Helaman — Chapter 16
1 Many people heard what Samuel the Lamanite said while he was on the city walls. Those who believed what he said looked for Nephi. When they found him, they confessed their sins and wanted to be baptized.
2 But those who did not believe what Samuel said were angry with him, and threw stones at him, and shot arrows at him while he was on the wall. But the Spirit of the Lord was with him, so they could not hit them with their stones or arrows.year and all during the seventy-third year.
3 When they saw they could not hit him, some of the people who did not believe at first began to believe, and went away to Nephi to be baptized.
4 (Nephi was baptizing and prophesying and telling the people to repent, and showing signs and doing miracles among the people, so they would know that Christ would come soon.
5 He told them about many things which would happen soon, so that when those things happened, the people would remember them and believe. Those who believed what Samuel said went to Nephi to be baptized, repenting and confessing their sins.)
6 But most of the people did not believe what Samuel said. When they saw they could not hit him with their stones or arrows, they called to their captains and said: “Take this man and tie him up, because he has a devil in him protecting him from our stones and arrows.”
7 But when they got up on the wall to take him, he jumped off the wall and ran away to his own country, where he began to teach and prophesy to his own people.
8 The Nephites never heard of him again. And this was how things were.
9 This was how the eighty-sixth year ended.
10 The eighty-seventh year ended the same way, with most of the people staying proud and wicked, and a smaller number of people keeping God’s commandments.
11 Things stayed the same during the eighty-eighth year of the judges.
12 During the eighty-ninth year of the judges, very little changed, except that the people began to be more wicked, and began to do more and more evil things.
13 But during the ninetieth year of the judges, many signs and wonders were shown to the people, and the things the prophets said began to happen.
14 Angels came to wise men and told them wonderful and happy things. So some of the scriptures began to come true during this year.
15 Even so, all the people, both Lamanites and Nephites (except for the ones who believed the most) hardened their hearts, and began to be proud of how strong and wise they were, saying:
16 “They may have guessed about some things right, since so many things have taken place, but we know that the great and wonderful things they talked about are not going to happen.”
17 They talked and argued among themselves, saying:
18 “It does not make any sense for someone like Christ to come. If he does come, and if he is the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, as he is called, why isn’t he going to show himself to us as well as to those at Jerusalem?
19 “Yes, why won’t he come to this land as well as to Jerusalem?
20 “We know this is just a wicked story our ancestors handed down to us so we would believe in some wonderful thing to come. But this thing won’t take place where we live, but in a far away land we know nothing about. They can pretend these things are happening, because we won’t be able to see for ourselves if they are true.
21 “They will trick us by the power of the devil and do some magic trick we won’t be able to understand. They will make us be their servants by making us want to listen to what they say. This is how they will keep us from knowing for ourselves all our lives, if we believe what they tell us now.”
22 The people made up many more false and foolish things in their hearts. They did not have much peace, because Satan was always getting them to do evil things. Yes, he told foolish stories and made people fight and argue all over the land, so they would harden their hearts against the good things which were going to happen.
23 Even though there were many signs and miracles among the people, Satan had great power over the hearts of the people in all the land.
24This was how the ninetieth year ended.
25 This is also the end of the book that Helaman and his sons wrote.
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