# Alma 25

*Paraphrase*

### Revenge on the Nephites

The Lamanites who had just killed their own brothers were furious—angry at themselves, angry at the Nephites. They swore revenge on the Nephites and left the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi alone for the time being.

Instead, they took their armies north into Nephite territory, crossed into the borders of Zarahemla, and attacked the city of Ammonihah. They wiped it out completely.

After that, they fought many battles with the Nephites. Each time they were driven back and suffered heavy losses. Among the Lamanite dead were nearly all the descendants of Amulon and his gang—the corrupt priests who once served King Noah. They fell in battle at the hands of the Nephites.

### Persecution and Conversion

The few survivors fled deep into the eastern wilderness. There they seized power over some Lamanite groups and began executing any who believed in God—burning them alive for their faith.

Many Lamanites, after suffering so much loss and hardship, started remembering what Aaron and his brothers had taught them years before. They began questioning the lies their ancestors had passed down, and they started believing in the Lord—believing he had given real power to the Nephites. Many were converted out there in the wilderness. When the descendants of Amulon who ruled those regions saw this happening, they ordered every believer executed. These killings enraged many other Lamanites. Fighting broke out in the wilderness. The Lamanites turned on Amulon’s descendants and started hunting them down. They fled deeper into the eastern wilderness.

### Abinadi’s Prophecy Fulfilled

To this day, the Lamanites are still hunting them. This fulfilled exactly what Abinadi had prophesied about the descendants of those priests who had him burned alive.

He had told them: “What you do to me will foreshadow what’s coming.” Abinadi was the first person executed by fire for believing in God. That’s what he meant—that many would die by fire just as he did. He told Noah’s priests that their children would cause many people to be killed the same way they killed him, and that they would be scattered and hunted down like sheep without a shepherd, chased and slaughtered by wild animals. Now those words came true. The Lamanites drove them out, hunted them, and cut them down.

### More Join the People of God

When the Lamanite armies realized they couldn’t defeat the Nephites, they went back home. Many of them decided to move to the lands of Ishmael and Nephi and join the people of God—the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.

Like their brothers before them, they buried their weapons of war. They became a righteous people, walking in the Lord’s ways and carefully keeping his commandments and laws.

They kept the law of Moses too—it was still necessary since everything in it hadn’t been fulfilled yet. But even as they kept the law of Moses, they looked forward to Christ’s coming. They understood the law was pointing toward him, and they knew they had to keep these outward practices until he appeared. They didn’t think the law of Moses could save them. But it strengthened their faith in Christ. Through faith they held onto the hope of eternal salvation, trusting in the Spirit’s prophecies about what was coming.

### Joy in the Harvest

Ammon, Aaron, Omner, Himni, and their brothers were overjoyed by their success among the Lamanites. The Lord had answered their prayers and proven his word to them in every detail.

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*Source: [The Book of Mormon](https://bookofmormon.com/paraphrase/alma/25)*
