Amaleki, Helem, and Hem

When Ammon, descendant of Zarahemla, led a group of “strong men” to find the people of Zeniff in the land of Lehi-Nephi, he took with him fifteen others. After wandering for forty days in the wilderness, they came to a hill where they pitched their tents. Mormon then recorded, “And Ammon took three of his brethren, and their names were Amaleki, Helem, and Hem, and they went down into the land of Nephi” (Mosiah 7:2-6). As I read this passage this morning I was intrigued by the fact that one of these three who was named along with Ammon was Amaleki.  That was the name of the final writer of the small plates, though clearly it was not the same person since he died in the early days of King Benjamin. But his final words were concerning the group with Zeniff who went down among the Lamanites. He wrote, “And I, Amaleki, had a brother, who also went with them; and I have not since known concerning them” (Omni 1:30). His final verse expressed a concern for his brother who went with the people of Zeniff, and so I think it is not by chance that decades later this group who went to find the people of Zeniff had someone whose name was Amaleki. It as if the text is subtly showing us that the Lord does not forget his people—He knew where the brother of Amaleki had gone, and He was sending his servants to find him (or his descendants) along with the rest of the people of King Limhi. We don’t know anything else about this Amaleki who went, and he wasn’t a son of the first Amaleki since he had no seed, but perhaps he was a family member in some way. Whoever he was, to me he is a symbol that “the Lord will remember his covenant which he hath made unto his people of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 29:3). 

               The other two names listed as companions of Ammon were Helem and Hem. These, unlike Amaleki, are not found anywhere else in the Book of Mormon. There is a Helam who was with Alma at the Waters of Mormon, but no one else in the text had the exact same name as these two. We know that these two went with this group and that they were “strong men” like their leader Ammon, but we have little other information. We do know that they “had suffered many things; they had suffered hunger, thirst, and fatigue” as they made the journey to find the people of Zeniff with the rest of their group (Mosiah 7:16). Perhaps this mention of these two is a reminder that the Lord knows all of us, even those whose stories are not recorded and preserved. For every Limhi and Ammon and Alma whose lives are documented in the scriptures, there are thousands of Helem’s and Hem’s who are unknown and whose stories were not preserved. But the Lord knows them, and He sees the “hunger, thirst, and fatigue” of all the children of men, providing a way to offer help like He did for this group by finally leading them to Limhi’s people. And that is why, as the angel taught King Benjamin, the Savior too suffered “hunger, thirst, and fatigue” but to a level that was “more than man can suffer” so that He can come to our aid when we likewise suffer (Mosiah 3:7). This story can remind us that the Lord knows each one of us and sees all of our suffering, and King Limhi’s promise is as much for us today as it was for them: “But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage” (Mosiah 7:33).