Episode 19: The trial of Abinadi

Mosiah 10-13

Twenty-two years of peace

10 ^1-2 I [Zeniff] told the people to make weapons to protect us from a Lamanite attack and set guards around the land. ³ There was peace for twenty-two years.

The Lamanites are slaughtered

⁶ When King Laman died, his son succeeded him as king. He stirred the Lamanites up to fight against us. ⁷ So I sent spies out to see what they were up to. ⁸ They saw men with bows, arrows, swords, scimitars, stones, and slings. Their heads were shaved, and they were naked except for girdles of leather about their loins.

^10-11 We went to war with the Lamanites, who were a wild, and ferocious, and blood-thirsty people. ²¹ We slaughtered so many of them that we couldn’t count them. ²² I had grown old, so I gave my kingdom to one of my sons.

Wicked King Noah

11 ^1-2 Zeniff gave his kingdom to his son, Noah, who didn’t obey the commandments, had many wives and concubines, and made his people commit whoredoms. ³ He put a twenty percent tax on their precious metals, livestock, grain, and ziff. ^8-12 With the tax money, he built many elegant and spacious buildings, including a palace, throne, and high tower. ^14-15 He was a winebibber, who spent all of his time in riotous living with his wives and concubines, and his priests spent their time with harlots.

The attack and defeat of the Lamanites

¹⁶ The Lamanites began to kill Nephites while they were in the fields tending their crops and animals. ¹⁷ Noah sent guards to protect the people, but he didn’t send enough, and the Lamanites killed them too. ¹⁸ Finally, he sent his armies, who defeated the Lamanites. ¹⁹ But then the Nephites began to boast and delight in blood, saying that that fifty of them could kill thousands of Lamanites.

Abinadi’s prophecy

^20-25 A man named Abinadi began to prophesy, saying, “This is what God says: Woe to the Nephites. I’ve seen their wickedness and whoredoms. If they don’t repent with sackcloth and ashes, I’ll let their enemies kill and enslave them. Then they’ll know that I’m a jealous God.”

²⁶ After Abinadi was done with his prophesying, the people were angry with him. They tried to kill him, but God didn't let them. ^27-29 When King Noah found out about it, he said, “Bring Abinadi to me so I can kill him.”

Abinadi continues his prophecy (while in disguise)

12 ¹ For two years Abinadi continued to preach among the Nephites. No one recognized him, though, because he was in disguise.

Here’s what he said to them:

This is what God told me to say to you: ² Woe to this generation! It will be enslaved and smitten on the cheek. They will be killed, and the birds, dogs, and wild beasts will eat their dead bodies.

³ King Noah will be as valuable as a garment in a hot furnace.

⁴ I’ll kill the Nephites with famine and pestilence. They’ll howl all day long. ⁵ They’ll carry heavy things and be driven like a dumb ass. ⁶ I’ll smite them with hail, with the east wind, and insects. ⁸ If they don’t repent, I’ll kill them all – except for a record that they’ll leave behind them for other nations to discover their abominations.

Abinadi’s trial

⁹ The people who heard Abinadi’s prophecy were angry with him. They brought him to King Noah and said, “This man says that God will destroy us. ^10-12 He also said that your life will be like a garment in a furnace of fire, that you’ll be a dry stalk which is run over by beasts, and that you’ll be like the blossom of a thistle.” ¹⁷ When King Noah heard about Abinadi's prophesying, he threw him in prison and called his priests to a meeting to decide what to do with him. ²⁰ One of them asked him, "What did you mean when you said, ²¹ “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of he who brings good tidings”?

²⁶ Abinadi answered, “You are priests, so you should understand. ²⁹ Why do you commit whoredoms and spend your strength on harlots?”

13 ¹ When King Noah heard this, he said to his priests, “Kill him. He’s mad.”

² But when they tried to grab him, he got away, and said, “Don’t touch me. God will kill you if you do.”

⁵ So no one dared to touch Abinadi. His face shined like Moses’s on Mount Sinai.

^11-24 Then he read the ten commandments to the priests, and said:

²⁵ Have you taught and obeyed these commandments?

²⁶ The answer is no. If you had, God wouldn't have made me prophesy evil things against the people.

²⁷ Salvation comes from obeying the law of Moses, but the time will come when you shouldn't obey them. ²⁸ Because salvation doesn't come from the law alone.

³³ That's why Moses and the other prophets prophesied that God would become a man and walk on the earth.