Alma — Chapter 57
Helaman’s letter to Mormon, continued.
1 Then I received a letter from King Ammoron, who said if I would give him back the prisoners of war we had taken, he would give the city of Antiparah back to us.
2 But I sent a letter to him saying that we were sure we were strong enough to take back the city of Antiparah. We did not think it was a good idea to give up our prisoners to get back the city. We would only trade our prisoners for their prisoners.
3 Ammoron would not trade prisoners, so we got ready to fight against the city of Antiparah.
4 But the people in Antiparah left the city and ran away to other cities they had, to make them stronger. So we got back the city of Antiparah.
5 This was how the twenty-eighth year ended.
6 Then at the beginning of the twenty-ninth year of the judges, we got more supplies and six thousand men from the land of Zarahemla and the lands nearby, as well as sixty more sons of the Ammonites. They had come to join their brothers — my little army of two thousand. Now we were strong, and we had plenty of supplies.
7 We wanted to fight against the army protecting the city of Cumeni.
8 Soon we were able to do it. We surrounded the city of Cumeni by night with part of our strong army before the Lamanites were supposed to get some supplies.
9 We camped around the city for many nights. We slept on our swords and kept guards so the Lamanites could not come on us at night and kill us. They tried that many times, but every time they did, they were killed.
10 Soon their supplies came, at night, and we Nephites (instead of Lamanites) got them, and took prisoners.
11 Even though the Lamanites could not get more supplies, they still wanted to keep the city. We sent the supplies to Judea, and the prisoners to the land of Zarahemla.
12 Not too long after, the Lamanites gave up hope of getting help, so they gave up the city to us, which is just how we had planned to get back the city of Cumeni.
13 But soon we had taken so many prisoners that we had to guard them with our whole army to keep them, or else kill them.
14 Big groups of them would rebel and fight against us with stones or clubs or whatever they could pick up. We had to kill more than two thousand of them after they had given themselves up as prisoners.
15 So we had to kill them or take them under guard down to the land of Zarahemla. We also did not have enough supplies to feed them as well as our own people, even with the supplies we had taken from the Lamanites.
16 In this great danger, we chose some men to take the prisoners to the land of Zarahemla.
17 But our men came back the next day. We did not ask them about the prisoners, because the Lamanites had come against us. Our people had come back to save us from them. Ammoron had sent a big army and supplies,
18 But our men who had gone with the prisoners came back in time keep us from being defeated.
19 My little army of two thousand and sixty fought very bravely. Yes, they were strong before the Lamanites and killed all who fought against them.
20 The rest of our army was about to let the Lamanites through, but my two thousand and sixty were strong.
21 Yes, they strictly obeyed every order, and their faith was rewarded. I remembered what they had told me that their mothers had taught them.
22 We won because of my sons and because of those men who had been sent to take the prisoners to Zarahemla. They were the ones who chased the Lamanites back to the city of Manti.
23 We kept our city of Cumeni, and we were not all destroyed, but we lost many men.
24 After the Lamanites ran away, I commanded my men to find the wounded among the dead right away and take them to get their wounds taken care of.
25 Two hundred of my two thousand and sixty men had fainted because they had lost so much blood. But to our great surprise (and to our enemy’s great surprise), thanks to God’s goodness, not one of them died. There was not one of them who had not been hurt.
26 Our whole army was very surprised that they were all saved, while a thousand of their brothers had been killed. We say it was a miracle of God’s power because of their faith in what they had been taught to believe — that God was just, and whoever would not doubt would be saved by his great power.
27 This is the faith of those young men I have talked about. They are young, but their minds are strong, and they always trust in God.
28 After we had taken care of our wounded men, and buried our dead and the Lamanites’ dead, we asked Gid about the prisoners they had begun to take down to the land of Zarahemla.
29 (Gid was the chief captain over the men chosen to take the prisoners to Zarahemla.)
30 Gid said to me: “We began to go down to the land of Zarahemla with our prisoners. Then we met some of our spies who had been watching the Lamanites’ armies.
31 “They shouted to us: ‘The Lamanite armies are going to the city of Cumeni, and they will fight against our people and destroy them.’
32 “When our prisoners heard this, they got brave and began to rebel against us.
33 “We took our swords against them, and all of them ran onto our swords. Most of them were killed, but the rest of them got through and ran away.
34 “When they ran away, we could not catch up to them, so we quickly went back to the city of Cumeni. We got back in time to help our brothers save the city.
35 “So we were saved again from our enemies, and we bless our God’s name, because he was the one who saved us and did this great thing for us.”
36 When I, Helaman, heard Gid’s words, I was filled with joy because of God’s goodness in saving us so we would not all die. I trust that those who died went to rest with their God.
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