After the Battle
The Nephites who were not killed in the war buried the people who had been killed. There were so many dead that they did not count them. After they finished burying their dead, they all went back to their lands, their houses, their wives, and their children.
Many women and children had been killed with the sword. Many of their animals were killed too. Many of their grain fields were destroyed because the armies walked all over them.
Many of the Lamanites and Amlicites who had been killed by the river Sidon were thrown into the water. Their bones are in the bottom of the sea, and there are many of them.
The Marks on the People
The Amlicites looked different from the Nephites. They had marked themselves with red on their foreheads, just like the Lamanites did. But they did not cut their hair short like the Lamanites. The Lamanites had short hair. They were naked except for skins tied around their waists, their armor, and their weapons like bows, arrows, stones, and slings.
The skin of the Lamanites was dark. This was the mark that was put on their fathers. It was a curse on them because of their sin and their fighting against their brothers. Their brothers were Nephi, Jacob, Joseph, and Sam, who were good and holy men. Their brothers tried to destroy them. So they were cursed. The Lord God put a mark on them. He put it on Laman and Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael, and the Ishmaelite women. This was done so their children would look different from their brothers’ children. This way the Lord God could keep his people safe. He did not want them to mix with people who believed wrong things that would destroy them.
Whoever mixed with the Lamanites brought the same curse on themselves. So whoever let the Lamanites lead them away was called by that name, and there was a mark put on them.
Whoever would not believe the traditions of the Lamanites, but believed the records from Jerusalem and the true traditions of their fathers, and believed in God’s commands and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi, from that time on. They are the ones who have kept the true records of their people and also of the Lamanites.
God’s Words Come True
Now we will go back to talking about the Amlicites. They also had a mark put on them. They put the mark on themselves. It was a red mark on their foreheads.
This is how God’s word came true. These are the words he said to Nephi: 'I have cursed the Lamanites. I will put a mark on them so they and their children will be separate from you and your children, from now until forever. But if they stop doing wrong and turn to me, I can forgive them.' 'And again: I will put a mark on anyone who mixes with your brothers, so they may be cursed too.' 'And again: I will put a mark on anyone who fights against you and your children.' 'And again I say, anyone who leaves you will not be called your child anymore. And I will bless you and whoever is called your child, from now until forever.' These were the Lord’s promises to Nephi and to his children.
The Amlicites did not know they were making God’s words come true when they began to mark themselves on their foreheads. But they had fought against God. So it was right that the curse should come on them. I want you to see that they brought the curse on themselves. This is how it is for every person who is cursed. They bring it on themselves.
Another Battle
Not many days after the battle in the land of Zarahemla, another Lamanite army came against the Nephites. They came to the same place where the first army had met the Amlicites. An army was sent to drive them out of their land.
Alma had been hurt in battle, so he did not go to fight the Lamanites this time. But he sent a large army against them. They went up and killed many of the Lamanites. They drove the rest of them out of their land. Then they came back and began to have peace in the land. Their enemies did not trouble them for a while.
The End of the Fifth Year
All these things happened in the fifth year of the judges. All these wars and fights started and ended in that year. In one year, thousands and thousands of people died and went to the eternal world. They went to get what they deserved for their actions. If they were good, they got eternal happiness. If they were bad, they got eternal sadness. It depended on which spirit they chose to follow, whether it was a good spirit or a bad one. Every person gets what they deserve from whoever they choose to follow. This is what the Spirit of prophecy says. So let it be true. This ends the fifth year of the judges.
Influences
- 3:7 — Genesis 4:15 (KJV)And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
- 3:11 — 1 Corinthians 7:19 (KJV)Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
- 3:13 — Revelation 20:4 (KJV)And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
- 3:14 — Revelation 2:22 (KJV)Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
- 3:20 — Luke 15:13 (KJV)And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
- 3:26 — Ephesians 3:11 (KJV)According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
- 3:26 — 2 Corinthians 5:10 (KJV)For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good, or bad.
