Mormon — Chapter 4
1 In the three hundred sixty-third year, the Nephites left the land of Desolation and went to war against the Lamanites.
2 The Nephites were chased back to the land of Desolation. While they were still tired, a fresh Lamanite army came against them, and they fought a terrible battle. The Lamanites took over the city of Desolation after killing many Nephites and taking many prisoners.
3 The rest of the Nephites ran away and joined the Nephites living in the city of Teancum, by the sea, close to the city of Desolation.
4 If the Nephites had not gone to war against the Lamanites, the Lamanites would not have defeated them.
5 But God’s judgments will catch up with the wicked. He punishes the wicked by using other wicked people against them. The wicked get people to kill each other.
6 The Lamanites got ready to fight against the city of Teancum.
7 During the three hundred sixty-fourth year, the Lamanites came against the city of Teancum to take over it.
8 But the Nephites chased them back. When the Nephites saw they had kept the Lamanites from taking the city of Teancum, they boasted about how strong they were. They fought against the Lamanites in the city of Desolation, and won it back.
9 Thousands of Nephites and Lamanites had been killed during all this.
10 After the three hundred sixty-sixth year went by, the Lamanites made war against the Nephites again. The Nephites still would not repent, but kept on being wicked all the time.
11 It is impossible to tell you how horrible the war was, and how much blood and death there was, both among the Nephites and the Lamanites. Every heart was wicked, and everyone loved killing.
12 The Lord said there was never such wickedness among Lehi’s descendants, nor even among all the House of Israel, as there was among this people.
13 The Lamanites took over the city of Desolation again because there were more of them than there were Nephites.
14 Then the Lamanites made war against the city of Teancum, and chased the people out of it. They took many women and children prisoner, and sacrificed them to their false gods.
15 The Nephites were so angry that their women and children had been sacrificed that they fought against the Lamanites during the three hundred sixty-seventh year. They were so angry that they defeated the Lamanites and chased them out of their lands.
16 The Lamanites did not make war against the Nephites until the three hundred seventy-fifth year.
17 That year they came down against the Nephites with so many men they could not be counted.
18 From that time on the Nephites had no power over them, but began to be destroyed by them just as water is dried up by the sun.
19 The Lamanites made war against the city of Desolation. There was a terrible battle, and the Lamanites defeated the Nephites there.
20 The Nephites ran away from them until they came to the city of Boaz. They fought bravely against the Lamanites there, so the Lamanites did not beat them the first time.
21 But when the Lamanites fought the Nephites at Boaz the second time, the Nephites were defeated and chased out, and many of them were killed. Their women and children were sacrificed to false gods again.
22 Then the Nephites began to run away from the Lamanites, taking all the people in the towns and villages with them.
23 Now when I, Mormon, saw that the Lamanites were about to take over the land, I went to the hill Shim and took away all the records Ammaron had hidden under God’s protection.
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