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Summary

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Relationship to Book of Mormon. The relationship of Ether to the Book of Mormon as a whole is discussed at Book of Mormon: Unities.

Story. The book of Ether relates the history of the Jaredites, who lived in America prior to the Nephites. Moroni's abridgement of Ether's record contains a short prologue followed by three major sections:

• Chapter 1a: Prologue. Genealogy from Ether back to Jared.

• Chapters 1b-6: Jared and his brother. At the time of scattering from the Tower of Babel, the Jaredites are led to America as a land of promise. Moroni explains that the inhabitants of the land must either serve God or be swept off when ripened in iniquity. The brother of Jared asks the Lord to touch sixteen stones and cause them to give light as the Jaredites sail across the ocean. Because of his great faith, the brother of Jared is brought into the presence of the Lord and redeemed. The Jaredites cross the ocean in eight boats and establish themselves in the land of promise.

• Chapters 7-11: The broad sweep of Jaredite history. The middle portion of Ether covers everything between the founding generation of Jared and his brother and the final destroyed generation of Coriantumr and Ether. Over the centuries, secret combinations cause the Jaredites to be destroyed three times. Moroni warns that any society that upholds secret combinations will likewise be destroyed.

• Chapters 12-15: Coriantumr and Ether. Moroni describes the great faith of Ether and discusses faith, hope, and charity. He also recounts Ether's prophecy that the New Jerusalem will be located in America. King Coriantumr faces a series of four challengers at the head of secret combinations. He defeats the first three and then tries to negotiate with the fourth. But Coriantumr himself is in rebellion against God and does not repent. Secret combinations cause the Jaredites to be destroyed a fourth time, this time completely, in a great battle lasting eight days.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Ether include:

• Secret Combinations. The susceptibility of centralized governmental power to attack from secret societies.

• Ripeness for destruction. At what point a society becomes "ripe" in iniquity.

• Faith. In both Ether and Moroni, faith is addressed in conjunction with hope and charity, and is addressed as a principle of power that can cause miracles to occur.

Historical setting

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The book of Ether recounts the history of the Jaredites, descendants of people who came to the American continent from the Old World at the time of the Tower of Babel (Eth 1:33; Gen 11:1-9) roughly two thousand years before the arrival of Lehi's colony, and were destroyed as a people sometime before the reign of King Mosiah (Eth 1:2; Mos 8:7-9).

Discussion

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Inclusion of the Jaredite record in the Book of Mormon

Another possibility might be read in terms of Ether 13. The message of Ether to the Jaredites there seems to be that, as Gentiles, they were about to have the opportunity to be drawn into Israel (Lehi's family was apparently just coming to the land when Ether was prophesying). If they would repent, then Lehi would be in their midst, and they could brought into the Abrahamic covenant, and all of the promises of Israel might be given them, among which the least is certainly not the promise of having seed to last until the day of the coming of Christ. When the Jaredites do not repent, they are killed to the last man, and the last lives only to see the coming of the others (the Mulekites, at least). It may well be that the Jaredite story is included in the Book of Mormon precisely for the Lamanites, to show them the promises made unto their fathers: the Jaredites may well be a foil for Israel. In other words, the Lamanites might learn from the Jaredites how the promises are obtained, how they can become extended to the Gentiles, how the Gentiles will not receive them if they do not repent, how the Israelites are, though wicked, sustained until they do receive the promises, etc., etc., etc. It may be that all of the scholarly pickings apart of the title page are misguided by misunderstanding Moroni's reason for including the Jaredite record.

Editorial comment

Moroni several times directly addresses the reader and makes express doctrinal points, twice according to commandment. These are points that Moroni makes sure cannot be overlooked, and these points should therefore have a significant influence on the interpretation of the entire book of Ether.

1. Ether 2:8-12 - Moroni tells the Gentiles that "we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land," that it is a choice land and that those who live upon it will be blessed while they serve God, and swept off when they are ripe in iniquity.
2. Ether 4:6-19 - In obedience to a commandment from God, Moroni exhorts both Jew and Gentile to come unto Christ to obtain knowledge (immediately after relating how the Brother of Jared was redeemed and brought into the Lord's presence through faith and knowledge). He also states that the Brother of Jared's vision of world history will not be disclosed until the Gentiles repent, but that the account in Revelation of John's vision will begin to unfold when the Book of Mormon comes forth.
3. Ether 5:1-6 - Moroni also tells the future translator (Joseph Smith) not to attempt to open the sealed portion of the plates containing the Brother of Jared's vision and that the Book of Mormon plates themselves will be shown to some who help in bringing the Book of Mormon forth.
4. Ether 7:5 - Moroni notes in passing that a usurper taking the king captive fulfilled the Brother of Jared's warning (6:23) that monarchy leads into captivity.
5. Ether 8:20-26 - Moroni states that the Lord commands those who read the Book of Mormon, when they see secret combinations, to put them down and not tolerate them.
6. Ether 12:6-40 - Most of the discussion on faith, hope and charity in chapter 12 is Moroni's own exposition that he wants to be sure we understand. At the end he also expressly bears testimony to the Jews and Gentiles that he has seen Jesus face to face and commends the reader to seek him.

Secret combinations

The Jaredites suffer major destruction four times in the book of Ether (9:12, 9:26-35, 11:7-8, 15:13-14, 29-33). All four destructions follow the introduction of secret combinations, and the Jaredites never suffer destruction in their absence. In the Promised Land speech (2:8-12) we are given general principles regarding inheritance and destruction on the American continent. In the secret combinations speech (8:20-26) we are warned that if secret combinations take hold, society will be destroyed. Society will either hate or embrace secret combinations, and the result is a foregone conclusion based upon that decision. The secret combinations speech ends with a statement that secret combinations are to be done away so that the time may come that Satan has no more power over the hearts of men. This leads naturally into the New Jerusalem prophecy in 13:1-12.

Group temporal salvation and individual spiritual salvation

The narrative portions of Ether generally address what a society must do to save itself, rather than what an individual must do to save him/herself. The church, ordinances, and specific commandments are never mentioned, nor does the narrative ever concern itself with the spiritual salvation of any particular individual. When the Lord chastises the Brother of Jared, it is as a representative of the entire group, the threatened punishment does not apply only to him, and that threatened destruction is death rather than damnation. Likewise, the suspense at the end of the book is not whether Coriantumr will repent in time to save himself spiritually, but whether he will do so in time to save society temporally.

Individual salvation is addressed in the "faith" divisions of Ether, chapters 3-5, 12. Ether presumes that a person already knows what they must do to repent. Ether is a "third temple speech" book. That is, it does not function on the level of Jacob's speech in Jacob 2-3 (or 1-2 Nephi) where people are exhorted to behave as they know they should. Nor does Ether function on the level of King Benjamin's speech (or Mosiah-Alma generally) where people are led to feel the Holy Ghost and have a change of heart. Rather, the faith speeches in Ether 3 and 12 (and in Moroni 7, 10) function on the level of the Lord's teachings in 3 Nephi 11-27 and assume that people already know all that and can move beyond faith as a principle of action and obedience to learning about faith as a principle of power to work miracles and enter into the presence of the Lord.

Ether 3 and 13 relate visions to Jaredites, the contents of which are not to be freely distributed. Ether 2 and 12 contain Moroni's own comments and bear no such restrictions. The climax of the first half of the opening narrative is the first promised land speech (2:8-12), a statement of what it takes to save a nation temporally. The high point of the entire opening narrative is the experience where the brother of Jared is brought into the presence of the Lord and experiences individual spiritual salvation (3-5). Moroni apparently sees a close connection between these two ideas and suggests that societies are saved temporally when some critical mass of its members are qualifying for individual temporal salvation.

Throughout Ether, political conditions, especially as regards secret societies, are presented as reflections of underlying societal conditions. The solution to bad situations is always a very generic "repent." Only in Moroni's sidebar speech in 8:20-26, the doctrinal climax of Ether, and in the narrative climax under the reigns of Riplakish and Morianton, do we see any exercise of volition in a specific course of action to change the prevailing political conditions.

Political leaders

This emphasis on society as a whole rather than particular individuals may result from the fact that this record was kept by the society's political leaders rather than its religious leaders. Unlike religious institutions, political institutions are not concerned with the content of the marketplace of ideas; they are concerned only with seeing that the marketplace functions and is available. Similarly, God will not intervene to destroy, and has commanded us to support (AF 11), political institutions as long as that marketplace functions, thus allowing free agency (AF 12). Hence, Moroni's account of Jaredite history does not dwell at length on the content of Christ's Gospel as does Mormon's account of Nephite history. As long as society ensures the existence of free agency, society may save itself from destruction at God's hand, regardless of whether any particular individual, or any member of society at all, chooses to take advantage of it and save him/herself.

Throughout Ether, political conditions, especially as regards secret societies, are presented as reflections of underlying societal conditions. The solution to bad situations is always a generic "repent." Only in Moroni's sidebar speech in 8:20-26, the doctrinal climax of Ether, and in the narrative climax under the reigns of Riplakish and Morianton, do we see any exercise of volition in a specific course of action to change the prevailing political conditions.

The Brother of Jared warns about the evils of monarchy, power from the top down and a lure or prize to the ambitious, while Moroni warns of the evils of secret societies, power from the ground up.

Wickedness

Free agency requires that a person have both a correct understanding of what his/her choices are and the liberty to act on those choices. The Book of Ether never mentions false or competing ideologies. The Jaredites know the truth and either accept or reject it knowingly. Nor does Ether focus on divisions in society based on wealth, religious inclination, genealogy, etc. We know they exist from the mention of Morianton raising an army of outcasts, but that is not Moroni's point. As the picture is painted for us, the Jaredites never have to make hard choices when deciding whether to obey God as did the faithful Nephites on the eve of Christ's birth. When we are told that the Jaredites killed the prophets, the emphasis is on the hardness of their hearts rather than the difficult lot of a righteous prophet in a wicked society. Jaredite society thus exists in an environment of complete moral freedom with its knowledge of the gospel and the lack of any obstacles to its practice other than individual desire. Wickedness, then, is not the result of external conditions, such as the false traditions of the Lamanites. Rather, it is knowing and open rebellion motivated by worldly enticements. The issue in the book of Ether is not what it takes to obey God's Plan, but simply whether the Jaredites want to do so.

In the Nephite history secret societies are depicted as an external threat to the ability of the righteous to live as they should in a fractured society. In Ether, because society is depicted as monolithic, secret societies are an internal sickness, a result of what the people are like rather than an environmental condition. In Ether secret societies seem to disappear rather easily any time the people repent. It is true that Com II fought against them without success, but that just means the king was out of touch with his more wicked subjects. Jaredite society was never convulsed in an attempt to eradicate them as was the case with the Gadianton robbers, only as the result of having embraced them.

In summary, the two big questions throughout the Book of Ether are whether society as a whole will be saved temporally and whether individuals will be saved spiritually.

Relationship between opening and closing narratives

• Chapters 1b-6: Jared and his brother. At the time of scattering from the Tower of Babel, the Jaredites are led to America as a land of promise. Moroni explains that the inhabitants of the land must either serve God or be swept off when ripened in iniquity. The brother of Jared asks the Lord to touch sixteen stones and cause them to give light as they sail across the ocean. Because of his great faith, he is brought into the presence of the Lord and redeemed. The Jaredites cross the ocean in eight boats and establish themselves in the land of promise. (5,304 words).

