Alma 44
Moroni’s Ultimatum to Zerahemnah
Alma 44:1–4
1 And it came to pass that they did stop and withdrew a pace from them. And Moroni said unto Zerahemnah: Behold, Zerahemnah, that we do not desire to be men of blood. Ye know that ye are in our hands, yet we do not desire to slay you.
2 Behold, we have not come out to battle against you that we might shed your blood for power; neither do we desire to bring any one to the yoke of bondage. But this is the very cause for which ye have come against us; yea, and ye are angry with us because of our religion.
3 But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.
4 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.
Verse 1 originally followed verse 54 of chapter 43 without a break. That verse described the end of the conflict, when Moroni commanded that his armies stop killing the Lamanites. It is at that time that “they did stop and withdrew a pace from them.” This allowed Moroni to approach Zerahemnah to give this speech.
We do not know how Moroni knew which Lamanite combatant was the leader, but it would not have been unusual in ancient warfare for that person to have some kind of visual marker that would identify him as a leader. Even modern military uniforms have visual indicators of rank. Thus, Moroni could approach the leader, who would be able to make a decision for the whole of his army.
The obvious evidence, to any ancient warrior, that God was on their side was that they were victorious. Thus, Moroni declares that “the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands.” Moroni even uses their victory to declare that “ye see that this is the true faith of God.”
Alma 44:5–7
5 And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us—
6 Yea, and this is not all; I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of war unto us, and we will seek not your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way and come not again to war against us.
7 And now, if ye do not this, behold, ye are in our hands, and I will command my men that they shall fall upon you, and inflict the wounds of death in your bodies, that ye may become extinct; and then we will see who shall have power over this people; yea, we will see who shall be brought into bondage.
Having declared that the Nephite God is the true God, and the reason for the Nephite victory, Moroni commands Zerahemnah, in God’s name, to make a decision. The decision to be made is contained in verse 6. Zerahemnah can choose to cease the war, or to continue and die. Each of the decisions has consequences. If he chooses to stop fighting, he and his army may leave, but must covenant not to make war upon the Nephites again. The alternative consequence is that they will be killed.
Moroni desires, and expects, the more forgiving alternative. Thus, he issues the command “by all the desires which ye have for life.” Humankind has a strong will to live, and Moroni assumes that those desires will cause Zerahemnah to accept the generous offer.
The final statement of verse 7 is Moroni turning the dagger just a little in the wound. Zerahemnah had declared that he wanted to bring the Nephites into subjugation. Moroni, with the obvious upper hand, notes that should they continue to fight, “we will see who shall be brought into bondage.” Ironically, he had no intention of bringing them to physical bondage. They were to be killed, perhaps consigning them to spiritual bondage.
Alma 44:8–9
8 And now it came to pass that when Zerahemnah had heard these sayings he came forth and delivered up his sword and his cimeter, and his bow into the hands of Moroni, and said unto him: Behold, here are our weapons of war; we will deliver them up unto you, but we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break, and also our children; but take our weapons of war, and suffer that we may depart into the wilderness; otherwise we will retain our swords, and we will perish or conquer.
9 Behold, we are not of your faith; we do not believe that it is God that has delivered us into your hands; but we believe that it is your cunning that has preserved you from our swords. Behold, it is your breastplates and your shields that have preserved you.
Zerahemnah responds almost as expected. He does personally deliver up his weapons to Moroni, symbolically enacting the same for all of his troops. He accepts the opportunity to stop the war and leave. However, there is a caveat. “We will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break.” As Zerahemnah also points out in verse 9, they do not adhere to the Nephite faith, and do not believe that it was God who won the battle, but rather the Nephites. Zerahemnah blames his defeat on the Nephite protective armor (verse 9).
The important point is that there was no similar religious belief between them that governed the taking of the oath, yet the very act of taking an oath was considered inviolable to both peoples. We encountered the ancient power of the oath when Zoram agreed to travel with Lehi1’s family (in 1 Nephi 4) and was accepted upon an oath. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies took an oath and suffered death rather than violate it. Zerahemnah is at least hinting that he is willing to do the same. The oath was more important to them than suffering death.
Alma 44:10–11
10 And now when Zerahemnah had made an end of speaking these words, Moroni returned the sword and the weapons of war, which he had received, unto Zerahemnah, saying: Behold, we will end the conflict.
11 Now I cannot recall the words which I have spoken, therefore as the Lord liveth, ye shall not depart except ye depart with an oath that ye will not return again against us to war. Now as ye are in our hands we will spill your blood upon the ground, or ye shall submit to the conditions which I have proposed.
The modern world has changed considerably from the ancient world depicted here. Not only is Zerahemnah unwilling to take an oath that he knows he will not keep, but when Moroni hears that Zerahemnah will not agree to Moroni’s terms, he gives him back his weapons of war. Moroni had rearmed his enemy.
In verse 11, Moroni says: “I cannot recall the words which I have spoken.” In modern usage, we tend to read this as “I cannot remember the words which I have spoken.” That is clearly not the meaning in this case. Here, the word recall is used in the sense of bringing them back or undoing them. It is the sense we use when a recall is made for a product. It is to be brought back. Moroni’s words were just as much an oath as he could expect from Zerahemnah. Just because Zerahemnah would not take an oath (Moroni knew that Zerahemnah wouldn’t abide by it), Moroni would not change the offered oath simply because it was not accepted. Therefore, Moroni reiterates that if they do not accept the oath, they will be slaughtered.
