The Suffering of Zeniff's People

After their first battle with the Lamanites in the land of Nephi twelve years after their arrival there, the people of Zeniff had a long period of peace. Zeniff recorded, “And it came to pass that we did inherit the land of our fathers for many years, yea, for the space of twenty and two years…. Thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years” (Mosiah 10:3,5). He subsequently made an interesting statement, though, which seems surprising given that he said they had over two decades of peace. After telling how they had to go to battle again against the Lamanites at the end of these 22 years, he recorded, “King Laman, by his cunning, and lying craftiness, and his fair promises, deceived me, that I have brought this my people up into this land, that they may destroy them; yea, and we have suffered these many years in the land” (Mosiah 10:18). Clearly they were “suffering” in that moment in the sense that they had to go to battle against the Lamanites and undoubtedly many of the Nephites died because of it. But why did he say that he suffered many years in the land when he had had peace for most of the more than three decades his people had been there? 

               I see two possible explanations for Zeniff’s comment. One is that perhaps he simply lost sight of the blessings they had received there because of the great suffering of the moment. He wrote that statement at the time when they were indeed fighting the Lamanites and likely he had loved ones and friends who had been killed in their battle defending themselves against the Lamanites. That intense suffering may have clouded his mind to the fact that they had had over three decades with only one battle with the Lamanites. Surely we often have that same problem—as we suffer in the moment it can be very easy to lose sight of the great blessings the Lord has already given us. We might explain Jacob’s comments of Jacob 7:26 in a similar way, when he said at the end of his record, “We did mourn out our days.” In that the intense suffering of having to go to battle against his own brothers’ families and being the object of their hatred that caused wars between these two branches of the family, it was understandably hard to remember some of the great blessings that had brought them joy as they lived the gospel. 

               An alternative second explanation for Zeniff’s statement about suffering those many years in the land could be that though they did enjoy 22 years of peace physically without wars, they were not 22 years of true peace. After their first battle, Zeniff described, “I caused that there should be weapons of war made of every kind, that thereby I might have weapons for my people against the time the Lamanites should come up again to war against my people. And I set guards round about the land, that the Lamanites might not come upon us again unawares and destroy us” (Mosiah 10:1-2). Though the Lamanites did not attack them, these verses suggest that they may have been constantly worried that they would, and they may have lived those 22 years in a perpetual state of worry that they would be under attack at any moment. They were living in a land surrounded by their enemies and thus had to always be prepared for the worst. That may have been what he meant when he said they suffered for those many years, that it wasn’t physical suffering but mental and emotional suffering caused by a constant concern for their safety. Though they had indeed inherited the land as they had desired which was, we can assume, much better land that that at Zarahemla, it had come at the cost of living amongst their enemies without knowing when they might be attacked. Zeniff I think at the end of his life realized that it was not worth it—he had been “overzealous” to obtain the land and had been “deceived” into putting the lives of their people at risk. His story is a powerful reminder to all of us of the dangers of making the acquisition of worldly possessions the primary focus of our lives—it may lead to great suffering that we don’t anticipate.