• Chapters 7-11: Many kings over many centuries: (5,201 words).

• Chapters 12-15: King Coriantumr and the prophet Ether: (5,738 words).

In the opening narrative of chapters 1b-2, 6 there are two main characters: Jared & his Brother. There are also two main characters in the closing narrative of chapters 13b-15: Coriantumr & Ether. In each case one is a political leader and the other is a religious leader who communicates with God. Only in these opening and closing narratives do we have an individual prophet with actual words. In both cases the prophet is closely related to the political leader: Jared & his Brother are brothers, and Ether the prophet is descended from the royal line.

In the opening narrative political decisions are made after seeking out and deferring to the counsel of the heavenly king and the religious leader, and as a result the people are saved from destruction and established in the promised land. In the closing narrative the political leader rejects the unsolicited (and therefore probably very important) counsel of the religious leader, and as a result the people are destroyed. These two narratives illustrate in the principles explained in the promised land speeches of 2:8-12 and 8:20-26. To gain God's assistance, society must seek out and follow God's counsel. And to ignore God's counsel when he offers it unsolicited is to qualify for destruction.

Moroni provides numerous parallels between the opening and closing narratives to highlight their relatedness and invite the reader to compare them to see how they teach the same things. These parallels include the following:

• Plates found by people of Limhi, not write hundredth part (1:2,5; 3:17; also 15:33)
• Lord swore in his wrath, Babel / Jaredites destroyed in fulfillment of prophecy (1:33; 2:8; also 14:24; 15:3,28,33)
• Sweep off the earth, fullness of wrath (2:8-10; also 14:18,25,27)
• A righteous king defers to / tries to kill the prophet (____; also ____)
• Large & mighty men (1:34; also 13:15; 14:10; 15:26) - Shule, ch 11, 14:10
• Two requests that people be saved, where go & how (1:34-37; also 15:4,18)
• Gather supplies for the defining venture (1:41-2:7; also 15:12-15)
• Four years by the large waters (2:13-14; also 15:14; 13:24)
• Travel through many diverse lands (1:42; 2:6-7; also ____)
• Lord contends with Brother of Jared for three hours (2:14)

Two armies contend for three hours (15:27)

• The Spirit strives (2:15; also 15:19)
• Eight boats carry people to safety (3:1) - Riplakish, 3:1, 15:7-32

Eight days of battle destroy people (15:7-32)

• Brother of Jared / Shiz falls to the earth (3:6-7; also 15:32)
• Brother of Jared is a great prophet/Ether, a descendant of Brother of Jared, is a great prophet
• In the opening narrative we are shown who the Lord will help and what he will do for you. In the closing narrative we are shown who Satan will attempt to affect and what he will do to you.
• Four sons/four challengers (__; also __)

The point is that both stories are in fact the same story, and that neither can be fully understood without the other. It is true that one may learn the facts of one story without learning the other. But one must see why God acts both to establish and to destroy before the purpose of the story is understood.

Complete outline and page map

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• This outline is used with the text here

● Prologue, origins, and genealogy (Chapter 1a) (1:1-32)

I. Jared & Brother: Jaredites established in the land (Chapters 1b-6)

A. Jaredite travels begin (Chapter 1b-2)

● Land journey (Chapter 1b-2a)

a. questions and answers about scattering and traveling to a land of promise (1:34-43)

b. gathering food supplies for the journey (2:1-3)

c. Lord leads Jaredites toward promised land (2:4-7)

● We can behold: America as a choice land (2:8-12)

● Building boats to cross the ocean (Chapter 2b)

c. Lord chastises for three hours because no progress for four years (2:13-15)

b. building boats for the water journey (2:16-17)

a. questions and answers about light and air while traveling in boats (2:18-25)

B. Faith to receive knowledge and enter into the presence of the Lord (Chapter 3-5)

● Brother of Jared redeemed from the fall through faith (3:1-20)

• he requests in prayer that the Lord touch sixteen stones with finger (3:1-5)

• he sees the finger of the Lord because of his great faith (3:6-12)

• he is redeemed and brought back into Christ's presence because of his knowledge (3:13-20)

● Knowledge and redemption available through Holy Ghost on conditions of faith, repentance, and baptism (3:21-5:6)

• vision received of all mankind because of faith, instruction to seal it up until Christ's ministry, two stones (3:21-28)

• vision disclosed to Nephites after Christ's ministry, then again sealed up because of unbelief, two stones (4:1-5)

• Moroni commanded to say:

• vision will again be disclosed only when Gentiles exercise faith and repent (4:6-12)

• come unto Christ to receive hidden knowledge, John's revelation is now unfolding (4:13-19)

• the Lord will confirm the testimony of Three Witnesses who will see the Book of Mormon plates (5:1-6)

A. Jaredite travels conclude (Chapter 6)

● Crossing the ocean in boats (Chapter 6a)

• stones, food supplies, and people aboard boats for journey (6:1-4)

• wind, protected, Noah (6:5-8)

• praise God the whole way (6:9)

• light, protected, Noah (6:10-12a)

● Settling on the promised land (Chapter 6b)

a. multiply, walk humbly, and prosperous (6:12b-18)

b. stewardship accounting of leadership (6:19-21)

b. four sons refuse kingship, people choose King Orihah, which will lead to captivity (6:22-27)

a. prosperous, walk humbly, and multiply (6:27-7:3)

II. Centuries of kings, prophets, secret combinations, and destructions (Chapters 7-11)

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:4-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

I. Coriantumr & Ether: Jaredite final destruction from off the land (12-15)

● Faith precedes blessing; humility, hope, and charity (Chapter 12)

● Faith precedes blessing (12:1-21)

a. Ether cannot be restrained from preaching faith, repentance, and hope (12:1-5)

b. faith precedes witness and miracles (12:6-18)

a. Brother of Jared could not be kept from within the veil because of his faith (12:19-21)

● Humility, hope, and charity (12:22-41)

a. Moroni: apprehension at his weakness in writing compared to speaking (12:22-25)

b. Lord: Gentiles must be humble (12:26-28)

c. Moroni: the Lord works according people's faith, Brother of Jared (12:29-31)

c. Moroni: hope and charity (12:32-35)

b. Lord: Moroni has been humble (12:36-37)

a. Moroni: closing testimony of his writing and of Christ (12:38-41)

● America as home to the New Jerusalem (Chapter 13a) (13:1-12)

● Coriantumr & Ether: Jaredite final destruction #4 from off the land (Chapters 13b-15)

● Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)

a. Ether rejected, views destruction from hiding (13:13-14)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:15-16)

c. no one repents (13:17)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:18-19)

a. Ether prophesies final destruction and in hiding, no one repents (13:20-22)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)

a. Corinatumr and Shared battle three days (13:23-30)

b. curse on the land (13:31-14:2)

c. Coriantumr and Gilead battle in Akish and Moron (14:3-8)

d. self-destruction within secret combinations (14:9-10)

c. Coriantumr and Lib II battle in Moron and Akish (14:11-16)

b. fear of Shiz sweeping the earth (14:17-25)

a. Coriantumr and Shiz battle three days (14:26-31)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

a. Coriantumr sees that prophecy is being fulfilled, tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:1-5)

b. battle at seashore, Coriantumr faints (15:6-11)

c. camping four years to gather strength (15:12-14)

d. days 1-2 of final battle (15:15-17)

e. Coriantumr again tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:18-19)

d. days 3-6 of final battle (15:20-26)

c. days 7-8 of final battle, Coriantumr's group flees (15:27-29a)

b. Shiz and Coriantumr both faint, Coriantumr kills Shiz (15:29b-32)

a. Ether's witness that prophesied destruction is fulfilled (15:33-34)

Unanswered questions

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Prompts for life application

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Prompts for further study

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Resources

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Previous editions.

• The original 1830 edition of Ether was divided into only six chapters (I-VI). For the 1879 edition Parley Pratt further divided those six into the fifteen chapters (1-15) still used today. • I: 1-4 • II: 5 • III: 6-8 • IV: 9-11 • V: 12 • VI: 13-15

Related passages that interpret or shed light on Ether.

• Moroni provides four "great faith sermons" at the end of the Book of Mormon, two in Ether that clearly form a pair (Ether 3-5 and Ether 12), and two more in Moroni that just as clearly form another pair (Moroni 7 and Moroni 10). All four sermons talk about faith as more than just a principle of action leading to obedience. Rather, these four sermons assume that the listener is already trying to be righteous, and so address faith in connection with hope and charity as a door to exaltation and as a principle of power that allows one to exercise gifts of the spirit and work miracles. These four faith sermons can all be read as a group since they were all written or edited by a single author and all address a single general topic.

• Ether 12 - Hebrews 11 (chapters are similar)

References cited on this page.

• 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon: Ether

Other resources.

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Ether 1-5," "Ether 6-10," and "Ether 11-15." In Book of Mormon Institute Manual (PDF version), ch. 50-52, p. 361-381. Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2009.

• Arts, Valentin. "A Third Jaredite Record: The Sealed Portion of the Gold Plates," in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 11/1 (2002): 50-59, 110-11.

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

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Summary

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Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

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Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 7-11
Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

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Summary

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Relationship to Ether. The relationship of Chapters 7-11 to the rest of Ether is discussed at Ether.

Story. Chapters 7-11 cover all of Jaredite history between the founding generation of Jared and his brother, and the final generation of Coriantumr and Ether. This middle portion of Ether consists of four major sections. In the first, destruction is averted by repentance. In the other three, secret combinations cause society to be destroyed:

• Chapter 7 / 7:3b-27: Shule, destruction averted. Shule's brother takes the kingdom from their father. Shule eventually restores the kingdom to his father and then succeeds him as king. King Shule is likewise brought into captivity and is likewise rescued by his sons. In the days of Shule the people revile against the prophets. King Shule protects the prophets, which brings the people to repentance and spares them from destruction.

• Chapter 8-9a / 8:1-9:15a: Omer and Jared II, first destruction. Jared brings his father King Omer into captivity, but his brothers restore Omer as king. Akish, in order to marry Jared's daughter, employs a secret combination to again overthrow King Omer. The Lord warns Omer to flee. Competing secret combinations cause the destruction of the Jaredites. Moroni strongly warns the Gentiles to put down secret combinations in order to avoid similar destruction.

• Chapter 9b-10 / 9:15b-10:29: Twelve kings, second destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of twelve kings. The Jaredites enjoy periods of great righteousness and prosperity. But when King Heth embraces secret combinations and persecutes the prophets, the Jaredites are destroyed — for the second time — by famine and fiery serpents until Heth dies and the people repent. His successor Riplakish oppresses the people until they rise up against him.

• Chapter 11 / 10:30-11:23: Twelve more kings and captives, third destruction. This chapter moves quickly through the reigns of another twelve kings (or their captive descendants). Eight of the twelve generations listed in this chapter die in captivity. This period is described in terms of increasing wickedness, secret combinations, and rejection of the prophets. Com II protects the prophets but is unable to overcome the secret combinations. Soon after his reign secret combinations lead to ignoring and killing the prophets. The Jaredites are destroyed — for the third time — by war and famine until the people repent.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 7-11 include:

• Captivity. As the brother of Jared warned, monarchy leads to captivity.

• Secret Combinations. As Moroni warns, secret combinations lead to destruction unless put down.

