Helaman — Chapter 11
1 During the seventy-second year of the judges, there were more and more fights, to the point where there were wars in all the lands of the Nephites.
2 The Gadianton robbers were the ones who caused all this destruction and wickedness. The war went on all that year and all during the seventy-third year.
3 During that year Nephi prayed to the Lord, saying:
4 “O Lord, do not let this people be destroyed by war, but let there be a famine in the land, to help them remember the Lord their God, and maybe they will repent and come back to you.”
5 So what Nephi asked was done, and there was a terrible famine in the land among all the Nephites. Even though the wars stopped, the famine went on into the seventy-fourth year and caused many deaths.
6 The famine went on during the seventy-fifth year. No grain would grow because the earth was so dry. The whole land was cursed among the Lamanites as well as the Nephites, and those who were in the most wicked parts of the land died by the thousands.
7 When the people saw that they were going to die because of the famine, they began to remember the Lord their God, and Nephi’s words.
8 Then the people told their rulers and leaders to say to Nephi: “We know you are a man of God, so pray to the Lord our God to stop this famine, so that what you said about our destruction will not come true.”
9 The judges did what the people wanted. When Nephi saw that the people had repented and become humble enough, he prayed to the Lord again, saying:
10 “O Lord, look and see: the people are repenting. They have gotten rid of the Gadianton robbers completely, and have buried their secret plans in the ground.
11 “Now, O Lord, because they have become humble, please don’t be angry with them anymore. Let your anger go away by thinking about the wicked people you have already destroyed.
12 “O Lord, please don’t be angry anymore, and stop the famine in the land.
13 “O Lord, please listen to me, and let the rain fall on the earth, so crops and grain will grow again.
14 “O Lord, you listened to my prayer when I said, ‘Let there be a famine instead of war,’ and I know you will listen to my words now, because you said: ‘If the people repent, I will not destroy them.’
15 “Yes, O Lord, you see that they have repented because of the famine and disease and destruction which came to them.
16 “Now, O Lord, will you stop being angry with them, and see if they will serve you again? If they do, O Lord, you can bless them as you said you would.”
17 So in the seventy-sixth year, the Lord was no longer angry with them, and made the rain fall on the earth so their fruits and crops and grain could grow.
18 And all the people in the land were happy and gave glory to God. They did not try to kill Nephi anymore, but thought he was a great prophet and man of God to whom God had given great power.
19 Nephi’s brother Lehi was just as righteous.
20 So the Nephites prospered again and began to build their desert places back up. There were more and more of them, and they began to live all over the land from the north to the south, and from the west sea to the east sea.
21 The seventy-sixth year ended in peace. The seventy-seventh year began in peace, and the church was built up all over the land. Most of the people, both Nephites and Lamanites, belonged to the church, and there was great peace in the land. And the seventy-seventh year ended.
22 They also had peace in the seventy-eighth year, except for a little arguing about some of the things the prophets had written.
23 There began to be lots of arguing in the seventy-ninth year. But Nephi and Lehi and some of their brothers who knew the truth (because they had many revelations every day) taught the people and ended the arguing that same year.
24 But in the eightieth year of the Nephite judges, some people who had stopped being Nephites became Lamanites, and joined together with some people who were real Lamanites (descendants of Laman). They got angry and began a war with their brothers and sisters.
25 They would kill and steal, and then go back to their secret places in the mountains and wilderness, hiding themselves so no one could find them. Other people who did not want to be righteous joined them every day.
26 In just a few years they became a very big group of robbers. They looked for and found all of Gadianton’s secret plans, so they became Gadianton robbers.
27 These robbers caused terrible destruction and trouble among the Nephites and the Lamanites.
28 They had to be stopped, so the people sent an army of strong men into the wilderness and into the mountains to look for these robbers and destroy them.
29 But they were beaten back into their own lands. This was how the eightieth year of the judges ended.
30 In the beginning of the eighty-first year, they went against the robbers again, and destroyed many, but the robbers killed many of them, too.
31 So they had to leave the wilderness and the mountains again, and go back to their own lands, because there were so many robbers in the mountains and wilderness.
32 That year ended. The robbers got much stronger and were not afraid of any Nephite or Lamanite armies. All the people in the land were very afraid of them.
33 They were afraid because the robbers brought destruction into many parts of the land. They killed many people, and made slaves of others and took them into the wilderness — especially their women and children.
34 This great evil, which came to the people because of their sins, made them remember the Lord their God again.
35 This was how the eighty-first year ended.
36 But they began to forget the Lord their God again in the eighty-second year. They got more and more wicked during the eighty-third year, and they did not repent during the eighty-fourth year of the judges.
37 In the eighty-fifth year they got more proud and wicked, so they were getting ready to be destroyed again.
38 This was how the eighty-fifth year ended.
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