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Mosiah — Chapter 11

¹ Zeniff made his son Noah the new king, and Noah began to rule. But Noah was not a good king like his father had been.

² He did not keep God’s commandments, but did what he wanted to. He had many wives and other women. He made it easy for his people to sin and to do evil things in God’s sight. They committed sexual sins and did all kinds of evil things.

³ Noah made the people pay taxes of one-fifth of all they had–a fifth of their gold and silver, and ziff, and copper and brass, and iron, and also a fifth of their herds and flocks, and a fifth of all the grain they grew.

⁴ He taxed them so he would not have to work to feed his wives and other women, and his priests and their wives and other women. This is how he changed the way the kingdom was run.

⁵ He got rid of all the priests his father had chosen and chose new ones who were proud and wicked.

⁶ So the people worked very hard to pay for the priests’ laziness and sexual sins and evil doings with the many taxes King Noah put on them.

⁷ And the people themselves became wicked and worshiped false gods because of the wrong things the king and priests taught them.

⁸ King Noah built many big and beautiful buildings with fine woodwork, and rich things, and gold, silver, iron, brass, ziff, and copper.

⁹ He built himself a large palace, and in the middle was a throne made of fine wood, with gold and silver and other rich things on it.

¹⁰ He made his workers make all kinds of beautiful things of wood and copper and brass inside the temple.

¹¹ He made his workers put pure gold on the high priests’ chairs. The high priests’ chairs sat higher than all the other chairs. He made his workers build special tables in front of the high priests’ chairs, so the high priests could rest their bodies and arms on them while they said tricky things and lied to the people.

¹² He also had a tower built near the temple–yes, a very high tower, so he could go stand on top of it and see all the land of Shilom, and all the land of Shemlon, which the Lamanites owned. He could see all the land around.

¹³ He had many buildings built in Shilom. He had a large tower built on the hill north of Shilom, which is where Nephi’s descendants had hidden at the time they left the land. He built all these things with the riches he got by taxing the people.

¹⁴ He loved his riches, and he spent his time having parties with his wives and other women. His priests also spent their time with women who were not their wives.

¹⁵ He planted grapevines all over the land, and built wine-presses, and made lots of wine. He loved wine, and so did his people.

¹⁶ Then the Lamanites began to kill small groups of his people. They would kill them in their fields and while they were taking care of their flocks. church.

¹⁷ So King Noah sent guards all around the land to keep them away. But he did not send enough of them, so the Lamanites came and killed the people, and took away many of their flocks. This was how the Lamanites began to destroy them because of their hatred of the Nephites.

¹⁸ Then King Noah sent his armies against them and made them go away for a time. The armies came back very happy because they had won that war.

¹⁹ They became very proud because they had won, and they boasted about how strong they were, saying that fifty of them could kill thousands of Lamanites. They loved war and loved killing their brothers, and all because of the wickedness of their king and priests.

²⁰ Then a man came among them named Abinadi, and he began to prophesy, saying: “This what the Lord has commanded me to say to this people: ‘Woe to this people, because I have seen their sins and their wickedness, and their evil, and their sexual sins. If they do not repent, I will punish them in my anger.

²¹ “‘If they do not repent and come back to the Lord their God, I will give them to their enemies, and they will become slaves, and their enemies will punish them.

²² “‘Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, and that I am a jealous God, who punishes his people for their sins.

²³ “‘If this people will not repent and come back to the Lord their God, they will become slaves, and no one will be able to save them except for the Lord.

²⁴ “‘I will be slow to listen to their prayers when they pray to me, and I will let their enemies punish them.

²⁵ “‘If they will not repent in sackcloth and ashes, and pray strongly to the Lord their God, I will not hear their prayers, nor save them from their troubles.’ This is what the Lord has said, and this is what he has commanded me to say.”

²⁶ After Abinadi said these words to the people, they were angry with him and wanted to kill him, but the Lord saved him from them.

²⁷ When King Noah heard what Abinadi had said, he was angry, too, and said: “Who does Abinadi think he is that he can judge me and my people, and who is this Lord that will bring such big trouble to my people?

²⁸ “I command you to bring Abinadi here so I can kill him, because he has said these things to make my people angry and to make them argue with each other.”

²⁹ The people had been taught wrong things, so they hardened their hearts against what Abinadi had said and tried to catch him from then on. And King Noah hardened his heart against what the Lord had said, and did not repent of the evil things he did.