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Ether 7-11: Organization of the text

• Identifying constituent sections. The opening third of Ether (Chapters 1-6 — 5,304 words) centers on just two main characters, Jared and his prophet brother. The final third of Ether (Chapters 12-15 — 5,738 words) likewise centers on just two main characters, the king Coriantumr and the prophet Ether. All the intervening centuries of Jaredite history are covered here in the middle third (Chapters 7-11 — 5,201 words).

This middle third divides into four sections. The first section (Chapter 7) revolves around Jared's great grandson Shule. The second section revolves around the reign of Shule's son Omer, including Omer's son Jared and Jared's daughter and son in law Akish (Chapters 8-9a). This leaves only two and a half chapters (chapters 9b-11) for an extremely compressed account of more than a thousand years of history. That history is recounted in two sections that can be recognized by their use of inclusions, or repeated elements at the beginning and end of each section. The third section begins and ends with detailed accounts of Jaredite prosperity in a choice and of the poisonous serpents being introduced and eradicated. The fourth section begins and ends with multiple generations of the royal line dwelling in captivity.

• Relationship of constituent sections. In the first section (Chapter 7) there is substantial contention for the throne, fulfilling the Brother of Jared's statement that the institution of monarchy would lead to captivity. But contention for the throne among aspiring elites does not lead to general destruction among the population.

In the second section (Chapters 8-9a) secret combinations first appear as an additional tool in competition for the throne. Within a generation or so those secret combinations leads to the almost complete destruction of the entire population.

In the third section (Chapters 9b-10) the people become ripe and begin to be destroyed because they cast out the prophets. But Moroni expressly states that this was done according to the commandments of a king who obtained the throne through the same secret plans (9:26-29).

In the fourth section (Chapter 11) the people again begin to be destroyed when the prophets are ordered killed by a contender for the throne and are ignored by the general population, again because of the secret combinations among them.

So while contention for the throne leads to the captivity of unsuccessful elites, secret combinations lead to the destruction of the general population.

It is also significant that only once in all of Ether, in the third section (Chapters 9b-10), Moroni provides the only account of the general population rising up against an oppressive king and exercising any influence over the kingship to hold it accountable to them.

• Outline.

● Shule: Is protected and in turn protects the prophets, destruction averted (Chapter 7)

• Shule (follows Orihah and Kib) restores kingdom to his father Kib (7:3b-13)

• other half of kingdom restored to Shule (7:14-22)

• Shule protects prophets from the people (7:23-27)

● Omer: Secret combinations introduced, destruction #1 (Chapter 8-9a)

A. secret combinations introduced (8:1-19)

• Omer brougt into captivity and restored to throne, Jared repents (8:1-6)

• daughter of Jared suggests a secret combination (8:7-12)

• Akish's oath initiates the secret combination (8:13-19)

B. Moroni commanded to warn against: secret combinations (8:20-26)

A. secret combinations result in destruction (9:1-15a)

• Omer warned to flee (9:1-3)

• Akish kills his father in law Jared (9:4-6)

• Akish kills his son, another son flees (9:7-9)

• other sons rebel, secret combinations kill all but thirty, Omer rules over a remnant (9:10-15a)

● Twelve kings: Prosperity in a choice land, oppression, destruction #2 (Chapter 9b-10)

a. Emer: prosperity in a choice land (9:15b-22)

b. Coriantum and Com: minimal detail (9:23-25)

c. Heth: embraces secret combinations and persecutes prophets, destruction by famine and serpents until people repent (9:26-35)

d. Shez: descendant remembers the destruction of his fathers and builds up a righteous kingdom (10:1-4)

c. Riplakish: oppresses the people with taxation and servitude until they rise up against him (10:5-8)

d. Morianton: descendant eases the people's burden but is personally wicked (10:9-13a)

b. Kim, Levi, Corom, and Kish: minimal detail (10:13b-18)

a. Lib: serpents destroyed, prosperity in a choice land (10:19-29)

● Twelve kings and captives: Captivity, prophets withdraw, destruction #3 (Chapter 11)

a. Hearthom and four descendants in captivity (10:30-31)

• Com: protects prophets but cannot overcome secret combinations (10:32-11:3)

• Shiblom and Seth: prophets killed by usurper and ignored because of secret combinations, destruction by war and famine until people repent (11:4-9)

• Ahah and Ethem: prophets ignored and withdraw (10-14a)

a. Moron and Coriantor in captivity (11:14b-23)

Ether 7-11: Themes

• Treatment of prophets. In verses 7:23-27, king Shule protects the prophets, and the people are spared. In verses 9:28-29 king Heth commands that the prophets be persecuted, and the people are destroyed. But in verses 11:1-3 king Com II protects the prophets, but the people reject the prophets and are destroyed once the new king ascends the throne.

• Treatment of kings. In verses 8:20-26, the middle of Chapter 8-9a, Moroni warns us to actively oppose secret combinations. In verses 10:5-8, near the middle of another large section, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) an oppressive king. This is the only time in Ether that the people, as opposed to a power hungry usurper, are described as taking any action to control their own political destiny.

• Effect of kings. It is so interesting to see the effect that a king has upon his people. We see this over an over again in this book. When a king is good and remembers the Lord than the people in the kingdom usually do the same but when he is bad he usually ignites wickedness throughout the kingdom. It makes me grateful for freedom of religion.

Ether 7 / Verses 7:4-27

• Ether 7:4-27. This passage follows on verses 6:12b-7:3a by showing the fulfillment of the Brother of Jared's statement that having a king would lead into captivity. This passage also, like the rest of chapters 7-11, races quickly through multiple generations with much less detail than the opening and closing narratives. But two things distinguish this passage from the remainder of chapters 7-11: (1) there are no secret combinations, and (2) while there is captivity, there is no widespread destruction.

Ether 8-9a / Verses 8:1-9:15a

Ether 9b-10 / Verses 9:15b-10:29

• Verse 10:3-8: Intervention in the selection of kings. In verse 10:3 Shez II, a son seeking to take the throne from his righteous father Shez I, is smitten by a robber. In verses 10:5-8, the people rise up and oppose (smite down?) the next king, who is oppressive. This parallel is suggestive.

• Verse 9:19: Elephants. Hugh Nibley saw the mention of "elephants" in this verse as evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. See his book Lehi in the Desert and The World of Jaredites (ISBN 0884940225).

• Verse 10:28: Hyperbole Moroni's phrase here "never could be a people more blessed than were they" seems like hyperbole in light of the blessings other communities have received (e.g. the City of Enoch).

Ether 11 / Verses 10:30-11:23

Unanswered questions

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Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Verse 8:9:: Use of history. How are we to understand the daughter's use of history for unrighteous purposes? Compare with Shule's remembering "the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days" (Ether 7:27).

• Verse 8:10-11:: Akish's character. What do we learn of Akish's character, given that the daughter of Jared chose him to seduce? What does Omer's friendship with Akish tell us about Omer? If the daughter of Jared knew Akish to be capable of treachery, did Omer?

• Verse 8:13-14:: Uninformed consent. Akish administers the oath before revealing his plan. What kind of people would Akish's relations have needed to be to swear such an oath? Were they blindly loyal to Akish? Were they enticed by greed? Did they suspect his plan?

• Verse 8:15:: Oaths from Cain. Cain seems not to have had any accomplices. What does Cain's murder have to do with the oaths Akish administered?

• Verse 8:23:: The work, yea, even the work of destruction. Was their language structure such that the describer “of destruction” came before the noun, so that when he first wrote “the work” he couldn't just add “of destruction” after it, but had to go back and re-write it completely to add the modifier “of destruction?” Otherwise why repeat what looks like a not too important item “the work”?

• Verse 9:22:: The Son of Righteousness. It states that Emer saw the Son of Righteousness. Why are no more details given of this vision? What is the significance of referring to Christ here as the "Son of Righteousness"?

• Verses 9:31-33:: Animals in America. This explains why Lehi's family found the cow and ox, etc. already present when they arrived in America. (1 Ne 18:25)

• Verse 10:5:: Borrowed phrase? When this verse says the king did not "that which was right in the sight of the Lord," is it borrowing a formulaic phrase from the Old Testament?

• Verse 10:30:: Hearthom. After such an elaborate description of the wealth and prosperity of the people, why does Moroni neglect to explain how and why Hearthom lost his kingdom?

• Verse 11:22:: Social institutions. How did the social and political institutions and relationships they built make them unresponsive to revelation?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 6                      Next page: Chapters 12-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapter 12
Previous page: Chapters 12-15                      Next page: Chapter 13a

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Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapter 12 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapter 12 consists of a sermon about faith preceding blessing, and about humility, hope, and charity.

● Faith precedes blessing (12:1-21)

a. Ether cannot be restrained from preaching faith, repentance, and hope (12:1-5)

b. faith precedes witness and miracles (12:6-18)

a. Brother of Jared could not be kept from within the veil because of his faith (12:19-21)

● Humility, hope, and charity (12:22-41)

a. Moroni: apprehension at his weakness in writing compared to speaking (12:22-25)

b. Lord: Gentiles must be humble (12:26-28)

c. Moroni: the Lord works according people's faith, Brother of Jared (12:29-31)

c. Moroni: hope and charity (12:32-35)

b. Lord: Moroni has been humble (12:36-37)

a. Moroni: closing testimony of his writing and of Christ (12:38-41)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapter 12 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 12:4. See "Hope is a Vision" on the discussion page.

• Ether 12:4: Hope cometh of faith. One might think that hope precedes faith in the sense that one hopes that God exists and then develops a belief in God and eventually genuine faith in God. However, this verse suggests the opposite (see also Alma 32:21). First one has faith in God and then, somehow, out of that faith comes hope. One way to think of this is in the temporal sense that, since God currently exists, it is possible to believe in God now, whereas one hopes for things that are to come. For example, one must first have faith that God has the power to grant salvation. Then, once this faith is established, the believer can look forward to—that is, hope for—the salvation which will eventually come. (See also Moro 7:40, 42; Moro 8:26; 2 Ne 31:19-20.)

• Hope and knowledge. In Alma 32:21, the prophet says that faith is "not to have a perfect knowledge of things," apparently opposing faith to knowledge. A closer reading, however, suggests that faith is precisely a question of knowledge, just not a question of a "perfect knowledge." Since faith, a "less-than-perfect knowledge," is according to this verse (Ether 12:4) what issues from faith, there is at least a suggestion that hope is that "more-perfect-knowledge," perhaps even "a perfect knowledge of things." If this is a justified reading, it should be noted that this verse demolishes the dichotomy often read into faith/knowledge: faith is a kind of knowledge, and hope is a surer kind of knowledge. Moreover, knowledge itself should therefore be rethought: it is apparently not a question of confirmed belief, but rather a question of relation to something (faith is one relation, one kind of knowledge, and hope is another).

• Moroni on faith, hope, and charity. The explicit demarcation between faith and hope that is asserted in this verse seems to corroborate (unlike some other verses) with 2 Ne 31:19-20. It seems, in fact, that Moroni is the first Nephite prophet after many years clearly to understand the implication of what Nephi there writes. This fits in well with the many other broad parallels between Nephi's teachings and those of Moroni. However, it must be admitted that Moroni is here citing the teachings of Ether, the Jaredite prophet. This raises an interesting question. Did Moroni understand Nephi through Ether, or did he understand Ether through Nephi? That Moroni takes up a tangential discussion throughout the present chapter, introduced by his explicit desire to "speak somewhat concerning these things" (verse 6), suggests that Moroni wants to clear up much of what has been said concerning the three-fold theme of faith, hope, and charity. Why, however, Moroni would later quote the lengthy discourse of his father on the subject (Moro 7), which seems at times to revert to a different (or even unclear) reading of faith and hope, must then be handled. Perhaps it is safest to acknowledge that Moroni is here citing Ether, and that Nephi remains—at least for the moment—at a distance from his thoughts.

