Amaleki and the Small Plates

The last writer on the small plates of Nephi was Amaleki.  I had always assumed he was a part of those Nephites who departed from the land of Nephi and traveled to the land of Zarahemla, but looking closer at the text that doesn’t appear to be the case.  He described this departure in these words: “They departed out of the land into the wilderness, as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord; and they were led by many preachings and prophesyings. And they were admonished continually by the word of God; and they were led by the power of his arm, through the wilderness until they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla” (Omni 1:13).  He never said we, always they, implying I think that he wasn’t among them.  He said a few verses later after describing how Mosiah became the king over the land of Zarahemla, “Behold, I, Amaleki, was born in the days of Mosiah; and I have lived to see his death; and Benjamin, his son, reigneth in his stead” (Omni 1:23).  I believe he was saying that he was born in the land of Zarahemla when Mosiah was king there, which would thus imply that it was his father Abinadom who left the land of Nephi and traveled with the faithful Nephites.  He either wrote his two verses (10-11) before the departure or he didn’t take the time to record it.  At any rate, we are grateful for Amaleki’s recounting of the event which helps us understand where the Mulekites came from and how the two groups were joined together under Mosiah.

               The most important message that Amaleki left us, though, is in verse 26 near the end of his brief writing.  To me it is a fitting summary for the whole of the small plates as he invited in these words: “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.”  He implored us to give our all to the Savior: “Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.”  This would have been a great way to end his writing and the small plates as a whole given that Christ was the focus for most of the plates, particularly the writings of Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah who all saw the Savior.  But Amaleki saw fit to add a few more verses.  Perhaps his original plan was to end with verse 26 and 27-30 came as a sort of postscript like Jacob 7 was for Jacob.  In those final verses, he described how some of the Nephites went back from Zarahemla to the land of Nephi, fought amongst themselves and were slain, returned to Zarahemla, and then went back again to their original land of inheritance.  I believe his reason for adding these details is found in the final verse: “And I, Amaleki, had a brother, who also went with them; and I have not since known concerning them.”  He may have been indicating why he didn’t pass the plates on to anyone else: he already said that he had no seed to give the record to and now he told us that his brother (who perhaps he may have given them to like Amaron gave them to Chemish) is gone also.  And, of course, the record was just about full and so he handed them to the king who also had possession of the large plates.

               There is perhaps one reason that then verse 30 is a fitting conclusion to the small plates.  Amaleki was clearly worried about this brother who left with that group, mourning that he didn’t know what happened to him.  This fits right in with another theme of the small plates as a whole: family.  The book starts out with a story of brothers, one of whom mourns for the others on multiple occasions, and so here we have come full circle as it ends with the same message about a brother showing love for a brother.  Throughout the small plates family relationships were a major source of anguish and joy, and it is fitting that as Amaleki writes the final words of the small plates that his thoughts were turned to his family.