Mosiah 2:1
1830 Edition
And it came to pass that after Mosiah had done as his father had commanded him, and had made a proclamation throughout all the land, that the people gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them.
Simple English
After Mosiah did what his father told him to do, he made an announcement throughout all the land. The people gathered together from everywhere so they could go to the temple. They wanted to hear the words that King Benjamin would speak to them.
Paraphrase
After Mosiah had done what his father commanded and sent word throughout the land, people from everywhere gathered to go up to the temple and hear what King Benjamin had to say.
Notes
King Benjamin's speech, given in approximately 124 B.C., has much similarities to nineteenth century revival meetings that Joseph Smith attended. -Vogel, Making of a Prophet, pp. 147-162.
Captain Frederick Marryat wrote, as cited in Uncommon Americans, "The camp was raised upon...a piece of tableland...at one end... was a raises tand, which served as a pulpit for the preachers...Outside of the area, which may be designated as the church, were hundreds of tents pitched...In front of the pulpit was a space railed off...which I was told was the anxious seat... girl after girl dropped down upon the straw on one side, and men on the other... Every minute the excitement increased; some wrung their hands and called for mercy..."
Famous nineteenth century revival preacher, Charles G. Finney, described the response from attenders in the following way: "I had not spoken to them... more than a quarter of an hour when all at once an awful solemnity seemed to settle down upon them; the congregation began to fall from their seats in every direction, and cried for mercy... nearly the whole congregation were either on their knees or prostrate..." -Charles G. Finney, Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney, p. 103.
LDS historian B. H. Roberts noted, "It will not be necessary to further repeat the scenes, nor describe again the manner of these 'religious' manifestations. It is clearly established now that these scenes of religious frenzy were common in the vicinage where Joseph Smith resided in his youth and early manhood... The question is, did his knowledge of these things lead to their introduction into the Book of Mormon narrative? I think it cannot be questioned but where there is sufficient resemblance between the Book of Mormon instances of religious emotionalism and those cited in the foregoing quotations from the works of Edwards et al. to justify the thought that the latter might well have suggested and indeed become the source of the former." -B. H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon, ed. Brigham D. Madsen (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), p. 308.