• Ether 12:6. After discussing how Christ appeared to the Nephites (verse 6), Moroni claimed that Christ instituted "a way" that those who had not seen Christ in the flesh might also partake of "the heavenly gift." This may be an oblique reference to temple ordinances, where "the heavenly gift" would be an apt translation of what we call an endowment--a sacred ordinance where participants ceremonially interact with the Divine in ways that echo those depicted in 3 Nephi 11:14-15. The "heavenly gift" is mentioned without explanation in Heb 6:4; Moroni's explanation may help us better understand that passage, serving as another example of how the Book of Mormon restores previously lost sacred knowledge.

• Ether 12:6. That a sacred ordinance is involved with this heavenly gift is reiterated here by Moroni when he mentions being "called after the holy order of god"--which Alma taught involved an ordination "in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption" (Alma 13:2).

• Ether 12:27: Weakness not weaknesses. Verse 27 can be easily misunderstood to say God gives unto men weaknesses (plural) instead of weakness (singular). The difference suggests general and overall weakness, as opposed to multiple specific weaknesses. For example, our mortality and sinful nature is part of our inherent weakness. So when the Lord talks of his grace being sufficient, he may be saying that he will make humans, as weak things, become strong. This can be accomplished via the Atonement. Our state of weakness can become strong but only if we humble ourselves before the Lord and confess our sins before him. This helps explain why Moroni prays for grace in verse 36, so that we might have charity. In verse 34 Moroni states that we cannot inherit that place prepared for us in the heavens except we have charity, thus charity is something that will help us overcome (or compensate for) our general state of weakness. This prayer for the general virtue of charity stands in contrast to a prayer asking for specific strengths in light of specific weaknesses.

• Ether 12:38-41: Grace. In the New Testament, grace is a translation of the Greek charis, which can mean "that which affords joy or pleasure." While we typically think of grace as something that God has for us (as in good feelings towards us or pleasure in us), perhaps God having grace means something more along the lines of God affording us joy or pleasure. In other words, we have the grace of God when we take pleasure or joy in Him. If this is the case, seeking after Him and trying to serve him gives us pleasure and joy which abides in us.

Unanswered questions

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Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 12:2: What does it mean when it says that Ether "could not be restrained" from going and preaching the Gospel to the people? Was he physically compelled? In Alma 43:1 it mentions Alma the younger having a similar experience: "And Alma, also, himself, could not rest, and he also went forth." Did these men both just have such strong convictions of the Gospel that they couldn't bear to not be preaching it? Do the prophets today experience the same thing?

• Ether 12:4: What is the "better world" mentioned here?

• Ether 12:5: It is clear that "seeing" is a major question here for the Jaredites, as well as for Moroni in the next verse. What role does seeing play in these verses, and how does it open up the themes Moroni is considering as he recounts the Jaredite history?

• Ether 12:7-8: How do we reconcile the phrase "for [Christ] showed himself not unto the world" in verse 7 with the phrase in verse 8 "[Christ] has shown himself unto the world"?

• Ether 12:8: What is the heavenly gift?

• Ether 12:10: What does it mean to be "called after the holy order of God" (see Alma 13:2-8)?

• Ether 12:11: How was the law of Moses given by faith--and how is that related to the ordinations mentioned in verse 10?

• Ether 12:11: How is the "gift of [Christ]" a "more excellent way" than the law of Moses (see discussion of the heavenly gift in Ether 12:8)?

• Ether 12:11: What does the word "it" refer to at the end of the verse?

• Ether 12:27: Come unto the Lord. How are we to "come unto" the Lord?

• Ether 12:27: Show. How does the Lord show us our weakness when we come unto Him? What does it mean for weakness to be shown? Can we understand our weakness without coming unto the Lord?

• Ether 12:27: What does it mean that the Lord gives us "weakness"? Is this a reference to the general weakness of our fallen natures?

• Ether 12:27: Humility. What does it mean to be truly humble? How do we become humble? Is humility a choice? What might lead us to become humble? How might our weakness help us to be humble? What other choices might we have in dealing with our weakness? What happens if we don't allow our weakness to make us humble?

• Ether 12:27: Grace. What is grace?

• Ether 12:27: Sufficient. What does it mean to speak of grace as being "sufficient" for us?

• Ether 12:27: Humble. What is true humility?

• Ether 12:27: Themselves. What does it mean for us to humble ourselves? Can anyone really make us humble?

• Ether 12:27: Before me. What does it mean to be humble before the Lord? Is there any other type of humility? What constitutes being humble before the Lord? Is it more than just acknowledging sin or weakness?

• Ether 12:27: Faith. What does faith in the Lord have to do with being humble and being made strong? How do we exercise a faith in the Lord that can make us strong?

• Ether 12:27: Verse 12:27: I. The Lord says that He will make us strong if we are humble and exercise faith. How does the Lord do that? Is this a process or an all of a sudden change? How is this a manifestation of grace?

• Ether 12:27: Will. What does it mean that the Lord will make weak things strong? What kind of promise might this entail? How does this reflect the Lord's will? Does this promise imply that the Lord wants to do this, that this is his will?

• Ether 12:27: Weak things. Is there a difference between weakness and a weak thing? Why are weak things pluralized here? Does that reflect specific areas or manifestations of weakness in an individual, or the collective weakness of everyone, or is it just a reference to all of us as fallen or weak mortal beings?

• Ether 12:27: Become. What does it mean that the weak things will become strong? Does this happen in this life, or does this reflect a restitution or change brought about in the resurrection? Does this indicate a sudden change, or a process of change, or can we even tell that from this verse?

• Ether 12:27: Strong. What does it mean for us to speak of a weak thing becoming strong? What does it mean to be strong?

• Ether 12:36: Why would Moroni pray for the Gentiles?

• Ether 12:36: What is the relationship between grace and charity?

• Ether 12:36: How is grace given by God?

• Ether 12:37: Why wouldn't it matter to Moroni if the Gentiles have charity?

• Ether 12:37: Why would the Lord tell Moroni essentially to "not worry about others, you're gonna be OK"?

• Ether 12:37: What is the relationship between seeing your weakness and being "made strong"?

• Ether 12:37: What does it mean to "sit down" in the mansions of the Father?

• Ether 12:37: What are the "mansions" of the Father?

• Ether 12:38-41: Did Moroni anticipate that this would be where he ended his writing upon the plates? He seems like he's ultimately wrapping things up in these last few verses of this chapter.

• Ether 12:38: What does Moroni anticipate will happen "before the judgment-seat of Christ"?

• Ether 12:38: What does having unspotted garments have to do with the judgement?

• Ether 12:38: What does it mean to have garments spotted or unspotted with blood?

• Ether 12:39: Why would Jesus appear to Moroni "face to face"?

• Ether 12:39: What does it mean for Jesus to speak "in plain humility"?

• Ether 12:39: Can we have a similar face to face experience with Jesus, or is this a unique experience?

• Ether 12:40: Why does Moroni say that he has a "weakness in writing"?

• Ether 12:41: What does it mean to "seek this Jesus"? How is this done?

• Ether 12:41: What does seeking Jesus have to do with obtaining grace?

• Ether 12:41: What is grace?

• Ether 12:41: What is the grace of God? Is this something that God has for us, or something we have for God?

• Ether 12:41: How does grace "abide in you forever"

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Click here to see User:Bhardle's account of a personal miracle.

• Ether 12:4: Hope and predestination. See this post by LXXLuthor at the FPR blog for a discussion of Paul's teaching on communal predestination and how it contrasts to the more common individual-foreordination interpretation of Paul by Mormons, and how these issues suggest a predestination reading of this verse that affords more assurance than a foreordination-type reading.

• Ether 12:27. Anthony D. Perkins, "‘The Great and Wonderful Love’," Ensign, Nov 2006, pp. 76–78. Beware of false inadequacy, exaggerated imperfection, and needless guilt. Elder Perkins counsels us to place our burdens on Jesus Christ. "When you feel overwhelmed by expectations and challenges, do not fight the battle alone."

• See also 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, quoted here from the NIV translation. "To keep me [Paul] from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapters 12-15                      Next page: Chapter 13a

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapter 12
Previous page: Chapters 12-15                      Next page: Chapter 13a

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapter 12 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapter 12 consists of a sermon about faith preceding blessing, and about humility, hope, and charity.

● Faith precedes blessing (12:1-21)

a. Ether cannot be restrained from preaching faith, repentance, and hope (12:1-5)

b. faith precedes witness and miracles (12:6-18)

a. Brother of Jared could not be kept from within the veil because of his faith (12:19-21)

● Humility, hope, and charity (12:22-41)

a. Moroni: apprehension at his weakness in writing compared to speaking (12:22-25)

b. Lord: Gentiles must be humble (12:26-28)

c. Moroni: the Lord works according people's faith, Brother of Jared (12:29-31)

c. Moroni: hope and charity (12:32-35)

b. Lord: Moroni has been humble (12:36-37)

a. Moroni: closing testimony of his writing and of Christ (12:38-41)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapter 12 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 12:4. See "Hope is a Vision" on the discussion page.

• Ether 12:4: Hope cometh of faith. One might think that hope precedes faith in the sense that one hopes that God exists and then develops a belief in God and eventually genuine faith in God. However, this verse suggests the opposite (see also Alma 32:21). First one has faith in God and then, somehow, out of that faith comes hope. One way to think of this is in the temporal sense that, since God currently exists, it is possible to believe in God now, whereas one hopes for things that are to come. For example, one must first have faith that God has the power to grant salvation. Then, once this faith is established, the believer can look forward to—that is, hope for—the salvation which will eventually come. (See also Moro 7:40, 42; Moro 8:26; 2 Ne 31:19-20.)

• Hope and knowledge. In Alma 32:21, the prophet says that faith is "not to have a perfect knowledge of things," apparently opposing faith to knowledge. A closer reading, however, suggests that faith is precisely a question of knowledge, just not a question of a "perfect knowledge." Since faith, a "less-than-perfect knowledge," is according to this verse (Ether 12:4) what issues from faith, there is at least a suggestion that hope is that "more-perfect-knowledge," perhaps even "a perfect knowledge of things." If this is a justified reading, it should be noted that this verse demolishes the dichotomy often read into faith/knowledge: faith is a kind of knowledge, and hope is a surer kind of knowledge. Moreover, knowledge itself should therefore be rethought: it is apparently not a question of confirmed belief, but rather a question of relation to something (faith is one relation, one kind of knowledge, and hope is another).

