The Know

The book of Ether tells us that the Jaredite civilization met its end through a series of battles and wars drawn out by the people’s unwillingness to repent from their wickedness. These wars began after the prophet Ether was rejected by the people and “they esteemed him as naught, and cast him out” from among them (Ether 13:13). Following this, “there were many who rose up, who were mighty men, and sought to destroy [the king] Coriantumr by their secret plans of wickedness” (Ether 13:15).

One of these individuals who sought to take the kingdom from Coriantumr was Shared, who briefly waged war, as recorded in Ether 13:23–31. A crucial battle took place on “the plains of Heshlon,” a name which occurs only here in the entire Book of Mormon (Ether 13:28). Significantly, Matthew L. Bowen and Pedro Olavarria have suggested that Moroni’s inclusion of the name Heshlon was done purposefully, highlighting a Hebrew wordplay at the center of a chiasm (shown below). This poetic wordplay is especially powerful given Heshlon’s pivotal role in Jaredite history, a role that Bowen and Olavarria describe as “the scene of a great reversal—both a victory and defeat for Coriantumr that epitomized not only the fluctuating and worsening fortunes of Coriantumr personally, but of those of the Jaredites collectively, all of whom had rejected the prophet Ether’s call to repentance.”1

The name Heshlon appears to be a Hebraic toponym that was likely applied by King Mosiah or Moroni as they translated and abridged the Jaredite record. The name corresponds with the Hebrew root ḥāšal, which means to “make weak, prostrate, weary, thin, crush.”2 Furthermore, the suffix -ôn as used in place names throughout the Bible and Book of Mormon could mean “place of,” thereby making Heshlon “the place of crushing.”3

This name receives additional context from the verses immediately surrounding it. Per Bowen and Olavarria, “The name ‘Heshlon’ . . . occurs within the greatest concentration of the word beat, i.e. ‘defeat’ in a military sense, anywhere in the scriptures.”4 Indeed, of the twenty instances of the word beat as a military term in the Book of Mormon, five appear surrounding the conflict at Heshlon in Ether 13:23–24, 28–30.5 While the verb ‘beat’ in this chapter may not have been ḥāšal originally, it was nonetheless synonymous enough for Moroni to provide “a synonymic play . . . in order to emphasize just how disastrous this series of battles was for the Jaredite nation.”6 Indeed, while Coriantumr ultimately “beat Shared and slew him,” he himself was grievously wounded in the process: “And Shared wounded Coriantumr in his thigh, that he did not go to battle again for the space of two years” (Ether 13:30–31).

As Coriantumr recovered, however, conflicts continued to arise and worsen throughout the land. Moroni notes that “all the people upon the face of the land were shedding blood, and there was none to restrain them” (Ether 13:31). At the battles of Heshlon and Gilgal, “Coriantumr’s royal power became fragile,” but he was still able to remain in some sort of power because “his opponents [also] became too feeble to overthrow him.”7 Thus, “the nation was doomed at Heshlon and Gilgal” in the first of many battles that Ether had tried to warn the king about.8

This point may have been even more clear to an ancient audience because the plains of Heshlon appear at the center of a chiasm detailing these battles. While the following presentation is a simplification of the greater chiastic structure Bowen and Olavarria observed, Ether 13:25–31 generally takes the following outline (emphasis added):

A Now there began to war upon all the face of the land, every man with his band fighting for that which he desired. (verse 25)

B and they did meet in the valley of Gilgal; and the battle became exceedingly sore. (verse 27)

C And it came to pass that Coriantumr beat him, (verse 28)

D and did pursue him until he came to the plains (verse 28)

X of Heshlon. (verse 28)

D′ And it came to pass that Shared gave him battle again

upon the plains; (verse 29)

C′ and behold, he did beat Coriantumr, (verse 29)

B′ Coriantumr gave Shared battle again in the valley of Gilgal, (verse 30)

A′ in which time all the people upon the face of the land were shedding blood (verse 31)9

According to this chiasm, “the battle on the plains of Heshlon marks a dramatic reversal of Coriantumr’s expectations and fortunes. What Coriantumr had hoped would be a final victory over Shared, his archenemy, instead turned into the crushing or breaking of the strength of his own forces on the plains of Heshlon.”10 While Coriantumr experienced initial victories, the battle at Heshlon marked the beginning of his defeat. Even though Coriantumr eventually killed Shared and was therefore victorious, it is a victory that came at great costs, almost including the cost of Coriantumr’s own life.

Furthermore, the mention of “war upon all the face of the land” involving “all the people” at the beginning and end of this chiasm gives a broader perspective about the conflict. Specifically, this suggests that what happened at Heshlon was symbolic of the crushing of the entire people. In this way, Heshlon also serves as “a didactic inference that the judgments of God as pronounced by a prophet are inescapable. From this point forward, the narrative drives inexorably toward the final Jaredite destruction,” just as Ether had prophesied.11

The Why

Matthew L. Bowen and Pedro Olavarria have observed, “Naming a place after what occurred there was not uncommon in ancient Israel or among the Nephites.”12 As Moroni abridged the Jaredite record for the Book of Mormon, he likely included this significant wordplay as a reminder to his future audience of “what monarchic evil and covenant disobedience could bring upon them.”13 In this way, Heshlon “serves as a kind of literary cenotaph for what eventually happened to both the Jaredites and Nephites due to their failure to heed prophetic warnings: they were crushed and ultimately destroyed.”14

Similar uses of the root ḥāšal in other Hebrew texts can also support how Heshlon serves as a place of crushing for those who have rejected their covenants and the prophets of the Lord. For example, in Deuteronomy 25:18, this root is used to describe some of the children of Israel and is translated as “all that were feeble” in the King James Version. This is greatly expanded in a rabbinic commentary called Sifre Devarim. According to this text, those who were feeble were “the children of men who have withdrawn themselves from the ways of the Existence [i.e., the Lord] and have been crushed away from underneath the [protective] wings of the Cloud.”15

Commenting on this passage, Bowen and Olavarria observe, “The Jaredite nation, like the Nephite nation, was crushed and destroyed precisely because they had withdrawn themselves from the Spirit of the Lord, and the Lord had thus withdrawn his Spirit from them.”16 Hence, they, too, were crushed, beaten, and enfeebled because of their pride. Just as it was only through repentance and faith that the children of Israel were able to overcome their challenges and inherit the promised land, only repentance and faith could have saved the Jaredites from the destruction they brought upon themselves.

Ultimately, modern readers of the Book of Mormon can find additional meaning in this and other names in the Book of Mormon as they seek to maintain faith in the Lord. They can also recognize in this story the message that the promises of the Lord will always be fulfilled. While Heshlon served as a place of crushing for the wicked and unrepentant, modern readers can recognize that the inverse is also true—those who seek to follow the prophet, repent, and come closer to the Savior will not be crushed but will rather be blessed and lifted up in the end.