# Mosiah 9

*Paraphrase*

### Zeniff’s Failed Spy Mission

I grew up learning the Nephite language and knew the land of Nephi well—the land where our ancestors first settled. My commander sent me as a spy to scout out the Lamanite army so we could ambush and destroy them. But when I saw the good in these people, I didn’t want them slaughtered. I fought with my fellow soldiers about it right there in the wilderness. I wanted our leader to make peace with the Lamanites. But he was a ruthless, bloodthirsty man, and he ordered my execution. I barely escaped alive, but only after a terrible bloodbath—father turned on father, brother on brother, until most of our army lay dead in the wilderness. Those of us who survived limped back to Zarahemla to tell our wives and children what had happened.

### Return to the Land of Nephi

Still, I was obsessed with reclaiming our ancestral land. I gathered everyone willing to go back and possess it, and we set out again into the wilderness. We suffered through famine and terrible hardships because we were slow to remember the Lord our God. After wandering for many days, we camped at the place where our people had been killed, near our fathers’ land.

I took four men with me into the city to meet with the king. I needed to understand his intentions—to see if we could settle there peacefully. When I met with the king, he agreed to let us settle in the land of Lehi-Nephi and the land of Shilom. He ordered his people to leave the land. My people moved in and took possession of it. We started constructing buildings and repairing the city walls in both Lehi-Nephi and Shilom. We planted the fields with corn, wheat, barley, neas, sheum, and all kinds of fruit seeds. We multiplied and thrived in the land.

### King Laman’s Trap

But King Laman had been cunning and deceitful. He gave us the land as part of his scheme to enslave us. Twelve years after we settled there, King Laman grew nervous. He worried my people were becoming too strong—that he wouldn’t be able to overpower and enslave us. His people were lazy idol-worshipers who wanted to make us their slaves. They craved the fruits of our labor—they wanted to gorge themselves on the work of our hands and feast on our flocks and fields. King Laman stirred up his people to fight against us. War broke out.

### The Lamanite Attack

In the thirteenth year of my reign, south of Shilom, my people were watering their flocks and working their fields when a massive Lamanite army attacked. They slaughtered our people and stole our livestock and grain. Everyone who wasn’t killed fled to the city of Nephi and called on me for protection.

### Victory Through the Lord’s Power

I armed them with bows, arrows, swords, scimitars, clubs, slings—every weapon we could make. My people and I marched out to face the Lamanites in battle. In the strength of the Lord we went to war. My people and I cried out to the Lord to deliver us from our enemies. We remembered how he’d rescued our ancestors. God heard our cries and answered our prayers. We went forward in his power. In one day and one night we killed 3,043 Lamanites and drove them out of our land. I helped bury their dead with my own hands. And to our deep sorrow, 279 of our own people had been killed.

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*Source: [The Book of Mormon](https://bookofmormon.com/paraphrase/mosiah/9)*