• Moroni on faith, hope, and charity. The explicit demarcation between faith and hope that is asserted in this verse seems to corroborate (unlike some other verses) with 2 Ne 31:19-20. It seems, in fact, that Moroni is the first Nephite prophet after many years clearly to understand the implication of what Nephi there writes. This fits in well with the many other broad parallels between Nephi's teachings and those of Moroni. However, it must be admitted that Moroni is here citing the teachings of Ether, the Jaredite prophet. This raises an interesting question. Did Moroni understand Nephi through Ether, or did he understand Ether through Nephi? That Moroni takes up a tangential discussion throughout the present chapter, introduced by his explicit desire to "speak somewhat concerning these things" (verse 6), suggests that Moroni wants to clear up much of what has been said concerning the three-fold theme of faith, hope, and charity. Why, however, Moroni would later quote the lengthy discourse of his father on the subject (Moro 7), which seems at times to revert to a different (or even unclear) reading of faith and hope, must then be handled. Perhaps it is safest to acknowledge that Moroni is here citing Ether, and that Nephi remains—at least for the moment—at a distance from his thoughts.

• Ether 12:6. After discussing how Christ appeared to the Nephites (verse 6), Moroni claimed that Christ instituted "a way" that those who had not seen Christ in the flesh might also partake of "the heavenly gift." This may be an oblique reference to temple ordinances, where "the heavenly gift" would be an apt translation of what we call an endowment--a sacred ordinance where participants ceremonially interact with the Divine in ways that echo those depicted in 3 Nephi 11:14-15. The "heavenly gift" is mentioned without explanation in Heb 6:4; Moroni's explanation may help us better understand that passage, serving as another example of how the Book of Mormon restores previously lost sacred knowledge.

• Ether 12:6. That a sacred ordinance is involved with this heavenly gift is reiterated here by Moroni when he mentions being "called after the holy order of god"--which Alma taught involved an ordination "in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption" (Alma 13:2).

• Ether 12:27: Weakness not weaknesses. Verse 27 can be easily misunderstood to say God gives unto men weaknesses (plural) instead of weakness (singular). The difference suggests general and overall weakness, as opposed to multiple specific weaknesses. For example, our mortality and sinful nature is part of our inherent weakness. So when the Lord talks of his grace being sufficient, he may be saying that he will make humans, as weak things, become strong. This can be accomplished via the Atonement. Our state of weakness can become strong but only if we humble ourselves before the Lord and confess our sins before him. This helps explain why Moroni prays for grace in verse 36, so that we might have charity. In verse 34 Moroni states that we cannot inherit that place prepared for us in the heavens except we have charity, thus charity is something that will help us overcome (or compensate for) our general state of weakness. This prayer for the general virtue of charity stands in contrast to a prayer asking for specific strengths in light of specific weaknesses.

• Ether 12:38-41: Grace. In the New Testament, grace is a translation of the Greek charis, which can mean "that which affords joy or pleasure." While we typically think of grace as something that God has for us (as in good feelings towards us or pleasure in us), perhaps God having grace means something more along the lines of God affording us joy or pleasure. In other words, we have the grace of God when we take pleasure or joy in Him. If this is the case, seeking after Him and trying to serve him gives us pleasure and joy which abides in us.

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 12:2: What does it mean when it says that Ether "could not be restrained" from going and preaching the Gospel to the people? Was he physically compelled? In Alma 43:1 it mentions Alma the younger having a similar experience: "And Alma, also, himself, could not rest, and he also went forth." Did these men both just have such strong convictions of the Gospel that they couldn't bear to not be preaching it? Do the prophets today experience the same thing?

• Ether 12:4: What is the "better world" mentioned here?

• Ether 12:5: It is clear that "seeing" is a major question here for the Jaredites, as well as for Moroni in the next verse. What role does seeing play in these verses, and how does it open up the themes Moroni is considering as he recounts the Jaredite history?

• Ether 12:7-8: How do we reconcile the phrase "for [Christ] showed himself not unto the world" in verse 7 with the phrase in verse 8 "[Christ] has shown himself unto the world"?

• Ether 12:8: What is the heavenly gift?

• Ether 12:10: What does it mean to be "called after the holy order of God" (see Alma 13:2-8)?

• Ether 12:11: How was the law of Moses given by faith--and how is that related to the ordinations mentioned in verse 10?

• Ether 12:11: How is the "gift of [Christ]" a "more excellent way" than the law of Moses (see discussion of the heavenly gift in Ether 12:8)?

• Ether 12:11: What does the word "it" refer to at the end of the verse?

• Ether 12:27: Come unto the Lord. How are we to "come unto" the Lord?

• Ether 12:27: Show. How does the Lord show us our weakness when we come unto Him? What does it mean for weakness to be shown? Can we understand our weakness without coming unto the Lord?

• Ether 12:27: What does it mean that the Lord gives us "weakness"? Is this a reference to the general weakness of our fallen natures?

• Ether 12:27: Humility. What does it mean to be truly humble? How do we become humble? Is humility a choice? What might lead us to become humble? How might our weakness help us to be humble? What other choices might we have in dealing with our weakness? What happens if we don't allow our weakness to make us humble?

• Ether 12:27: Grace. What is grace?

• Ether 12:27: Sufficient. What does it mean to speak of grace as being "sufficient" for us?

• Ether 12:27: Humble. What is true humility?

• Ether 12:27: Themselves. What does it mean for us to humble ourselves? Can anyone really make us humble?

• Ether 12:27: Before me. What does it mean to be humble before the Lord? Is there any other type of humility? What constitutes being humble before the Lord? Is it more than just acknowledging sin or weakness?

• Ether 12:27: Faith. What does faith in the Lord have to do with being humble and being made strong? How do we exercise a faith in the Lord that can make us strong?

• Ether 12:27: Verse 12:27: I. The Lord says that He will make us strong if we are humble and exercise faith. How does the Lord do that? Is this a process or an all of a sudden change? How is this a manifestation of grace?

• Ether 12:27: Will. What does it mean that the Lord will make weak things strong? What kind of promise might this entail? How does this reflect the Lord's will? Does this promise imply that the Lord wants to do this, that this is his will?

• Ether 12:27: Weak things. Is there a difference between weakness and a weak thing? Why are weak things pluralized here? Does that reflect specific areas or manifestations of weakness in an individual, or the collective weakness of everyone, or is it just a reference to all of us as fallen or weak mortal beings?

• Ether 12:27: Become. What does it mean that the weak things will become strong? Does this happen in this life, or does this reflect a restitution or change brought about in the resurrection? Does this indicate a sudden change, or a process of change, or can we even tell that from this verse?

• Ether 12:27: Strong. What does it mean for us to speak of a weak thing becoming strong? What does it mean to be strong?

• Ether 12:36: Why would Moroni pray for the Gentiles?

• Ether 12:36: What is the relationship between grace and charity?

• Ether 12:36: How is grace given by God?

• Ether 12:37: Why wouldn't it matter to Moroni if the Gentiles have charity?

• Ether 12:37: Why would the Lord tell Moroni essentially to "not worry about others, you're gonna be OK"?

• Ether 12:37: What is the relationship between seeing your weakness and being "made strong"?

• Ether 12:37: What does it mean to "sit down" in the mansions of the Father?

• Ether 12:37: What are the "mansions" of the Father?

• Ether 12:38-41: Did Moroni anticipate that this would be where he ended his writing upon the plates? He seems like he's ultimately wrapping things up in these last few verses of this chapter.

• Ether 12:38: What does Moroni anticipate will happen "before the judgment-seat of Christ"?

• Ether 12:38: What does having unspotted garments have to do with the judgement?

• Ether 12:38: What does it mean to have garments spotted or unspotted with blood?

• Ether 12:39: Why would Jesus appear to Moroni "face to face"?

• Ether 12:39: What does it mean for Jesus to speak "in plain humility"?

• Ether 12:39: Can we have a similar face to face experience with Jesus, or is this a unique experience?

• Ether 12:40: Why does Moroni say that he has a "weakness in writing"?

• Ether 12:41: What does it mean to "seek this Jesus"? How is this done?

• Ether 12:41: What does seeking Jesus have to do with obtaining grace?

• Ether 12:41: What is grace?

• Ether 12:41: What is the grace of God? Is this something that God has for us, or something we have for God?

• Ether 12:41: How does grace "abide in you forever"

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Click here to see User:Bhardle's account of a personal miracle.

• Ether 12:4: Hope and predestination. See this post by LXXLuthor at the FPR blog for a discussion of Paul's teaching on communal predestination and how it contrasts to the more common individual-foreordination interpretation of Paul by Mormons, and how these issues suggest a predestination reading of this verse that affords more assurance than a foreordination-type reading.

• Ether 12:27. Anthony D. Perkins, "‘The Great and Wonderful Love’," Ensign, Nov 2006, pp. 76–78. Beware of false inadequacy, exaggerated imperfection, and needless guilt. Elder Perkins counsels us to place our burdens on Jesus Christ. "When you feel overwhelmed by expectations and challenges, do not fight the battle alone."

• See also 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, quoted here from the NIV translation. "To keep me [Paul] from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapters 12-15                      Next page: Chapter 13a

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapter 12
Previous page: Chapters 12-15                      Next page: Chapter 13a

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapter 12 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapter 12 consists of a sermon about faith preceding blessing, and about humility, hope, and charity.

● Faith precedes blessing (12:1-21)

a. Ether cannot be restrained from preaching faith, repentance, and hope (12:1-5)

b. faith precedes witness and miracles (12:6-18)

a. Brother of Jared could not be kept from within the veil because of his faith (12:19-21)

● Humility, hope, and charity (12:22-41)

a. Moroni: apprehension at his weakness in writing compared to speaking (12:22-25)

b. Lord: Gentiles must be humble (12:26-28)

c. Moroni: the Lord works according people's faith, Brother of Jared (12:29-31)

c. Moroni: hope and charity (12:32-35)

b. Lord: Moroni has been humble (12:36-37)

a. Moroni: closing testimony of his writing and of Christ (12:38-41)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapter 12 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 12:4. See "Hope is a Vision" on the discussion page.

• Ether 12:4: Hope cometh of faith. One might think that hope precedes faith in the sense that one hopes that God exists and then develops a belief in God and eventually genuine faith in God. However, this verse suggests the opposite (see also Alma 32:21). First one has faith in God and then, somehow, out of that faith comes hope. One way to think of this is in the temporal sense that, since God currently exists, it is possible to believe in God now, whereas one hopes for things that are to come. For example, one must first have faith that God has the power to grant salvation. Then, once this faith is established, the believer can look forward to—that is, hope for—the salvation which will eventually come. (See also Moro 7:40, 42; Moro 8:26; 2 Ne 31:19-20.)

• Hope and knowledge. In Alma 32:21, the prophet says that faith is "not to have a perfect knowledge of things," apparently opposing faith to knowledge. A closer reading, however, suggests that faith is precisely a question of knowledge, just not a question of a "perfect knowledge." Since faith, a "less-than-perfect knowledge," is according to this verse (Ether 12:4) what issues from faith, there is at least a suggestion that hope is that "more-perfect-knowledge," perhaps even "a perfect knowledge of things." If this is a justified reading, it should be noted that this verse demolishes the dichotomy often read into faith/knowledge: faith is a kind of knowledge, and hope is a surer kind of knowledge. Moreover, knowledge itself should therefore be rethought: it is apparently not a question of confirmed belief, but rather a question of relation to something (faith is one relation, one kind of knowledge, and hope is another).