Alma 44:12–15
12 And now when Moroni had said these words, Zerahemnah retained his sword, and he was angry with Moroni, and he rushed forward that he might slay Moroni; but as he raised his sword, behold, one of Moroni’s soldiers smote it even to the earth, and it broke by the hilt; and he also smote Zerahemnah that he took off his scalp and it fell to the earth. And Zerahemnah withdrew from before them into the midst of his soldiers.
13 And it came to pass that the soldier who stood by, who smote off the scalp of Zerahemnah, took up the scalp from off the ground by the hair, and laid it upon the point of his sword, and stretched it forth unto them, saying unto them with a loud voice:
14 Even as this scalp has fallen to the earth, which is the scalp of your chief, so shall ye fall to the earth except ye will deliver up your weapons of war and depart with a covenant of peace.
15 Now there were many, when they heard these words and saw the scalp which was upon the sword, that were struck with fear; and many came forth and threw down their weapons of war at the feet of Moroni, and entered into a covenant of peace. And as many as entered into a covenant they suffered to depart into the wilderness.
When Mormon writes “Zerahemnah retained his sword,” we have another word used in a different sense than expected. “Retain” means to keep or hold on to. In this verse, it is used with a non-standard meaning of “recover,” or perhaps “retain again.” It is not a meaning used for “retain” in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.
The importance of the verse is that even though everything has been honorable to this point in the discussion, Zerahemnah does what one might expect a sworn enemy to do. He attacks Moroni. One of Moroni’s soldiers takes a swing at Zerahemnah, removing his scalp. Although this action certainly bears resemblance to the North American Native American practice of scalping (which comes much later in history), it is more likely that it was simply the result and not the intention. That is, it was not a scalping in order to make a point, but it was rather simply the result of the blow.
Rather than be symbolic in itself, the symbolism comes from what the soldier does with it. He declares what is called a simile curse, that is, a curse that likens one thing to another. Thus, “Even as this scalp has fallen to the earth, which is the scalp of your chief, so shall ye fall to the earth except ye will deliver up your weapons of war and depart with a covenant of peace.” The statement is simply repeating Moroni’s part of the oath and it is now adding a visual representation to emphasize the cursing to come should they not accept the oath.
The result was that many did comprehend the futility of their situation and accepted the oath. After entering into a covenant of peace, they were allowed to depart, according to Moroni’s part of the covenant.
Alma 44:16–20
16 Now it came to pass that Zerahemnah was exceedingly wroth, and he did stir up the remainder of his soldiers to anger, to contend more powerfully against the Nephites.
17 And now Moroni was angry, because of the stubbornness of the Lamanites; therefore he commanded his people that they should fall upon them and slay them. And it came to pass that they began to slay them; yea, and the Lamanites did contend with their swords and their might.
18 But behold, their naked skins and their bare heads were exposed to the sharp swords of the Nephites; yea, behold they were pierced and smitten, yea, and did fall exceedingly fast before the swords of the Nephites; and they began to be swept down, even as the soldier of Moroni had prophesied.
19 Now Zerahemnah, when he saw that they were all about to be destroyed, cried mightily unto Moroni, promising that he would covenant and also his people with them, if they would spare the remainder of their lives, that they never would come to war again against them.
20 And it came to pass that Moroni caused that the work of death should cease again among the people. And he took the weapons of war from the Lamanites; and after they had entered into a covenant with him of peace they were suffered to depart into the wilderness.
Zerahemnah had not wanted to take the oath, and he provoked others to stand and fight with him. They did. They had known that they were hopelessly outnumbered, but in individual warfare, only so many men can engage at one time. Although not stated, it is probable that the Lamanites stood back-to-back so that they provided a fighting front to all around them. Still, even the best of fighters must tire. Even though the Nephites could not bring all of their army to bear simultaneously, they could keep providing fresh troops where the Lamanites simply continued to exhaust their strength, even if they were individually fighting well.
There came a point when the battle was clearly over, and Zerahemnah makes it known that they are finally willing to enter into a covenant of peace. Moroni had not put a time limit on the offer of the covenant. Therefore, Moroni once again ceases the fighting. This time, the remainder of the Lamanites accept the covenant and leave.
Alma 44:21–24
21 Now the number of their dead was not numbered because of the greatness of the number; yea, the number of their dead was exceedingly great, both on the Nephites and on the Lamanites.
22 And it came to pass that they did cast their dead into the waters of Sidon, and they have gone forth and are buried in the depths of the sea.
23 And the armies of the Nephites, or of Moroni, returned and came to their houses and their lands.
24 And thus ended the eighteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi. And thus ended the record of Alma, which was written upon the plates of Nephi.
In the aftermath of the battle, the bodies of the Lamanites were cast into the Sidon. This was a sign of disrespect for an enemy. Although it does not say so here, the Nephite dead were surely buried.
When the war is over, the Nephite armies “returned and came to their houses and their lands.” This was not a standing army, but one recruited from the men of the land. We see neither standing armies nor dedicated police forces in the Book of Mormon.
With the ending of the record of the eighteenth year of the reign of the judges, Alma2 stops recording. The story of what happens to Alma2 will be told in the next chapter, one written by Helaman1 rather than Alma2.
