Mosiah — Chapter 20
1 There was a place in Shemlon where the Lamanites’ daughters gathered together to sing and dance and have fun.
2 One day there were only a few of them who had come there to sing and dance.
3 King Noah’s priests were afraid to go back to the city of Nephi. They thought the people there might kill them, so they were afraid to go back to their wives and children.
4 After living for a while in the wilderness, they found out about the Lamanites’ daughters, and they hid and watched them.
5 And when only twenty-four of the Lamanites’ daughters came to sing and dance, the priests came out of their hiding places and took them away into the wilderness.
6 When the Lamanites found out their daughters were missing, they were angry with Limhi’s people, because they thought Limhi’s people had taken them.
7 So they sent their armies to destroy Limhi’s people, and the king himself led them.
8 Limhi saw all that the Lamanites did to prepare for war from the tower, so he gathered his people together and waited for them, hiding in the fields and forests.
9 When the Lamanites came up, Limhi’s people began to fight them from their hiding places and began to kill them.
10 It was a terrible battle. They fought like lions over their food.
11 Even though Limhi’s people were fewer by half than the Lamanites, they began to drive the Lamanites back, because they fought for their lives, and for their wives and children, so they fought like dragons.
12 Then they found the Lamanite king on the ground with the dead, but he was not dead, only hurt. His people had left so quickly that he was left behind.
13 They took care of his wounds and took him to Limhi and said: “Here is the Lamanite king. He fell when he was wounded, and he was left behind. We have brought him to you, and now let us kill him.”
14 But Limhi said to them: “Do not kill him, but bring him to me.” Then Limhi said to him: “Why have you made war on my people? My people have not broken the promise I made to you, so why have you broken the promise you made to my people?”
15 Then the king said: “I broke the promise because your people took away my people’s daughters. In my anger I had my people make war on your people.”
16 Now, Limhi had heard nothing about this before, so he said: “I will look among my people, and whoever has done this thing will die.” So he looked among his people.
17 When Gideon, Limhi’s captain, heard these things, he went to Limhi and said: “I ask you to stop looking among this people, and do not blame them for this.
18 “Don’t you remember about your father’s priests, whom this people wanted to kill? Aren’t they in the wilderness? And aren’t they the ones who have taken away the Lamanites’ daughters?
19 “Tell the king about these things, so that he can tell his people about them and make peace with them for us, because they are getting ready to come against us, and there are only a few of us.
20 “They are coming with countless armies. If the king does not make peace with them for us, we will die.
21 “Isn’t this what Abinadi prophesied would happen to us, and all because we would not listen to the Lord’s words and repent of our sins?
22 “Let us make peace with the king and show that we are keeping the promise we made to him. It is better for us to be slaves than to die, so let us stop all this killing.”
23 Then Limhi told the Lamanite king about his father, and about the priests who had gone into the wilderness, and he blamed them for taking away the Lamanites’ daughters.
24 The king believed him and made peace with Limhi’s people. He said to them: “Let us go meet my people without weapons. I promise you that my people will not kill your people.”
25 So they followed the king and went to meet the Lamanites without weapons. When they met the Lamanites, the Lamanite king himself bowed down before them, and asked them not to kill Limhi’s people.
26 When the Lamanites saw that Limhi’s people had no weapons, they had mercy on them, and made peace with them, and went back to their own land in peace with their king.
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