• Moroni on faith, hope, and charity. The explicit demarcation between faith and hope that is asserted in this verse seems to corroborate (unlike some other verses) with 2 Ne 31:19-20. It seems, in fact, that Moroni is the first Nephite prophet after many years clearly to understand the implication of what Nephi there writes. This fits in well with the many other broad parallels between Nephi's teachings and those of Moroni. However, it must be admitted that Moroni is here citing the teachings of Ether, the Jaredite prophet. This raises an interesting question. Did Moroni understand Nephi through Ether, or did he understand Ether through Nephi? That Moroni takes up a tangential discussion throughout the present chapter, introduced by his explicit desire to "speak somewhat concerning these things" (verse 6), suggests that Moroni wants to clear up much of what has been said concerning the three-fold theme of faith, hope, and charity. Why, however, Moroni would later quote the lengthy discourse of his father on the subject (Moro 7), which seems at times to revert to a different (or even unclear) reading of faith and hope, must then be handled. Perhaps it is safest to acknowledge that Moroni is here citing Ether, and that Nephi remains—at least for the moment—at a distance from his thoughts.

• Ether 12:6. After discussing how Christ appeared to the Nephites (verse 6), Moroni claimed that Christ instituted "a way" that those who had not seen Christ in the flesh might also partake of "the heavenly gift." This may be an oblique reference to temple ordinances, where "the heavenly gift" would be an apt translation of what we call an endowment--a sacred ordinance where participants ceremonially interact with the Divine in ways that echo those depicted in 3 Nephi 11:14-15. The "heavenly gift" is mentioned without explanation in Heb 6:4; Moroni's explanation may help us better understand that passage, serving as another example of how the Book of Mormon restores previously lost sacred knowledge.

• Ether 12:6. That a sacred ordinance is involved with this heavenly gift is reiterated here by Moroni when he mentions being "called after the holy order of god"--which Alma taught involved an ordination "in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption" (Alma 13:2).

• Ether 12:27: Weakness not weaknesses. Verse 27 can be easily misunderstood to say God gives unto men weaknesses (plural) instead of weakness (singular). The difference suggests general and overall weakness, as opposed to multiple specific weaknesses. For example, our mortality and sinful nature is part of our inherent weakness. So when the Lord talks of his grace being sufficient, he may be saying that he will make humans, as weak things, become strong. This can be accomplished via the Atonement. Our state of weakness can become strong but only if we humble ourselves before the Lord and confess our sins before him. This helps explain why Moroni prays for grace in verse 36, so that we might have charity. In verse 34 Moroni states that we cannot inherit that place prepared for us in the heavens except we have charity, thus charity is something that will help us overcome (or compensate for) our general state of weakness. This prayer for the general virtue of charity stands in contrast to a prayer asking for specific strengths in light of specific weaknesses.

• Ether 12:38-41: Grace. In the New Testament, grace is a translation of the Greek charis, which can mean "that which affords joy or pleasure." While we typically think of grace as something that God has for us (as in good feelings towards us or pleasure in us), perhaps God having grace means something more along the lines of God affording us joy or pleasure. In other words, we have the grace of God when we take pleasure or joy in Him. If this is the case, seeking after Him and trying to serve him gives us pleasure and joy which abides in us.

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 12:2: What does it mean when it says that Ether "could not be restrained" from going and preaching the Gospel to the people? Was he physically compelled? In Alma 43:1 it mentions Alma the younger having a similar experience: "And Alma, also, himself, could not rest, and he also went forth." Did these men both just have such strong convictions of the Gospel that they couldn't bear to not be preaching it? Do the prophets today experience the same thing?

• Ether 12:4: What is the "better world" mentioned here?

• Ether 12:5: It is clear that "seeing" is a major question here for the Jaredites, as well as for Moroni in the next verse. What role does seeing play in these verses, and how does it open up the themes Moroni is considering as he recounts the Jaredite history?

• Ether 12:7-8: How do we reconcile the phrase "for [Christ] showed himself not unto the world" in verse 7 with the phrase in verse 8 "[Christ] has shown himself unto the world"?

• Ether 12:8: What is the heavenly gift?

• Ether 12:10: What does it mean to be "called after the holy order of God" (see Alma 13:2-8)?

• Ether 12:11: How was the law of Moses given by faith--and how is that related to the ordinations mentioned in verse 10?

• Ether 12:11: How is the "gift of [Christ]" a "more excellent way" than the law of Moses (see discussion of the heavenly gift in Ether 12:8)?

• Ether 12:11: What does the word "it" refer to at the end of the verse?

• Ether 12:27: Come unto the Lord. How are we to "come unto" the Lord?

• Ether 12:27: Show. How does the Lord show us our weakness when we come unto Him? What does it mean for weakness to be shown? Can we understand our weakness without coming unto the Lord?

• Ether 12:27: What does it mean that the Lord gives us "weakness"? Is this a reference to the general weakness of our fallen natures?

• Ether 12:27: Humility. What does it mean to be truly humble? How do we become humble? Is humility a choice? What might lead us to become humble? How might our weakness help us to be humble? What other choices might we have in dealing with our weakness? What happens if we don't allow our weakness to make us humble?

• Ether 12:27: Grace. What is grace?

• Ether 12:27: Sufficient. What does it mean to speak of grace as being "sufficient" for us?

• Ether 12:27: Humble. What is true humility?

• Ether 12:27: Themselves. What does it mean for us to humble ourselves? Can anyone really make us humble?

• Ether 12:27: Before me. What does it mean to be humble before the Lord? Is there any other type of humility? What constitutes being humble before the Lord? Is it more than just acknowledging sin or weakness?

• Ether 12:27: Faith. What does faith in the Lord have to do with being humble and being made strong? How do we exercise a faith in the Lord that can make us strong?

• Ether 12:27: Verse 12:27: I. The Lord says that He will make us strong if we are humble and exercise faith. How does the Lord do that? Is this a process or an all of a sudden change? How is this a manifestation of grace?

• Ether 12:27: Will. What does it mean that the Lord will make weak things strong? What kind of promise might this entail? How does this reflect the Lord's will? Does this promise imply that the Lord wants to do this, that this is his will?

• Ether 12:27: Weak things. Is there a difference between weakness and a weak thing? Why are weak things pluralized here? Does that reflect specific areas or manifestations of weakness in an individual, or the collective weakness of everyone, or is it just a reference to all of us as fallen or weak mortal beings?

• Ether 12:27: Become. What does it mean that the weak things will become strong? Does this happen in this life, or does this reflect a restitution or change brought about in the resurrection? Does this indicate a sudden change, or a process of change, or can we even tell that from this verse?

• Ether 12:27: Strong. What does it mean for us to speak of a weak thing becoming strong? What does it mean to be strong?

• Ether 12:36: Why would Moroni pray for the Gentiles?

• Ether 12:36: What is the relationship between grace and charity?

• Ether 12:36: How is grace given by God?

• Ether 12:37: Why wouldn't it matter to Moroni if the Gentiles have charity?

• Ether 12:37: Why would the Lord tell Moroni essentially to "not worry about others, you're gonna be OK"?

• Ether 12:37: What is the relationship between seeing your weakness and being "made strong"?

• Ether 12:37: What does it mean to "sit down" in the mansions of the Father?

• Ether 12:37: What are the "mansions" of the Father?

• Ether 12:38-41: Did Moroni anticipate that this would be where he ended his writing upon the plates? He seems like he's ultimately wrapping things up in these last few verses of this chapter.

• Ether 12:38: What does Moroni anticipate will happen "before the judgment-seat of Christ"?

• Ether 12:38: What does having unspotted garments have to do with the judgement?

• Ether 12:38: What does it mean to have garments spotted or unspotted with blood?

• Ether 12:39: Why would Jesus appear to Moroni "face to face"?

• Ether 12:39: What does it mean for Jesus to speak "in plain humility"?

• Ether 12:39: Can we have a similar face to face experience with Jesus, or is this a unique experience?

• Ether 12:40: Why does Moroni say that he has a "weakness in writing"?

• Ether 12:41: What does it mean to "seek this Jesus"? How is this done?

• Ether 12:41: What does seeking Jesus have to do with obtaining grace?

• Ether 12:41: What is grace?

• Ether 12:41: What is the grace of God? Is this something that God has for us, or something we have for God?

• Ether 12:41: How does grace "abide in you forever"

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Click here to see User:Bhardle's account of a personal miracle.

• Ether 12:4: Hope and predestination. See this post by LXXLuthor at the FPR blog for a discussion of Paul's teaching on communal predestination and how it contrasts to the more common individual-foreordination interpretation of Paul by Mormons, and how these issues suggest a predestination reading of this verse that affords more assurance than a foreordination-type reading.

• Ether 12:27. Anthony D. Perkins, "‘The Great and Wonderful Love’," Ensign, Nov 2006, pp. 76–78. Beware of false inadequacy, exaggerated imperfection, and needless guilt. Elder Perkins counsels us to place our burdens on Jesus Christ. "When you feel overwhelmed by expectations and challenges, do not fight the battle alone."

• See also 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, quoted here from the NIV translation. "To keep me [Paul] from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapters 12-15                      Next page: Chapter 13a

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapter 13a / Verses 13:1-12
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Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapter 13a to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapter 13a consists of four major sections:

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapter 13a include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• The Jaredites and the Israelites. We are used to the Book of Mormon talking about Israel from time to time, so we might not notice something strange going on here. While it is normal to talk to the Nephites and Lamanites about Israel (indeed one of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to make sure their descendants know that they are of Israel!), the Jaredites are not of Israel. The Jaredites left before there was a covenant established with Israel. They left before the original Jerusalem had been built. They did leave after Enoch's city had been taken up to heaven (although not called a New Jerusalem at that point I assume). And they did have their own covenant (the covenant that the Jaredites received can be found in Ether 1:42-43.) But the Jaredites are not Israel, and they don't the particular covenant that Israel has. It seems safe to assume that what Ether is teaching the Jaredites in verses 2-12 is something new to them.

Therefore, we can approach these verses in two ways:

1. what do they teach us about Israel, the New Jerusalem, etc. (this is what the following commentary as done thus far) and also
2. what was Ether doing by teaching the Jaredites about Israel, the New Jerusalem, etc.?

As a beginning to the latter question, in general it seems that Ether is inviting the Jaredites to stick around a little longer (don't get yourself destroyed!) so that they can meet these Israelites, learn about their covenant, and become adopted into it. More of how these verses would have sounded to the Jaredites can be added below in the verse-by-verse commentary.

How this relates to the title page of the Book of Mormon. One of the promises that Israel (and Abraham, Noah, Enoch, Adam, etc) get is that there will be some of their seed alive at the second coming. (See D&C 107 on that point.) Isaiah constantly reminds Israel that even though they forget God, God has promised not to forget them. There will always be a remnant left to carry on the work of the covenant, even if that remnant needs some reminding of who they are. The Jaredites, on the other hand, have no such promise. They are a chosen people who have prophets, etc., but as far as we know there is no record of them receiving the specific promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. This becomes quite clear when the Jaredites are actually completely destroyed. The Nephites/Lamanites are given a remnant to redeem their family and carry on the work of teaching the gospel; the Jaredites are not. It seems that perhaps Ether was trying to keep them around so that they could be adopted into that family, but as things played out they were not and did not receive those blessings.

This may be what Moroni meant when he wrote on the title page: "An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven—Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever"

• Ether 13:1. Moroni returns explicitly to the question of "the destruction of the people," the Jaredites. As it turns out, this focus on destruction will be vital to this chapter.

