To see the context for this and other questions in this series, please see the introduction, parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Could All of This Have Happened in the Nineteenth Year?
Let’s take a close look at the nineteenth
year of the reign of the judges. Here’s a brief summary.
The first recorded event is Alma turning
the records over to Helaman, blessing the church, departing in the direction of
Melek but never arriving. The people assume he was “taken up by the Spirit, or buried
by the hand of the Lord, even as Moses” (Alma 45:18–19). Helaman and his brethren then go forth to
preach and “establish the church again in all the land, yea, in every city
throughout all the land” (45:22). I’m assuming this would have taken some time,
months rather than weeks. But many would not hearken to them and even sought to
slay them. The leader of those who were “wroth” with Helaman and the true followers
of Christ was “a large and strong man; and his name was Amalickiah.” Amalickiah
wants to be king, and he flatters many of the church members away into his group
of followers. Moroni, chief commander of the armies, hears about all this and is
angry with Amalickiah. He tears a piece of his coat off, writes an inspiring
message on it, and fastens it on a pole (the famous title of liberty). People
flock to his banner, with their “armor girded about their loins” (46:21). They
are called Christians.
Seeing the size of Moroni’s army
and realizing that some of his followers were doubting their prospects (and “the
justice of [their] cause” [46:29]), Amalickiah takes “those of his people who
would” and departs “into the land of Nephi” (46:30). Moroni, of course, doesn’t
want the Amalickiahites to strengthen the armies of the Lamanites, so he heads
them off and engages in battle with them. Amalickiah, however, leaves the
larger body of his followers in the lurch, escapes with a small group of men,
and flees to the Lamanites. Moroni pressures Amalickiah’s followers who were
left behind to enter into a covenant to “support the cause of freedom” (46:35).
He puts to death all who refuse. No due process among the Nephites, it appears.
In the meantime, Amalickiah has spent
time stirring up the Lamanites to anger against the Nephites. I imagine this
didn’t happen overnight. Their king sends a proclamation throughout the land to
gather together and go to war against the Nephites. But his people have just
fought a losing battle against their enemies, so they are afraid. In fact, “the
more part of them would not obey the commandments of the king” (47:2). The king
is “wroth,” so he gives Amalickiah command of the part of his army that is
obedient. Bad move.
The disobedient portion of the
army has fled to a place called Onidah. The army is holed up on the top of a
mount called Antipas, and their leader, Lehonti, refuses to come down to meet
with Amalickiah. On the fourth try, Amalickiah goes up near to Lehonti’s camp and
requests him to come down with his guards. Lehonti finally gives in, and Amalickiah
makes him an offer he can’t refuse. He tells him if he brings his army down and
surrounds Amalickiah’s men, Amalickiah will deliver his men into Lehonti’s hands,
if—and this is a
big if—Lehonti will
make Amalickiah his second in command. Bad decision. It’s like making a deal
with Donald Trump. These sorts of men are predictable. Amalickiah has one of
his servants “administer poison by degrees to Lehonti, that he died” (47:18). The
Lamanite custom, if a leader dies, is to make the second in command the new leader,
so Amalickiah now has control over all the Lamanite armies.
He leads his forces back to the
city of Nephi. The king of the Lamanites comes out to greet them, naively
suspecting no subterfuge. One of Amalickiah’s servants then stabs the king to
the heart, and he dies. The king’s servants, seeing the writing on the wall,
flee into the wilderness, leaving only Amalickiah and his most faithful
servants to tell the tale that it was the king’s servants who killed him. Their
flight is, of course, proof of their guilt.
Amalickiah sends an embassy to the
queen to tell her that her husband has been slain by his servants. He and his
servants then tell the gory details, and she, of course, believes them. Amalickiah
then woos the queen, wins her hand, and becomes king of the Lamanites. I
suspect this also didn’t happen over one hyper-romantic weekend. Amalickiah
then starts up his propaganda machine, appointing men to speak to the Lamanites
from their right-wing social-media sites, er, towers. The people are gullible
(or maybe just afraid, much like our Republican reps in Congress). And by the
end of the nineteenth year, Amalickiah has laid his plans to become king over
the Nephites as well. He appoints military leaders from among the Zoramites,
because they know the Nephites’ strengths and weaknesses.
Now, while Amalickiah has been
accumulating power by deceit, murder, and subterfuge, Moroni has not been idle.
He has had his people build forts, “throwing up banks of earth round about to
encircle his armies, and also building walls of stone round about all their
cities and the borders of their lands” (48:8). Quite an engineering project to
complete in maybe half a year. Anyway, finally, in the eleventh month of the
nineteenth year, Amalickiah sends his armies against the Nephites. They are
surprised to find Moroni’s ditches, banks of earth and forts, so they do not
attack immediately.
But Amalickiah apparently has also
had time, after coming to power, to set up a military industrial complex. He has
prepared his thousands of warriors with shields and breastplates and thick
garments of skins to protect them from the Nephites’ swords and arrows. So,
after approaching the city of Ammonihah and finding it too daunting, the
Lamanites march to the land of Noah, but it is even more strongly defended than
Ammonihah. Afraid to return to Amalickiah with their tails between their legs,
they attack. The Lamanites lose all their chief captains and over a thousand of
their soldiers in the ensuing battle, while the Nephites had just fifty
wounded. The Lamanites, leaderless and defeated, retreat back to Amalickiah in
the land of Nephi. He, of course, is once again “wroth,” and this ended the
nineteenth year of the reign of the judges.
All the preceding events happened
in that one year. Now, I might be able to accept the political maneuverings, the
murders, the subterfuge, the battles, and the preaching. But digging ditches,
throwing up walls of earth, and erecting forts around all of their cities? Doesn’t
seem possible. And don’t forget that everybody in Nephite society still has to
eat, and many have important jobs to fulfill. How many men would it take,
without modern excavating and construction equipment, to dig all those ditches,
cast up banks of earth, and then build fortresses?
Amalickiah also maneuvers himself
into power among the Lamanites, which certainly took a fair amount of time, and
then he somehow still has time to mass produce shields and breastplates and heavy
clothing. The Lamanites, by all evidence in the records, were not a highly industrialized
society. Some apologists have surmised that the breastplates were made of wood.
Even so, that’s a lot of wooden breastplates and shields to produce in short
order. But every indication in the record is that swords and shields and breastplates
in the Book of Mormon are made of metal. There was a breastplate among the artifacts
Joseph Smith found in the box with the plates. The only description I have
found of it comes from Joseph’s mother, who said it was made of gold. That
seems rather impractical, gold being relatively soft, but it was also likely
not meant for combat. Its purpose was apparently to hold the interpreters in
place. We might call if a “dress breastshield.” But Joseph didn’t really use
the interpreters to translate most of the book, so I’m not sure what purpose
the breastplate really served. Limhi’s search party found breastplates of a
large size left by the Jaredites. They were made of copper and brass. And their
swords were likely made of steel since the hilts had perished, but the blades
were “cankered with rust” (Mosiah 8:10–11).
In his account of the fall of the Jaredites, Ether records that the people,
including men, women, and children were “armed with weapons of war, having
shields, and breastplates, and head-plates” (Ether 15:15). I can’t imagine the
Nephites and Lamanites would be fighting with wooden shields and breastplates
if the Jaredites, who preceded them in the land had brass, copper, and steel.
The question is whether all this
was possible in one calendar year. It seems a bit much, in my mind. Especially
the production of shields and breastplates for thousands of warriors and the
building of fortresses to protect every city of the Nephites. Anything is
possible, I suppose, but I find the nineteenth year of the reign of the judges
highly improbable.
