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Book of Mormon Commentary
Mosiah Chapter 5
FINDING THOSE WHO WENT BACK TO LEHI-NEPHI, VER. 1-24
Mos 5:1 And now, it came to pass that after King Mosiah had had continual peace, for the space of
three years, he was desirous to know concerning the people who went up to dwell in the land of Lehi-
Nephi, or in the city of Lehi-Nephi:
Mos 5:2 For his people had heard nothing from them, from the time they left the land of Zarahemla;
therefore, they wearied him with their teasings.
Mos 5:3 And it came to pass that King Mosiah granted that sixteen of their strong men might go up to
the land of Lehi-Nephi, to inquire concerning their brethren.
5:1-3 The next major event Mormon wants to include in his recounting of the spiritual history of
his people is that of the people who left Zarahemla for the Land of Nephi, and eventually returned.
This story is the pivotal incident around which several significant events revolve, of which a major
religious conversion of the Lamanites and the emergence of Alma the Elder as a spiritual leader
are the two most important.
Omni refers to this as "the land of Nephi... the land of their inheritance" (Omni 1:20, 23, 48, 49).
Helaman said that "the land south was called Lehi” (H. 2:129). Mosiah combines the two names to
indicate that portion of the land south which King Laman gave to Zeniff by treaty (Mos. 5:32,33).
Mosiah "was desirous to know concerning the people who went up [from Zarahemla], to dwell" in
the land they had left because of Lamanite depredations and the warning of the Lord (Omni 1:20).
The leader of the expedition was Ammon, a descendant of Zarahemla, “a strong and mighty man"
(4). None of the sixteen knew the course they should travel, so they “wandered many days in the
wilderness” (5). In forty days they came to the land of Shilom. Ammon and three of his men went
alone "into the land of Nephi" (7), where they met the king and his guards and were "committed to
prison" (9). After two days they were brought before King “Limhi, the son of Noah, who was the
son of Zeniff" (12). He asked Ammon why they had been so bold as to come near the walls of the
city. Ammon gladly explained the reasons which brought him there.
The reference in Mosiah is to the second of the two expeditions Omni mentions. We have a little
more information about the first expedition in Mosiah 9:1-2. Those verses begin Zeniff’s own
account, and he treats that first expedition only briefly. Omni gives us the number of fifty as those
who were not slain, a number not specified in Zeniff’s account.
Mos 5:20 For behold, we are in bondage to the Lamanites, and are taxed with a tax which is grievous to
be borne.
5:20 King Limhi was glad to know that his brethren in Zarahemla were still alive. He expressed the hope
that they would "deliver us out of our bondage" (21). Ammon then was invited to bring the twelve who
had waited on "the hill which was north of Shilom” (23) to the city that "they might eat, and drink, and
rest themselves."
KING LIMHI AND AMMON TALK TO THE PEOPLE, VER. 25-56