• Ether 13:2. This verse opens by pinning the destruction mentioned in verse 1 on the Jaredite reception of Ether: in that the people reject the words of Ether, they go on to destruction. This point will turn out to be absolutely vital in understanding the importance of the few handful of verses in this chapter, because it is precisely because the Jaredites refused to believe the words that Moroni will attribute to Ether here that they were destroyed. And curiously, they are words that outstrip--undeniably outstrip--Jaredite concerns. The message comes as an untimely one, but one that meant the difference between exaltation (literally, it appears) and absolute destruction.

As Moroni begins to summarize the message of Ether, he offers first a sort of blanket statement: "he truly told them of all things, from the beginning of man." The point is curious, because it gives one a sense that Ether is a prophet in the same full sense that the Brother of Jared had been a prophet: both have had visions that encompass the whole of everything. The odd thing is that the Brother of Jared was commanded to seal all of these things up until Christ should come upon the earth, but Ether is commanded--or at least he feels he ought to--announce these things to everyone. In contrast, Moroni is forbidden to write more about Ether's prophecies in verse 13. Nevertheless, the contents of Ether's visions may have been somewhat more limited than the Brother of Jared's: Ether's concerns "all things, from the beginning of man," whereas the Brother of Jared's visions seem to have extended beyond the realm of "man." At any rate, there is an interesting tie between the first and last prophets of the Jaredite history--not unlike the curious tie between Nephi's language and Moroni's language.

As Moroni moves onto the actual content of Ether's teachings, the first subject to be taken up is the sanctification of the Promised Land. It is not quite clear, it must be admitted, whether "after the waters had receded from off the face of this land" refers to the waters of the creation as described in Gen 1 or to the waters of the flood. If one, however, takes this reference in the much broader scope of LDS scripture and the sayings of the early prophets, it seems clear that this is referring to the flood, since the antediluvian patriarchs lived in the Americas. If this is an appropriate reading, then the flood seems to have sanctified and cleansed the American continent to prepare it for a new people, and the Jaredites did not arrive too long after the flood.

The teachings are summarized so briefly that it is not entirely clear why this land should be "a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord," but much of what Ether goes on, reportedly, to say will open up some interpretive possibilities. The final phrase of the verse is quite clear, but perhaps should be emphasized: all who come upon this land in particular are to "serve him," which implies some sort of covenant relation. All of these details open onto the shocking revelation of verse 3.

• Ether 13:3. The particularity of "the New Jerusalem" suggests that Ether's hearers (or least latter-day readers: it will be difficult throughout the following verses to decide how much of what is written is summary of Ether and how much of it is Moroni talking to his eventual audience--though here the assumption will be that the words are Ethers) are supposed to understand the reference perfectly. That is, whatever "the New Jerusalem" is, whoever heard this discourse was apparently already quite aware that there would be one. The shocking revelation is that it was to be on this continent. The phrase, "which should come down out of heaven," does seem to function here as a further explanation of the New Jerusalem, but rather as a further explicitation, that is, it is meant to make sure that hearers of the prophecy know exactly what Ether is talking about. If the phrase is read this way, then "the holy sanctuary of the Lord" is supposed to be a parallel reference just as obvious to the people as "the New Jerusalem." In order to begin to think about what this revelation is announcing, one must begin with these two phrases as parallels: "the New Jerusalem" and "the holy sanctuary of the Lord."

While "the New Jerusalem" is certainly a biblical phrase, "the holy sanctuary of the Lord" is not, though "sanctuary of the Lord" shows up in Ezek 48:10, a passage that might well be connected with the Revelation vision of the New Jerusalem. If there is some sort of absolute reference for Ether's words here, it must begin to be thought in the intersection between Ezekiel and Revelation. Perhaps more: while it is clear in this verse that "the New Jerusalem" is to "come down out of heaven," verse 6 describes "a New Jerusalem" that will "be built up upon this land." There are--and it must be pointed out from the very beginning--probably two different "New Jerusalems" at work in this passage, one from heaven and one on the earth. This much said, interpretation of this verse might be undertaken.

Twice in Revelation is the New Jerusalem mentioned: Rev 3:12 and Rev 21:2. Both of these references specifically mention that this New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, specifically from God. Of the two references, the former is more difficult to interpret because the New Jerusalem is mentioned simply as a promise within another context, but the latter is part of a vision of the New Jerusalem as it descends. That seems to be the place to begin to interpret. The New Jerusalem descends just after the new creation is completed, a new heavens and a new earth. It descends adorned as a bride for the bridegroom (the Lamb in the passage). The city itself is described as a great cube, something like a gigantic holy of holies, and it is paradise itself within, the place of the tree of life. From all of these details, it seems clear that the New Jerusalem is a heavenly thing, not an earthly creation, and that it comes down to give the righteous a place to dwell.

Parallel to this is "the holy sanctuary of the Lord," which might, as mentioned above, be connected with Ezek 48:10. The sanctuary there is the holy of holies of the eschatological temple: that is, it is apparently the New Jerusalem itself. The only detail in this verse that would suggest otherwise is the "and" that seems to separate the two ideas. But it seems best to read "and the holy sanctuary of the Lord" as simply doubling the reference to the heavenly Jerusalem descending. Now, all of these details may connect this with the city of Enoch: in Moses 7:63, the Lord explains to Enoch that at the last day, "Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them [those in an earthly "New Jerusalem"] there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other." All of this suggests a meeting of two New Jerusalems, a heavenly one and an earthly one, as it is put in D&C 84:100: "The Lord hath gathered all things in one. The Lord hath brought down Zion from above. The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath."

• Ether 13:4. With all of these details, it is possible to approach verse 4, where Ether begins to speak of "a New Jerusalem upon this land," apparently another New Jerusalem, but one built up by men. What is perhaps odd about this verse is that this business is somehow connected with "the days of Christ." At first blush, one would probably assume that "the days of Christ" would refer to the time when Jesus was on earth. A closer look, however, reveals that things may be somewhat more complicated here. Since everything surrounding the phrase is referring to the last day when the two New Jerusalems meet, it seems it might be better to understand the phrase to be referring to the days in which Christ reigns among the people. On this account, it might be important that the name "Christ" is used instead of "Jesus" (a name Mormon and Moroni seem at times to prefer): this is the time of the coming again of the Messiah, the time of the issuing in of peace, etc.

Unanswered questions

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Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 13:3: What does it mean when Ether says that the New Jerusalem will "come down out of Heaven"?

• Ether 13:6: What is the "type" of the New Jerusalem that is referred to? Is it the old city of Jerusalem? Is it the city of Enoch?

• Ether 13:8: Here it states that the house of Joseph shall no more be confounded when built upon the New Jerusalem. What does this mean? Are they saying that they will receive the gospel and never have it taken from them again?

• Ether 13:9: What does it mean when it says there shall be a new heaven and a new earth and that all things will have become new?

• Ether 13:13: Moroni was going to write more, but was forbidden, just like Nephi when he reached the end of the sixth seal in his prophecy.1 Ne 14:24-27.

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 12                      Next page: Chapters 13b-15

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapters 13b-15 / Verses 13:13-15:34
Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapters 13b-15 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapters 13b-15 consists of three major sections:

• Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 13b-15 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Outline

● Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)

a. Ether rejected, views destruction from hiding (13:13-14)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:15-16)

c. no one repents (13:17)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:18-19)

a. Ether prophesies final destruction and in hiding, no one repents (13:20-22)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)

a. Corinatumr and Shared battle three days (13:23-30)

b. curse on the land (13:31-14:2)

c. Coriantumr and Gilead battle in Akish and Moron (14:3-8)

d. self-destruction within secret combinations (14:9-10)

c. Coriantumr and Lib II battle in Moron and Akish (14:11-16)

b. fear of Shiz sweeping the earth (14:17-25)

a. Coriantumr and Shiz battle three days (14:26-31)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

a. Coriantumr sees that prophecy is being fulfilled, tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:1-5)

b. battle at seashore, Coriantumr faints (15:6-11)

c. camping four years to gather strength (15:12-14)

d. days 1-2 of final battle (15:15-17)

e. Coriantumr again tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:18-19)

d. days 3-6 of final battle (15:20-26)

c. days 7-8 of final battle, Coriantumr's group flees (15:27-29a)

b. Shiz and Coriantumr both faint, Coriantumr kills Shiz (15:29b-32)

a. Ether's witness that prophesied destruction is fulfilled (15:33-34)

How to avoid destruction

A main point of this section is that the destruction can be avoided only through repentance. Ether tells Coriantumr at the beginning to repent. Coriantumr tried to overcome the destructive forces within his society instead by force of arms, or by relying upon the arm of flesh. He then tries to reach an accommodation through negotiation. Neither works because he does not repent as the prophet insisted must be done. So Coriantumr and his people are destroyed over the course of an eight day battle.

The first section (verses 13:13-22) sets up the thesis of the closing narrative in Ether: Destruction may be avoided only by repentance. This is that the prophet Ether tells the king Coriantumr. The rest of this closing narrative is a lesson about what happens when the king ignores this message from the prophet. Throughout this closing narrative Coriantumr thinks he is fighting a succession of competing political foes: Shared, Gilead, Lib, Shiz, but really it is about the conflict between Coriantumr and the prophet Ether.

Ether 13b / Verses 13:13-22

• Ether 13:20-22. In Verse 12:1-3; 13:2, 13 the people rejected Ether's warning to repent. Now in Verse 13:20-22 the king Coriantumr also rejects the warning to repent. Coriantumr was given the chance to repent for his people, much like a Davidic king who stands between the Lord and his people.

Ether 14 / Verses 13:23-14:31

• Ether 13:23-30. We do not know anything about the geography mentioned in the first episode (13:23-30) except that "hills, plains and valleys" may be intended to mean everywhere.

• Ether 13:27: Prophecy. This verse seems to state that Ether would be alive with Coriantumr when he is found in the book of Omni. But then in the last chapter of Ether, it states that all of the Lord's words had been fulfilled, yet I still don't see how Ether saw the Nephites possess this land. Does anyone have any insight into this passage?

• Good question. Ether 15:33 says that Ether wrote that "the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" and yet Ether doesn't witness (or at least mention) that Coriantumr saw "another people receiving the land"—this prophesy seems to be fulfilled in Omni 1:26, but Ether doesn't mention it.

• One view might be that when Ether "beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" (Ether 15:34), Ether witnessed the people of Zarahemla discover Coriantumr. This is reading a bit into the text, but would seem to resolve the issue. Another view might be that the prophecy in verse 21 only consists of the first sentence—that Coriantumr's household would all be destroyed except himself—and that the rest of the verse is an editorial comment by a later redactor.

• Ether 13:31-14:2, 14:17-25. In the first of these two episodes (13:31-14:2) the great curse is that people cannot hang on to their possessions. In the second, parallel episode (14:17-25), the piles of dead bodies indicate that one has trouble even hanging to his or her own life.

• Ether 14:3-8, 11-17. We know that Moron was the Jaredite capitol (7:6; 14:6). We also know that the Wilderness of Akish shares the same name with the man who first introduced secret combinations to the Jaredite people, that he ascended the throne through intrigue against his own father, and that under his rule the Jaredite people were almost completely destroyed for the first time. A connection is thus drawn in the middle episodes (14:3-17) between Corinatumr and his challengers, who alternately occupy these two locations. In fact, at the center of this section (13:23-14:31) it is Coriantumr who dwells in the Wilderness of Akish. Coriantumr and his challengers are thus shown to really all be the same, and Coriantumr is not be viewed as better than his challengers or as the last remaining bastion of civil order.

