Alma 58 All

"assurances": What form did the "assurances" take? Were they personal spiritual promptings given to individuals or outward evidences that a group of people would recognize?
"speak peace": Was "speaking peace" the type of assurance they received, or was it the result of those assurances?

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Lexical notes

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Verse 11

"Insomuch." The OED defines the phrase "insomuch that" as meaning "to such an extent that, so that" (definition 3, designated "the most usual construction"). It seems that, in this case, "insomuch" is modifying the phrase "God did visit us with assurances," rather than the phrase that is more proximate ("that he would deliver us"). If this is indeed the case, then it would seem that insomuch casts the phrase "he did speak peace" as a kind of intensification of the "visit us with assurances" phrase. It is not clear, however, whether the following phrases, ("and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause . . . ") should be read under the sway of the "insomuch." These later phrases could, it seems, be read as further modifying the "did visit us with assurances" phrase, parallel to the phrase "he did speak to our souls"; or they could be read as statements that are distinct and relatively independent of the "visit us with assurances" and "he did speak peace" phrases. The theological implications of these various readings will be explored below in the "Exegesis" section.

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Exegesis

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Verse 11

"Assurances": Helaman's thoughts might borrow from Deut. 28 (esp. verses 66-68), where the Lord issues a harrowing warning that if Israel does not follow him then it will "have none assurance of thy life."
"insomuch...": The word "insomuch" might indicate that what follows the semicolon elaborates what precedes. In this case, the "assurances" are mentioned briefly, then expounded as coming in the form of: "speak[ing] peace to our souls", followed by the granting of "great faith" in that intangible assurance, the result of which was a "hope for...deliverance." The pattern is: prompting → faith → hope. Alternatively, "insomuch" could indicate that peace, faith, and hope came as a result of the unspecified assurances they received. The way we read this also has implications for how we understand the progression of verbs: speak → grant → cause. A similar pattern might be profitably considered in light of its occurrence elsewhere—for example, in Alma 32 the word is first given (cf. 32:6, 14, etc., parallel to "speak" here), then faith comes subsequently (cf. 32:16), and finally a change is "caused" by the negative space of non-knowledge generated by the word and faith (cf. 32:18-19).

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Verse 13

Based on the limited geography in Alma_16:6-7, a narrow strip of wilderness, which marks the Nephite-Lamanite border, lies just south of the city of Manti. Thus, Helaman stationed his army in between Manti and Lamanite territory.

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Questions

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Verse 18

By retreating into the wilderness, Helaman's army was heading further south; i.e., crossing into Lamanite territory (see note in verse 13). This would undoubtedly appear foolish from the perspective of the Lamanite army in Manti.

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