Alma — Chapter 44
1 Moroni’s men stopped killing the Lamanites and stepped back. Then Moroni said to Zerahemnah: “Zerahemnah, we do not like killing. You know you are in our power, but we don’t want to kill you.
2 “We have not come to fight and kill you to get power over you, nor do we want you to be our slaves. But that is why you have come to fight us, and also because our religion makes you angry.
3 “But now you see that God is with us and helped us defeat you. I want you to know that he helped us because of our faith in Christ. You cannot destroy our faith.
4 “You see that God will protect and bless us so long as we are true to him and to our faith and our religion. The Lord will not let you defeat us unless we stop keeping his commandments and stop having faith in him.
5 “Now, Zerahemnah, I command you in the name of our all-powerful God who helped us defeat you, and by our faith, and religion, and church, and by the protection we must give our wives and children, and by the freedom we have in our land, and by the holy word of God we have (which makes us happy), and by all that we love —
6 “I command you: if you want to live, give up your weapons. We will not kill you if you promise to go away and never make war on us again.
7 “But if you will not do this, you are in our power, and I will tell my men to kill all of you. Then we will see who will have power over what people, and we will see who will make slaves of whom.”
8 Now when Zerahemnah heard what Moroni said, he came and gave him his sword and cimeter and bow, and said to him: “Here are our weapons. We will give them to you, but we won’t promise not to make war on you ever again, because we will break that promise, and so will our children. But take our weapons and let us go away into the wilderness. Otherwise, we will keep our weapons, and either defeat you or be killed.
9 “We don’t believe in your religion. We don’t think God helped you. We think you defeated us because you were smart and prepared for us, and because you had armor protecting you.”
10 Now when Zerahemnah said this to Moroni, Moroni gave him back his weapons and said to Zerahemnah: “We will end this war now.
11 “I will not take back what I have said, and as God lives, you will not leave this place without promising not to make war on us ever again. You are in our power, and we will kill you unless you do as I say.”
12 Then Zerahemnah was so angry that he took his sword and tried to kill Moroni. But as he did, one of Moroni’s soldiers hit Zerahemnah’s sword and broke it, and then cut off Zerahemnah’s scalp, which fell on the ground. Then Zerahemnah went back with his own men.
13 The soldier who cut off Zerahemnah’s scalp picked it up off the ground and put it on top of his sword. He showed it to the Lamanites, and shouted to them:
14 “If you do not give up your weapons, and promise never to make war on us again, you will fall on the ground just like your chief’s scalp fell on the ground.”
15 There were many Lamanites who heard this and saw the scalp, and were very afraid, so many of them came and threw down their weapons at Moroni’s feet, promising never to make war on the Nephites again. Moroni let all the Lamanites who made that promise go away into the wilderness.
16 But Zerahemnah was very angry, and he made the rest of his men angry, too, so they would fight hard against the Nephites.
17 Moroni was angry because the Lamanites were so stubborn, so he told his people to start killing them again. They began to kill them, even though the Lamanites were fighting as hard as they could.
18 But the Lamanites were almost naked, and they were not protected from the Nephites’ swords, so they were killed very fast, and fell on the ground just as Moroni’s soldier had prophesied.
19 When Zerahemnah saw that they were all going to be destroyed, he shouted to Moroni that he and his people would promise never to make war on the Nephites again, if Moroni would not kill the rest of them.
20 So Moroni made his men stop killing the Lamanites. He took away their weapons. After they all promised never to make war on the Nephites again, he let them all go away into the wilderness.
21 There were so many dead Lamanites and Nephites that they could not be counted.
22 They threw the dead into the waters of Sidon, and the water carried their bodies into the sea.
23 Then Moroni’s armies went back to their houses and lands.
24 This was how the eighteenth year of the Nephite judges ended, and this is the end of Alma’s record written on the plates of Nephi.
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