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Alma — Chapter 16

¹ During the eleventh year of the Nephite judges, on the fifth day of the second month, a cry of war was heard again in the land. There had not been any wars or fights in the land of Zarahemla for a number of years.

² The Lamanite armies came into the land on the wilderness side, to the city of Ammonihah, and began to kill the people and destroy the city.

³ Before the Nephites could gather a strong enough army to beat them back, they destroyed the people living in the city of Ammonihah, and also some living near the borders of Noah; and they took others away prisoner into the wilderness.

⁴ The Nephites wanted to get back those who had been taken away prisoner into the wilderness.

⁵ So Zoram, the chief captain of the Nephite armies, and his two sons, Lehi and Aha, went to Alma, who was high priest over the church, and asked him to ask the Lord where they should go in the wilderness to find the people taken prisoner by the Lamanites. They knew Alma had the spirit of prophecy.

⁶ Alma asked the Lord. Then he came back and said to them: “The Lamanites will cross the river Sidon in the south wilderness, way past the borders of the land of Manti. Meet them there on the east side of the river Sidon, and the Lord will give you back the people they have taken prisoner.”

⁷ Then Zoram and his sons crossed the river Sidon with their armies, and went way past the borders of Manti into the south wilderness, on the east side of the river Sidon.

⁸ They fought the Lamanite armies there, and scattered them and beat them back into the wilderness, and saved the people whom the Lamanites had taken prisoner. No one was killed who had been taken prisoner. Their brothers took them back to their own lands.

⁹ This was how the eleventh year of the judges ended, with the Lamanites beaten back out of the land, and the people of Ammonihah destroyed. Yes, every one of the Ammonihahites was killed, and their great city was destroyed — the same city they said God could not destroy because it was so great.

¹⁰ But in only one day it was completely destroyed, and the dogs and wild animals from the wilderness tore up and ate their bodies.

¹¹ After many days what was left of their bodies was piled up and covered with a little dirt. The place had such a bad smell that the people did not go back to live in the land of Ammonihah for many years. They called it the Desolation of Nehors, because everyone who had been killed had believed in what Nehor taught; and their land stayed empty.

¹² The Lamanites did not make war against the Nephites until the fourteenth year of the Nephite judges, so the Nephites had peace in all the land for three years.

¹³ Alma and Amulek taught repentance to the people in their temples and holy places and churches (which were built like the Jews’ churches).

¹⁴ They taught the gospel to whoever would listen to them, no matter who they were.

¹⁵ So Alma and Amulek taught, as did many more who had been called to teach the gospel in all the land. The church was built up in all the land of the Nephites.

¹⁶ They all treated each other equally, and the Lord blessed the land with his Spirit to prepare the minds and hearts of the people to learn the gospel they would be taught when he came.

¹⁷ Then they would believe his gospel, and not be destroyed, but learn it with joy, and be grafted like a branch into the true vine, so they could rest with their God.

¹⁸ The priests who went among the people taught them not to lie or cheat, or fight, or be angry, or call names, or steal, or rob, or kill, or commit adultery, or commit any sexual sin. They told the people not to do these things.

¹⁹ They told them about the things which would come soon, and about the coming of the Son of God–about his pains and death, and the resurrection of the dead.

²⁰ Many of the people asked where the Son of God would come. They were taught that he would come to them after his resurrection, which made them very happy.

²¹ After the church had been built up in all the land, and the devil defeated, and the true gospel taught in all the land, the fourteenth year of the Nephite judges ended, with the Lord greatly blessing the people.