Ammon Speaks to the People
King Limhi had spoken many things to his people—though only a few are written here. He told them everything about their relatives in the land of Zarahemla.
Then he had Ammon stand before the large crowd and tell them everything that had happened to their relatives from the time Zeniff left until Ammon himself arrived. Ammon also shared the final teachings of King Benjamin and explained them carefully so Limhi’s people could understand every word.
After this, King Limhi dismissed the crowd and sent everyone home.
The Mystery of the Gold Plates
Later, the king brought out the plates that contained his people’s record—from the time they left Zarahemla—and had Ammon read them.
As soon as Ammon finished reading, the king asked if he could translate languages. Ammon told him he couldn’t. The king said, 'My heart ached for my suffering people. So I sent forty-three men on a journey through the wilderness to find Zarahemla. We hoped our relatives there could help free us from bondage.' 'They got lost in the wilderness for many days. They searched hard but never found Zarahemla. When they came back, they told us about traveling through a land of many waters. They’d discovered a land covered with human and animal bones—covered with ruins of all kinds of buildings. It had been home to a people as numerous as the hosts of Israel.' 'As proof of what they found, they brought back twenty-four plates of pure gold, filled with engravings.' 'They also brought large breastplates of brass and copper, still in perfect condition.' 'And swords—though the handles had rotted away and the blades were eaten with rust. No one in this land can translate the language or the engravings on those plates. So I’m asking you: Can you translate them?' 'Let me ask again: Do you know anyone who can translate? I need these records translated into our language. Maybe they’ll tell us about the remnant of the people who were destroyed—where these records came from. Maybe they’ll tell us about the very people who were destroyed. I need to know what caused their destruction.'
What Is a Seer?
Ammon answered, 'I can tell you for certain, O king, about a man who can translate those records. He has something he can look through to translate any ancient record—it’s a gift from God. These things are called interpreters. No one can look through them unless God commands it, or they’ll see things they shouldn’t and die. Whoever is commanded to look through them is called a seer.' 'The king of the people in Zarahemla is the man commanded to do these things. He has this high gift from God.'
The king said, 'So a seer is greater than a prophet?'
Ammon replied, 'A seer is a revelator and a prophet too. No one can have a greater gift except by possessing the power of God himself, which no one can. Still, God can give someone great power.' 'But a seer can know about things from the past and things yet to come. Through them, all things will be revealed—secret things will be made known, hidden things will come to light, unknown things will be discovered. They make known things that couldn’t be known any other way.' 'This is how God has provided a way for people, through faith, to work mighty miracles. That’s why a seer becomes such a blessing to everyone.'
The King Rejoices
When Ammon finished speaking, the king was thrilled. He gave thanks to God, saying, 'Without a doubt, these plates contain a great mystery. And these interpreters were prepared for the very purpose of revealing such mysteries to humanity.' 'How marvelous are the works of the Lord! How patient he is with his people! And how blind and thick-headed we humans are—we won’t seek wisdom. We don’t want her ruling over us.' 'We’re like wild sheep running from the shepherd—scattered, driven, and torn apart by the beasts of the forest.'
Influences
- 8:1 — Matthew 13:3 (KJV)And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
- 8:2 — Acts 19:9 (KJV)But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
- 8:3 — Acts 20:38 (KJV)Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.
- 8:7 — Mark 3:5 (KJV)And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
- 8:13 — Matthew 15:5 (KJV)But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
- 8:13 — Acts 25:24 (KJV)And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
- 8:19 — Acts 27:35 (KJV)And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Notes
- 8:1-21
LDS author J. N. Washburn writes, "Chapters 7 and 8 bring the first break in the continuity and lead into the most complicated and difficult part of the whole Book of Mormon. Here the story of the Nephites in Zarahemla is suddenly dropped-almost before it is well begun-for no good reason at all that is apparent, that we might follow, though briefly, an expedition up to the land of Nephi. This brings us to another story, but to the end rather than the beginning. To put it another way, the story of Zeniff begins with the end... it is in chapter 8 also that we first learn about the Twenty-four Gold Plates of the Jaredites who are known to us only through the prophet Ether. For Ether the date is probably about 600 B.C., and for the story we must go almost to the end of the Book of Mormon! Mention of the Gold Plates leads into another complication of the Book of Mosiah. Some little time before the appearance of Ammon and his fifteen friends in the land on Nephi, Limhi had sent out forty-three scouts to find Zarahemla... The forty-three scouts became lost in the wilderness. They went far northward, missing Zarahemla, and found the dead civilization of the Jaredites... The forty-three started back again, hoping, doubtless, to find Zarahemla this time. unless, indeed, they supposed they had already found it, in death and ruin. But once more they missed the city, and eventually found themselves again in their native Nephi. This whole circumstance is instructive, representative of much that is found throughout the book of Mormon. In its setting, people are always getting lost. Almost no one can go very far from his home with any assurance of finding his way back. The incident also indicates the discontinuousness of the record. At once now we run into more of this irregular material. Having met Ammon in chapters 7 and 8, we leave him suddenly, but only for a short time, that we might jump backward between seventy-five and eighty years to about 200 B.C., to Limhi's grandfather Zeniff, and to the beginning of the story of which we have already come to the end... To put it another way, from chapters 7-8 we go forward to chapters 9-22 in order to [go] backward from 121 B.C. to 200 B.C. All this is done without explanation or preparation and also without transition. We simply go from one story to another by passing from one paragraph to another...." -J.N. Washburn, The Contents, Structure and Authorship of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954), pp. 35-38.