# 3 Nephi 6

*Paraphrase*

### Peace and Prosperity Return

In the twenty-sixth year, everyone went home—the Nephites returned to their own lands, each family taking their flocks, herds, horses, cattle, and everything they owned. They still had provisions left over, so they packed up all the grain they hadn’t eaten, along with their gold, silver, and valuables, and headed back to their lands and homes, both north and south. They gave land to the robbers who had made peace—those who wanted to remain Lamanites. They gave them enough land to work and support themselves. That’s how they established peace across the whole land.

They started thriving again. The twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years passed, and there was great order everywhere. They’d created laws based on fairness and justice. Nothing stood in the way of their success—nothing, except their own choices to do wrong. It was Gidgiddoni, Judge Lachoneus, and the other appointed leaders who had brought this great peace to the land.

Many new cities were built, and many old ones were restored. Highways were laid out and roads constructed, connecting city to city, land to land, place to place. The twenty-eighth year passed, and the people lived in unbroken peace.

### Pride and Inequality Spread

But in the twenty-ninth year, arguments began breaking out. Some people became proud and arrogant because of their enormous wealth, and they started persecuting others. There were many merchants in the land, and many lawyers and government officials.

People started ranking themselves by wealth and education. Some stayed ignorant because they were poor, while others gained knowledge because they were rich. Some became puffed up with pride, while others stayed deeply humble. Some threw insults back when insulted, while others endured the mockery, persecution, and suffering without fighting back—they stayed humble and repentant before God. A terrible inequality spread across the land, and the church started falling apart. By the thirtieth year, the church had collapsed everywhere—except among a few converted Lamanites who held to the true faith. They wouldn’t abandon it. They were solid, steady, unshakeable, determined to keep God’s commandments no matter what.

### Satan’s Influence Grows

Here’s what caused all this wickedness: Satan had tremendous power to stir people up to do every kind of evil. He inflated them with pride, tempting them to chase after power, authority, wealth, and all the empty things the world offers. Satan led their hearts away to do all kinds of evil. Their peace had lasted only a few years. By the start of the thirtieth year, the people had been handed over to Satan’s temptations for so long that he could drag them wherever he wanted and make them do whatever evil he desired. They’d reached a state of terrible wickedness. They weren’t sinning out of ignorance—they knew God’s will. It had been taught to them. They were rebelling on purpose.

This was during the time of Lachoneus the younger, who had taken his father’s position and governed the people that year.

### Prophets Preach and Face Persecution

Men inspired by heaven appeared throughout the land, preaching boldly. They called out the people’s sins and wickedness, and testified about the redemption God would bring—the resurrection of Christ. They spoke fearlessly about his death and suffering. Many people were furious with these preachers. The angriest were the chief judges, former high priests, and lawyers—every lawyer was enraged by this testimony.

No lawyer, judge, or high priest had the authority to sentence anyone to death unless the governor signed off on it. But many who testified boldly about Christ were secretly arrested and executed by the judges. The governor didn’t find out about their deaths until afterward. This was completely illegal—no one could be executed without the governor’s authorization.

### The Conspiracy Deepens

So a complaint was filed in Zarahemla with the governor against the judges who had illegally condemned the prophets to death. The judges were arrested and brought to trial for the crimes they’d committed under the people’s law.

These judges had many friends and relatives. Nearly all the lawyers and high priests banded together with the families of the accused judges.

They made a covenant with each other—the same ancient covenant that had been given and managed by the devil, designed to oppose everything good. They conspired against God’s people and vowed to destroy them and to rescue the murderers from the justice that was about to be carried out according to law. They defied the law and the rights of their country. They made a pact to assassinate the governor and establish a king, so the land would no longer be free but would be ruled by kings.

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*Source: [The Book of Mormon](https://bookofmormon.com/paraphrase/3-nephi/6)*
