The Oath of the Lamanites

In the battle between the Lamanites and the Nephites recorded in Alma 43-44, it’s interesting how much trust each side put in an oath.  When he could tell that he was going to win the battle, Moroni offered to end the conflict if the Lamanites would “go [their] way and come not again to war against [the Nephites]” (Alma 44:6).  Zerahemnah at first refused this, saying, “We will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break, and also our children.”  Even though he could have simply taken the oath to save his life in battle and then of course broken it later, it appears that even for the wicked Lamanites their word was important.  And it’s amazing to me that Moroni would be willing to believe their word—he had such civility and decency to trust them so that he could spare their lives and not slaughter all of these people who had attacked him.  Ultimately Zerahemnah did make a covenant with Moroni that “they never would come to war again against them” and Moroni let the Lamanites depart into the wilderness (Alma 44:8, 19). 

                It was only about two years after the above incident that Amalickiah found his way over to the Lamanites and started stirring them up to war against the Nephites.  Because of his actions, “the king of the Lamanites sent a proclamation throughout all his land, among all his people, that they should gather themselves together again to go to battle against the Nephites” (Alma 47:1).  We don’t know how many of the Lamanites had entered into the covenant of peace with Zerahemnah, but we do know that the army that fought in Alma 43-44 was “numerous” and “more than double the number” of the Nephite soldiers.  Surely there were many of the Lamanites who had made this covenant, and it is likely that this was one of the main reasons they did not want to go back to war (not to mention the fact that Moroni had very soundly defeated them).  When the king sent his proclamation among his people, “They were exceedingly afraid; yea, they feared to displease the king, and they also feared to go to battle against the Nephites lest they should lose their lives. And it came to pass that they would not, or the more part of them would not, obey the commandments of the king” (Alma 47:2).  Surely Amalickiah knew about what had happened in the previous war, but unlike the general population of Lamanites to him truthfulness meant nothing.  In fact he seems to have taken advantage of the fact that the Lamanites had some level of trust in a man’s word in order to gain power.  He pledged allegiance to the king in order to get control of some of the army; he deceived Lehonti in order to get second in command and then subsequently slay him; and then after his man murdered the king he “pretended to be wroth” and lied to the queen so as to gain her favor.  His ascent to power was based upon “fraud and deceit” as Mormon described it (Alma 48:7).  He then used his power to force the Lamanites back into war despite their great reluctance.  It is no wonder that Moroni was so upset with him; a significant portion of the Lamanites had covenanted to not come to war again against the Nephites, and it appears that they would have kept that covenant if it had not been for Amalickiah’s dishonesty and bullying. So I guess the whole account leaves the question for us—what does a man’s word mean?  Unfortunately in our society today in practice many are far too much like Amalickiah.