Alma — Chapter 50
1 Moroni did not stop getting ready for war, nor did he stop protecting his people from the Lamanites. At the beginning of the twentieth year of the judges, he made his armies dig up walls of dirt around all the cities in all the lands the Nephites owned.
2 He made his armies put walls of logs as tall as a person on top of the dirt walls around the cities.
3 Then he had strong, tall, sharp sticks put on the log walls.
4 He had towers built to look over the walls and made the towers safe from the Lamanites’ stones and arrows.
5 The Nephites could throw stones from the towers as they wished, killing anyone coming close to the walls.
6 This was how Moroni built forts and strong places around all the cities in all the land, so they would be ready for their enemies.
7 Then Moroni sent his armies into the east wilderness. They chased all the Lamanites there back to their own lands south of the land of Zarahemla.
8 The land of Nephi went straight from the east sea to the west sea.
9 After Moroni chased all the Lamanites out of the east wilderness, which was north of their own lands, he had some people living in and near the land of Zarahemla go live in the land by the sea near the east wilderness.
10 He put armies at the south borders of their lands and had them build forts to protect the armies and the people from their enemies.
11 So he got rid of all the Lamanites’ strong places in the east wilderness and in the west, and made the borders strong between the Nephites and Lamanites, between the lands of Zarahemla and Nephi, from the west sea near the beginning of the river Sidon. The Nephites had as much land as they wanted in the north — yes, even all the land north of Bountiful.
12 This was how Moroni used his armies to make the Lamanites weaker and destroy their power over the Nephite lands. Moroni’s armies got stronger every day because the people trusted his plans to protect them.
13 Then the Nephites began to build a city that they called Moroni, by the east sea near the south border by the Lamanites’ lands.
14 They also began to build a city between the city of Moroni and the city of Aaron. They called that city or land Nephihah.
15 They also began to build many cities in the north. One special city in the north by the sea was called Lehi.
16 This was how the twentieth year ended.
17 So the Nephites were prospering at the beginning of the twenty-first year of the Nephite judges.
18 They prospered and became very rich. They had many children and became very strong in the land.
19 So we see how full of mercy and how fair the Lord is in keeping his promises to people. Yes, we can see that what he said to Lehi was true, even at this time:
20 “You and your children are blessed, and they will be blessed. If they keep my commandments, they will prosper in the land. But if they do not keep my commandments, they will be cut off from the Lord.”
21 So we see that these promises to the Nephites were kept. They brought their wars and destructions on themselves because of their fights and murders and robbing and false gods and sexual sins and other sins they committed.
22 The Lord saved those who were faithful in keeping the commandments. But thousands of their wicked brothers and sisters were made slaves, or were killed, or became unbelievers and Lamanites.
23 But the Nephites were never happier since the days of Nephi himself than during Moroni’s time, yes, even during the twenty-first year of the judges.
24 The twenty-second and twenty-third years of the judges ended in peace.
25 There would have been peace among the Nephites in the beginning of the twenty-fourth year had it not been for an argument between the lands of Morianton and Lehi, both of which were on the borders by the sea.
26 The people living in the land of Morianton said they owned part of the land of Lehi. They began to fight over it, to the point where the people of Morianton took up their weapons against their brothers and sisters and wanted to kill them.
27 But the people living in the land of Lehi asked Moroni for help, because they were in the right.
28 When the people of Morianton, who were led by a man named Morianton, found out that the people of Lehi had gone to Moroni, they were very afraid that Moroni’s army would come and destroy them.
29 So Morianton told them to run away and live in the north lands (which were covered with lakes).
They would have done this (which would have been a sad thing), except that Morianton (who had a bad temper) got angry with one of his servant women, and beat her badly.
31 She ran away to Moroni and told him everything she knew about their plans to run away into the north lands.
32 Moroni was afraid that the people who lived in Bountiful would listen to Morianton and join him, which would give him power over that part of the land. This would be a serious danger for the Nephites, because it would lead to the Nephites’ losing their freedom.
33 So Moroni sent an army with its camp to stop Morianton’s people from going into the north lands.
34 They did not catch up to them until they had come to the borders of the land of Desolation, by the narrow path leading into the north land by the east and west seas.
35 The army Moroni sent to meet Morianton’s people was led by a man named Teancum. Morianton’s people were so stubborn (because of the foolish and wicked things he had said to them) that they began to fight. Teancum killed Morianton and defeated his army, and took them prisoner, and went back to Moroni’s camp. This was how the twenty-fourth year of the judges ended.
36 Morianton’s people were brought back. After they promised to keep the peace, they went back to the land of Morianton, made peace with the people of Lehi, and lived in their own lands again.
37 Nephihah, the second chief judge, died during the same year the Nephites had peace again. He had been a very righteous chief judge.
38 But he would not let Alma give him the records and the other things Alma and his ancestors thought were holy, so Alma gave them to his son Helaman.
39 Nephihah’s son was chosen to be chief judge and ruler in his father’s place. He promised to judge righteously, and to keep the peace and the people’s freedom, and to let them worship the Lord their God and to do God’s will all his life, and to bring the wicked to judgment and punish them for their crimes.
40 His name was Pahoran, and he took his father’s place as chief judge and began to rule over the Nephites at the end of the twenty-fourth year.
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