Episode 39: Amalickiah

Alma 47-49

Amalickiah's Treachery

47 ¹ After Amalickiah fled into the wilderness, he returned to the land of Nephi and began to stir up the Lamanites against the Nephites. The king of the Lamanites sent out a proclamation saying the people should gather together to fight the Nephites. ² But most of the Lamanites refused to obey, since they were afraid of the Nephites. ³ The king was angered by their disobedience, so he made Amalickiah the captain of those in the army who were willing to fight. ⁴ This pleased Amalickiah, since he wanted to dethrone the king.

⁵ Amalickiah went to a place called Onidah, where the Lamanites who didn’t want to fight had gathered. ⁶ They had appointed their own king at Onidah, whose name was Lehonti, and they all gathered on mount Antipas. ^10-12 Amalickiah sent messengers to Lehonti, asking for him to come down so he could speak to him. But he declined three times. Then Amalickiah climbed the mountain himself.

^13-14 Amalickiah suggested that Lehonti’s army surround and capture his army at night. Then Amalickiah’s army would surrender to Lehonti’s, and the two armies would join together with Lehonti in charge and Amalickiah second in command. So that's what they did. Before Amalickiah’s army woke up the next morning, they were surrounded.

^15-16 Amalickiah’s men asked to join the army that had just captured them. Amalickiah let them. (This is what he had hoped they would do.) ^17-19 The Lamanites had a custom of appointing their second-in-command as chief leader if their chief died. Amalickiah had the chief poisoned, so then he was quickly appointed chief.

^20-23 Now that Amalickiah had control of the army, he marched back to the city of Nephi, and to the Lamanite king. They all bowed to the king, and he reached down to raise them up, in a formal gesture that they had picked up from the Nephites. ^24-29 But then, one of Amalickiah's men stabbed the king in the heart, and all of Amalickiah's servants started shouting that the king's own servants had stabbed him. They gathered an angry mob who chased the servants out of town into the wilderness. ³² So Amalickiah took control of the city, and then the entire kingdom. But he still had one thing to conquer: the king's wife. ³³ She asked him for three things: to spare the residents of the city, to come in unto her, and to bring some witnesses to back up his story. ³⁵ After doing all three, they were happily married, and Amalickiah's position as king of all the land was secure. He now ruled over the Lamanites, the Lemuelites, the Ishmaelites, and all of the dissenters of the Nephites. ³⁶ The Nephite dissenters became even more lazy, wicked, and ferocious than the Lamanites.

Preparing for war

48 ^1-3 After Amalickiah became king of all the Lamanites, he wanted to become king of the Nephites, too. So he ordered men to speak from the Lamanite towers to get them angry and ready to fight the Nephites. ^5-6 Amalickiah appointed some Zoramite captains, who rallied the Lamanites and headed toward the land of Zarahemla.

^7-8 But while Amalickiah was gaining power and control over the armies of the Lamanites, Moroni was preparing for war by building forts and constructing walls around their cities and the borders of the land. ¹⁰ Thus Moroni prepared to defend the liberty, lands, wives, children, and peace of the Christians against their enemies. ¹¹ He was a strong and mighty man, with perfect understanding.

Some huge walls

49 ^1-3 When the Lamanites approached the city of Ammonihah, they were stopped by a huge dirt wall around the city. ⁴ The wall was so high that the Lamanites couldn't throw rocks or shoot arrows over it. ^8-12 So they retreated into the wilderness.

^13-19 Then they marched toward the city of Noah, but there was a wall around that city too. ²¹ The Lamanites attacked at the entrance, where the wall was the lowest. But the Nephites were ready for them and killed the Lamanites with an immense slaughter.

^22-23 Then the Lamanites tried to dig through the wall, but that didn’t work either. About 1000 Lamanites were killed in this battle, and not a single Nephite was killed. ²⁴ But about fifty Nephites were wounded in their legs, since that was the only part of their bodies that wasn’t covered with armor.

²⁵ All of the Lamanite chief captains were slain in the battle. The Lamanite army went back to the land of Nephi and told their king, Amalickiah, about it. ²⁷ When the king heard the news, he cursed God and Moroni and swore an oath to drink Moroni's blood.