War and Famine
In the seventy-second year of the judges’ rule, the fighting got so bad that wars broke out across the entire land among all of Nephi’s people. It was the secret gang of robbers driving all this destruction and evil. The war dragged on through that whole year. And into the seventy-third year.
That year, Nephi cried out to the Lord: “Lord, don’t let these people be wiped out by the sword. Instead, send a famine on the land to wake them up and remind them of you. Maybe then they’ll turn back to you and change.” And it happened just as Nephi asked. A terrible famine came over the land, hitting all of Nephi’s people. So in the seventy-fourth year, the famine continued. The killing by sword stopped, but the dying from hunger was brutal. The destruction continued through the seventy-fifth year. The earth dried up and wouldn’t produce grain when it should have. The whole land was struck—both Lamanites and Nephites—and thousands died in the most wicked regions.
The People Remember
When the people saw they were about to starve to death, they started remembering the Lord their God. They started remembering what Nephi had said. The people begged their chief judges and leaders to go to Nephi and say, “We know you’re a man of God. Please cry out to the Lord our God to take away this famine, or everything you warned us about will come true.”
The judges went to Nephi just as the people asked. When Nephi saw that the people had truly changed and humbled themselves in sackcloth, he cried out to the Lord again: “Lord, look—these people have changed their hearts. They’ve wiped out the Gadianton gang completely. The robbers are gone, and all their secret plots are buried. Now, Lord, because they’ve humbled themselves, will you turn away your anger? Can the destruction of those wicked men you’ve already killed be enough to satisfy your wrath? Lord, will you turn away your anger—your fierce anger—and end this famine in the land? Lord, will you listen to me and do what I’m asking? Send rain on the earth so it can produce its fruit and grain in the right season? Lord, you listened when I asked for a famine to stop the killing. I know you’ll listen to me now, because you said if these people turned back to you, you’d spare them. And Lord, you see they have turned back—because of the famine and all the disaster and death that came to them. Now, Lord, will you turn away your anger and give them another chance to serve you? And if they do, Lord, you can bless them just as you promised.”
God Sends Rain
In the seventy-sixth year, the Lord turned away his anger from the people and sent rain on the earth. The land produced fruit in its season and grain when it was time. The people celebrated and praised God. Joy flooded the whole land. They stopped trying to destroy Nephi. Instead, they honored him as a great prophet and man of God, given tremendous power and authority from God himself.
And Lehi, his brother, was every bit his equal when it came to righteousness.
So the people of Nephi began to thrive again. They rebuilt what had been destroyed and started to grow and spread until they covered the whole land—north and south, from the west sea to the east sea.
The seventy-sixth year ended in peace. The seventy-seventh year began peacefully too. The church spread across the entire land. Most people—both Nephites and Lamanites—belonged to the church. They had remarkable peace in the land. That’s how the seventy-seventh year ended.
They had peace in the seventy-eighth year as well, except for a few arguments about details of doctrine that the prophets had taught.
In the seventy-ninth year, serious conflict broke out. But Nephi and Lehi, along with many of their brothers who understood the true teachings and received daily revelations, preached to the people. They put an end to the fighting that same year.
The Robbers Return
In the eightieth year of the judges’ rule over Nephi’s people, some Nephite defectors—ones who’d left years earlier to join the Lamanites and taken on their name—stirred up anger among some actual Lamanite descendants. Together they started a war against their own people. They murdered and robbed, then retreated into the mountains, wilderness, and hidden places where they couldn’t be found. Their numbers grew daily as more defectors joined them. Before long—in just a few years—they became a massive gang of robbers. They dug up all of Gadianton’s secret plans and became the new Gadianton robbers.
These robbers wreaked havoc—terrible destruction—among both Nephi’s people and the Lamanites.
Something had to be done to stop this destruction. So they sent a strong army into the wilderness and mountains to hunt down the robber gang and destroy them. But that same year, the army was driven all the way back to their own territory. That’s how the eightieth year ended.
At the start of the eighty-first year, they went after the robbers again. They killed many, but suffered heavy losses themselves. They had to retreat from the wilderness and mountains back to their own lands. The robbers had grown so numerous in the mountains and wilderness that the armies couldn’t handle them.
That’s how the year ended. The robbers kept growing stronger until they openly defied the entire armies of both the Nephites and Lamanites. They filled the whole land with terror. They raided many parts of the land and caused terrible destruction. They killed many and carried others off as captives into the wilderness—especially women and children.
This great evil that came because of their wickedness jolted them into remembering the Lord their God again.
That’s how the eighty-first year ended.
The Cycle Continues
In the eighty-second year, they started forgetting the Lord their God again. In the eighty-third year, they grew strong in their wickedness. And in the eighty-fourth year, they didn’t improve at all. In the eighty-fifth year, they became even more arrogant and evil. They were ripening for destruction all over again. That’s how the eighty-fifth year ended.