline and fall than is necessary for a simple history. Mormon chooses to use his entire personal record to describe the Nephites’ plunge to destruction at Cumorah with an account that moves with the cadence of a funeral dirge. He seems determined that we personally experience a degree of the horror that he felt as he watched his own society deteriorate in wickedness, hoping that we will do all we can to prevent our own destruction.

#20 But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.

21 And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ to be judged according to your works and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.

verse 21 “these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies” For a discussion of the terms corruption and incorruption, see the commentary for 2 Nephi 2:11.

22 O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.