Alma — Chapter 24
1 Then the Amulonites made all those who did not become Anti-Nephi-Lehies angry with their brothers and sisters. The Amalekites and Amulonites and Lamanites in the lands of Amulon, Helam, Jerusalem, and all the lands nearby did not become Anti-Nephi-Lehies.
2 They hated the Anti-Nephi-Lehies so much that they began to rebel against their king, and did not want him to be their king anymore. So they took up their weapons against the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.
3 (The king had given the kingdom to his son, and called his name Anti-Nephi-Lehi.)
4 The king died during the same year the Lamanites prepared to make war against God’s people.
5 When Ammon and his brothers and all who were with them saw that the Lamanites were getting ready to destroy their brothers and sisters, they went to the land of Midian, where Ammon met all his brothers. From there they went to the land of Ishmael to meet with Lamoni and his brother Anti-Nephi-Lehi, to plan what they should do to protect themselves from the Lamanites.
6 There was not one soul among them (who had been converted to the Lord) who would take up weapons against their brothers Yes, they would not do anything to prepare for war. Their king had commanded them not to.
7 This is what he said to them: “I thank my God, my dear people, that our great and good God sent our Nephite brothers to teach us, and to tell us about the teachings of our wicked ancestors.
8 “I thank my great God that he gave us some of his Spirit to make our hearts soft, so we have begun to trade and work with our Nephite brothers and sisters.
9 “I thank my God that because of them we have learned about our sins and the many murders we did.
10 “And I thank my God, yes, my great God, that he let us repent of these things, and that he has forgiven us for the many sins and murders we committed. He took away the guilt from our hearts, thanks to his Son.
11 “Now, my brothers and sisters, since we have done everything we could to repent of our many sins and murders (because we were truly the most lost of all people), so God would take them away from our hearts, and take away our guilt —
12 “Now, dear brothers and sisters, since God has taken away our guilt, and since we do not use our swords anymore, let us not get any more of our brothers’ blood on them.
13 “I tell you, No, let us not use our swords again on our brothers. If we get their blood on them again, they may not get clean again through the blood of our great God’s Son, which he will give to pay for our sins.
14 “Our great God has had mercy on us and told us these things so we might not die. He told us about these things before they happened, because he loves our souls as much as he loves our descendants. In his mercy he sent us his angels to teach the plan of salvation to us as well as to our descendants.
15 “Oh, our God is so merciful! Since it was so hard for us to have our guilt taken away and to clean our swords, let us hide them away so they will stay clean as a witness to God when he judges us at the last day that we have not gotten our brothers’ blood on them ever since he gave us his gospel and made us clean with it.
16 “Now, my brothers and sisters, if our (Lamanite) brothers try to destroy us, we will bury our swords deep in the earth so they will stay clean, as a witness at the last day that we did not use them. And if our brothers kill us, we will go to our God and be saved.”
17 After the king said this, all the people came together and took their swords and all their weapons and buried them deep in the earth.
18 They did this as a witness to both God and people that they would never use weapons to kill people again. They promised God that they would rather die than kill their brothers, and that they would rather give to people than take from them, and that they would work hard with their own hands rather than be lazy.
19 So we see that when these Lamanites came to know the truth, they were strong, and willing to be killed rather than sin. So they buried their weapons of war for peace.
20 Their brothers, the Lamanites, got ready for war, and came up to the land of Nephi to destroy the king and make someone else king, and also to completely destroy the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi.
21 When the people saw them coming, they went out to meet them. They laid down on the ground and began to pray to the Lord. They were doing this when the Lamanites came on them and began to kill them.
22 The Lamanites killed one thousand five of them, and no one fought back. We know that those who were killed are blessed and have gone to live with God.
23 When the Lamanites saw that their brothers and sisters would not run away from them, nor get out of their way, but were lying down and praising God even as they were being killed,
24 They stopped killing them. Many of them felt terrible about their brothers and sisters they had killed, and they repented of what they had done.
25 They threw down their weapons and would not take them up again, because they felt so terrible about the murders they had committed. They laid down just as their brothers and sisters had done, trusting in the mercy of those who were ready to kill them.
26 More people joined God’s people that day than there were people killed. Those killed were righteous, so we have no doubt that they were saved.
27 No one was killed who was wicked, and more than a thousand were brought to the truth. So we see that the Lord uses many ways to save his people.
28 Most of the Lamanites who killed so many of their brothers and sisters were Amalekites and Amulonites, who followed Nehor’s teachings.
29 Those who joined the Lord’s people were all descendants of Laman and Lemuel. None were Amalekites or Amulonites.
30 So we can plainly see that once people have known about God, and had his Spirit, and learned about righteousness, but fall into sin and wickedness, they become even more hard and wicked and worse than if they had never known those things.
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