Perfect Uprightness Before God

When Alma gave up the judgment seat after serving as the first chief judge for about eight years, “He selected a wise man who was among the elders of the church, and gave him power according to the voice of the people.” His name was Nephihah, and “he was appointed chief judge; and he sat in the judgment-seat to judge and to govern the people” (Alma 4:16-17). This was at the start of the ninth year of the reign of the judges, and he was the Nephite leader until the end of the twenty-fourth year: “Nephihah, the second chief judge, died, having filled the judgment-seat with perfect uprightness before God.” So he had served for about fifteen years, and his son was appointed in his stead: “Behold, it came to pass that the son of Nephihah was appointed to fill the judgment-seat, in the stead of his father; yea, he was appointed chief judge and governor over the people, with an oath and sacred ordinance to judge righteously, and to keep the peace and the freedom of the people, and to grant unto them their sacred privileges to worship the Lord their God, yea, to support and maintain the cause of God all his days, and to bring the wicked to justice according to their crime. Now behold, his name was Pahoran” (Alma 50:37, 39-40). His days were filled with great tribulation, for nearly his whole service was during the great war between the Nephites and the Lamanites. His immediate problem was to deal with those who wanted him removed and a king established: “Therefore, those who were desirous that the law should be altered were angry with him, and desired that he should no longer be chief judge over the land.” Eventually these king-men fought against Moroni and his army: “And it came to pass that there were four thousand of those dissenters who were hewn down by the sword; and those of their leaders who were not slain in battle were taken and cast into prison, for there was no time for their trials at this period” (Alma 51:4, 19). Pahoran was figuratively thrown into the fire during this first year of his reign trying to deal with these unfaithful Nephites who wanted to overthrow the government.

                Unfortunately, Pahoran’s problems with dissenters did not end there. The war would last about seven more years, and towards the end of it he faced again great challenges because of those Nephite dissenters who wanted to overthrow him. In fact, they did temporarily take over the government in Zarahemla. Pahoran wrote to Moroni, “But behold, there are those who do joy in your afflictions, yea, insomuch that they have risen up in rebellion against me, and also those of my people who are freemen, yea, and those who have risen up are exceedingly numerous. And it is those who have sought to take away the judgment-seat from me that have been the cause of this great iniquity;… And behold, they have driven me out before them, and I have fled to the land of Gideon, with as many men as it were possible that I could get…. They have got possession of the land, or the city, of Zarahemla; they have appointed a king over them, and he hath written unto the king of the Lamanites, in the which he hath joined an alliance with him” (Alma 61:3. 5. 8). What a terribly challenging situation he was in as the Nephite leader! Eventually he and Moroni were able to gather the freemen together and retake Zarahemla, and soon thereafter they were able to end the war and preserve the Nephite nation. The war ended in the thirty-first year, and he had relative peace from then until he passed away. He died near the end of the thirty-ninth year and like his father Nephihah, he served about fifteen years.

                What is to me most tragic is what happened right after Pahoran’s death. The vacancy in the government that his death caused led to three of his sons vying for the judgment seat: Pahoran, Pacumeni, and Paanchi. In less than two years all three were dead (assuming that Paanchi was actually put to death; the text only tells us about his sentence to die for rebellion). What is terribly ironic is the fact that it was Pahoran’s son Paanchi who caused a rebellion against the government. This was the very thing Pahoran had labored so diligently to stop among the Nephites! It was Pahoran who on two separate occasions had helped put down the king-men and preserve the Nephite government, and here was his own son trying to once again usurp power and lead a rebellion against the government! He must have been devasted if he got to see this from the other side. And perhaps the wife of Pahoran and mother of Paanchi witnessed it in mortality. If so, how heartbreaking these couple of years must have been for her to see what happened to her sons and watch what her husband has strived so diligently to preserve be threatened by her own son.

After this story that is the end of this family as far as we hear about it in the Book of Mormon. We only read of Nephihah, Pahoran, and his three sons, and then the chief judge is taken by another, and we do not learn anything further about the children or descendants of Pahoran. The story is a stark reminder of the agency we each have to choose good and evil and that children may not always follow in the footsteps of their parents. But we can control our own choices, and the examples of Nephihah and Pahoran remind us that we should strive to fill our responsibilities with “perfect uprightness before God” (Alma 50:37).