- 3:26 — Revelation 20:13 (KJV)And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
- 3:26 — KJV Preface-1776But among all our joys, there was no one that more filled our hearts, than the blessed continuance of the preaching of God's sacred Word among us; which is that inestimable treasure, which excelleth all the riches of earth; because the fruit thereof extendeth itself, not only to the time spent in this transitory world, but directeth and disposeth men unto that eternal happiness which is above in heaven.
- 3:26 — Romans 1:4 (KJV)And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
- 3:27 — Romans 6:16 (KJV)Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
- 3:27 — John 4:36 (KJV)And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
- 3:27 — Revelation 19:10 (KJV)And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Notes
- 3:6
The 1830 edition of 2 Nephi 30:6 read, “shall be a white and delightsome people.” In 1840, this wording was changed to “shall be a pure and a delightsome people.” However, in 1841 the text was reverted back to “white and delightsome.” It was not changed again to “pure and delightsome” until 1981—three years after the 1978 lifting of the priesthood ban.
Although many Latter-day Saints argue that “white” should be understood metaphorically as referring to righteousness or purity rather than race or ethnicity, statements from LDS leaders leave little ambiguity about how these passages were historically interpreted. Here are just a few statements from LDS authorities:
“You may inquire of the intelligent of the world whether they can tell why the aborigines of this country are dark, loathsome, ignorant, and sunken into the depths of degradation …When the Lord has a people, he makes covenants with them and gives unto them promises: then, if they transgress his law, change his ordinances, and break his covenants he has made with them, he will put a mark upon them, as in the case of the Lamanites and other portions of the house of Israel; but by-and-by they will become a white and delightsome people” (Journal of Discourses 7:336).
At the October 1960 LDS Church Conference, Spencer Kimball utilized 2 Nephi 30:6 when he stated how the Indians “are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.” He said,
“The [Indian] children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation” (Improvement Era, December 1960, pp. 922-3).
During the same message Kimball referred to a 16-year-old Indian girl who was both LDS and “several shades lighter than her parents…” He went on to say,
“These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.”
Elder Eugene J. Neff, in a 1927 conference message claimed, “The first missionaries went from this section around to another little town on the east side of the island, and there they gathered in a grass hut one hundred people to hear the message of these strange white men, As they all sat around the mat and heard the voice of this missionary from Utah, they were transfigured before George Q. Cannon, and he saw ninety-seven of them become white, and three of them remained dark. He did not understand. He did not know why it was that three of them would remain dark and all the rest should become light. He received a partial answer to this manifestation when it was learned that ninety-seven of those people in meeting at this time joined the Church, became devout members, lived and died Latter-day Saints, while three of them never did. It is said that they will become a white and delightsome people. They are delightsome at present, and I believe they are going to become white. They are growing whiter from year to year. I have said to myself and to some of my intimate friends that I thought the Hawaiian people would become white and delightsome, through intermarriage. I do not know whether that is according to the doctrines of the Church or not, but they have married the oriental races and married white people on the islands to such an extent that today there are more half casts than there are pure Hawaiians” (Conference Report, April 1927, p.49).
The Juvenile Instructor (26:635) reads, “From this it is very clear that the mark which was set upon the descendants of Cain was a skin of blackness, and there can be no doubt that this was the mark that Cain himself received; in fact, it has been noticed in our day that men who have lost the spirit of the Lord, and from whom his blessings have been withdrawn, have turned dark to such an extend as to excite the comments of all who have known them.”
See also 2 Nephi 5:21; 2 Nephi 30:6; 3 Nephi 2:15-16; Jacob 3:8-9; Alma 3:6.
- 3:26
The phrase "eternal happiness" appears in the KJV preface but not in the Bible. Yet, it appears in Alma 3:26.
See also Helaman 5:28, 31, 34, 36, 40-43 use of "clouds of darkness" and "overshadowed" as further examples of wording in the KJV preface that are not used in the Bible, but are found in the Book of Mormon.