• Ether 14:9-10. Gilead is murdered by his high priest (nice religion!) while sitting on his throne, who is in turn killed in a hidden secret passageway. While the battles in most of this section (13:23-14:31) show open formal challenges for power, these two central events demonstrate that in an environment of secret combinations no one can be trusted anywhere. Even far removed from battle, even the most powerful man in the country is not safe, not on his public throne, not in a secret passage.

Ether 15 / Verses 15:1-34

• Baptism occurs at the age of eight years, circumcision at eight days, Noah was saved as one of eight people on the ark, the Jaredites arrived in eight boats, and now the Jaredites are destroyed in eight days of battle. They are being held accountable by God.

• Ether 15:1-5: Corinatumr misunderstands his situation. The destruction is finally reaching Coriantumr's heart. He wants it to stop. But the problem is that he still fails to recognize his true opponent. He still thinks he can cut a deal with Shiz. In fact he is standing in opposition to God and his prophet Ether, and Ether has already provided the terms under which the destruction will stop. Because Coriantumr instead asks the wrong person (Shiz) to stop the destruction on the wrong terms, the effort is doomed to fail before it even begins.

• Ether 15:1-5: Coriantumr is not a good shepherd. In the opening section of this closing narrative Coriantumr was unwilling to repent, or to give up his way of life. Here he is unwilling to give up his life. He is not a good shepherd.

• Ether 15:12-15. Everyone is forcibly brought into this Satanic machine of destruction, and people are denied the choice of opting out. Society is ripe for destruction.

• Ether 15:15-17. You cannot run away from this machine of destruction. It will chase you down.

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 15:31: Death of Shiz. Why is there such a graphic description of the death of Shiz? What's to be gained from reading this?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapters 13b-15 / Verses 13:13-15:34
Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapters 13b-15 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapters 13b-15 consists of three major sections:

• Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 13b-15 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Outline

● Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)

a. Ether rejected, views destruction from hiding (13:13-14)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:15-16)

c. no one repents (13:17)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:18-19)

a. Ether prophesies final destruction and in hiding, no one repents (13:20-22)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)

a. Corinatumr and Shared battle three days (13:23-30)

b. curse on the land (13:31-14:2)

c. Coriantumr and Gilead battle in Akish and Moron (14:3-8)

d. self-destruction within secret combinations (14:9-10)

c. Coriantumr and Lib II battle in Moron and Akish (14:11-16)

b. fear of Shiz sweeping the earth (14:17-25)

a. Coriantumr and Shiz battle three days (14:26-31)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

a. Coriantumr sees that prophecy is being fulfilled, tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:1-5)

b. battle at seashore, Coriantumr faints (15:6-11)

c. camping four years to gather strength (15:12-14)

d. days 1-2 of final battle (15:15-17)

e. Coriantumr again tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:18-19)

d. days 3-6 of final battle (15:20-26)

c. days 7-8 of final battle, Coriantumr's group flees (15:27-29a)

b. Shiz and Coriantumr both faint, Coriantumr kills Shiz (15:29b-32)

a. Ether's witness that prophesied destruction is fulfilled (15:33-34)

How to avoid destruction

A main point of this section is that the destruction can be avoided only through repentance. Ether tells Coriantumr at the beginning to repent. Coriantumr tried to overcome the destructive forces within his society instead by force of arms, or by relying upon the arm of flesh. He then tries to reach an accommodation through negotiation. Neither works because he does not repent as the prophet insisted must be done. So Coriantumr and his people are destroyed over the course of an eight day battle.

The first section (verses 13:13-22) sets up the thesis of the closing narrative in Ether: Destruction may be avoided only by repentance. This is that the prophet Ether tells the king Coriantumr. The rest of this closing narrative is a lesson about what happens when the king ignores this message from the prophet. Throughout this closing narrative Coriantumr thinks he is fighting a succession of competing political foes: Shared, Gilead, Lib, Shiz, but really it is about the conflict between Coriantumr and the prophet Ether.

Ether 13b / Verses 13:13-22

• Ether 13:20-22. In Verse 12:1-3; 13:2, 13 the people rejected Ether's warning to repent. Now in Verse 13:20-22 the king Coriantumr also rejects the warning to repent. Coriantumr was given the chance to repent for his people, much like a Davidic king who stands between the Lord and his people.

Ether 14 / Verses 13:23-14:31

• Ether 13:23-30. We do not know anything about the geography mentioned in the first episode (13:23-30) except that "hills, plains and valleys" may be intended to mean everywhere.

• Ether 13:27: Prophecy. This verse seems to state that Ether would be alive with Coriantumr when he is found in the book of Omni. But then in the last chapter of Ether, it states that all of the Lord's words had been fulfilled, yet I still don't see how Ether saw the Nephites possess this land. Does anyone have any insight into this passage?

• Good question. Ether 15:33 says that Ether wrote that "the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" and yet Ether doesn't witness (or at least mention) that Coriantumr saw "another people receiving the land"—this prophesy seems to be fulfilled in Omni 1:26, but Ether doesn't mention it.

• One view might be that when Ether "beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" (Ether 15:34), Ether witnessed the people of Zarahemla discover Coriantumr. This is reading a bit into the text, but would seem to resolve the issue. Another view might be that the prophecy in verse 21 only consists of the first sentence—that Coriantumr's household would all be destroyed except himself—and that the rest of the verse is an editorial comment by a later redactor.

• Ether 13:31-14:2, 14:17-25. In the first of these two episodes (13:31-14:2) the great curse is that people cannot hang on to their possessions. In the second, parallel episode (14:17-25), the piles of dead bodies indicate that one has trouble even hanging to his or her own life.

• Ether 14:3-8, 11-17. We know that Moron was the Jaredite capitol (7:6; 14:6). We also know that the Wilderness of Akish shares the same name with the man who first introduced secret combinations to the Jaredite people, that he ascended the throne through intrigue against his own father, and that under his rule the Jaredite people were almost completely destroyed for the first time. A connection is thus drawn in the middle episodes (14:3-17) between Corinatumr and his challengers, who alternately occupy these two locations. In fact, at the center of this section (13:23-14:31) it is Coriantumr who dwells in the Wilderness of Akish. Coriantumr and his challengers are thus shown to really all be the same, and Coriantumr is not be viewed as better than his challengers or as the last remaining bastion of civil order.

• Ether 14:9-10. Gilead is murdered by his high priest (nice religion!) while sitting on his throne, who is in turn killed in a hidden secret passageway. While the battles in most of this section (13:23-14:31) show open formal challenges for power, these two central events demonstrate that in an environment of secret combinations no one can be trusted anywhere. Even far removed from battle, even the most powerful man in the country is not safe, not on his public throne, not in a secret passage.

Ether 15 / Verses 15:1-34

• Baptism occurs at the age of eight years, circumcision at eight days, Noah was saved as one of eight people on the ark, the Jaredites arrived in eight boats, and now the Jaredites are destroyed in eight days of battle. They are being held accountable by God.

• Ether 15:1-5: Corinatumr misunderstands his situation. The destruction is finally reaching Coriantumr's heart. He wants it to stop. But the problem is that he still fails to recognize his true opponent. He still thinks he can cut a deal with Shiz. In fact he is standing in opposition to God and his prophet Ether, and Ether has already provided the terms under which the destruction will stop. Because Coriantumr instead asks the wrong person (Shiz) to stop the destruction on the wrong terms, the effort is doomed to fail before it even begins.

• Ether 15:1-5: Coriantumr is not a good shepherd. In the opening section of this closing narrative Coriantumr was unwilling to repent, or to give up his way of life. Here he is unwilling to give up his life. He is not a good shepherd.

• Ether 15:12-15. Everyone is forcibly brought into this Satanic machine of destruction, and people are denied the choice of opting out. Society is ripe for destruction.

• Ether 15:15-17. You cannot run away from this machine of destruction. It will chase you down.

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 15:31: Death of Shiz. Why is there such a graphic description of the death of Shiz? What's to be gained from reading this?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapters 13b-15 / Verses 13:13-15:34
Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapters 13b-15 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapters 13b-15 consists of three major sections:

• Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 13b-15 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Outline

● Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)

a. Ether rejected, views destruction from hiding (13:13-14)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:15-16)

c. no one repents (13:17)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:18-19)

a. Ether prophesies final destruction and in hiding, no one repents (13:20-22)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)

a. Corinatumr and Shared battle three days (13:23-30)

b. curse on the land (13:31-14:2)

c. Coriantumr and Gilead battle in Akish and Moron (14:3-8)

d. self-destruction within secret combinations (14:9-10)

c. Coriantumr and Lib II battle in Moron and Akish (14:11-16)

b. fear of Shiz sweeping the earth (14:17-25)

a. Coriantumr and Shiz battle three days (14:26-31)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

a. Coriantumr sees that prophecy is being fulfilled, tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:1-5)

b. battle at seashore, Coriantumr faints (15:6-11)

c. camping four years to gather strength (15:12-14)

d. days 1-2 of final battle (15:15-17)

e. Coriantumr again tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:18-19)

d. days 3-6 of final battle (15:20-26)

c. days 7-8 of final battle, Coriantumr's group flees (15:27-29a)

b. Shiz and Coriantumr both faint, Coriantumr kills Shiz (15:29b-32)

a. Ether's witness that prophesied destruction is fulfilled (15:33-34)

How to avoid destruction

A main point of this section is that the destruction can be avoided only through repentance. Ether tells Coriantumr at the beginning to repent. Coriantumr tried to overcome the destructive forces within his society instead by force of arms, or by relying upon the arm of flesh. He then tries to reach an accommodation through negotiation. Neither works because he does not repent as the prophet insisted must be done. So Coriantumr and his people are destroyed over the course of an eight day battle.

The first section (verses 13:13-22) sets up the thesis of the closing narrative in Ether: Destruction may be avoided only by repentance. This is that the prophet Ether tells the king Coriantumr. The rest of this closing narrative is a lesson about what happens when the king ignores this message from the prophet. Throughout this closing narrative Coriantumr thinks he is fighting a succession of competing political foes: Shared, Gilead, Lib, Shiz, but really it is about the conflict between Coriantumr and the prophet Ether.

Ether 13b / Verses 13:13-22

• Ether 13:20-22. In Verse 12:1-3; 13:2, 13 the people rejected Ether's warning to repent. Now in Verse 13:20-22 the king Coriantumr also rejects the warning to repent. Coriantumr was given the chance to repent for his people, much like a Davidic king who stands between the Lord and his people.

Ether 14 / Verses 13:23-14:31

• Ether 13:23-30. We do not know anything about the geography mentioned in the first episode (13:23-30) except that "hills, plains and valleys" may be intended to mean everywhere.

• Ether 13:27: Prophecy. This verse seems to state that Ether would be alive with Coriantumr when he is found in the book of Omni. But then in the last chapter of Ether, it states that all of the Lord's words had been fulfilled, yet I still don't see how Ether saw the Nephites possess this land. Does anyone have any insight into this passage?

• Good question. Ether 15:33 says that Ether wrote that "the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" and yet Ether doesn't witness (or at least mention) that Coriantumr saw "another people receiving the land"—this prophesy seems to be fulfilled in Omni 1:26, but Ether doesn't mention it.

• One view might be that when Ether "beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" (Ether 15:34), Ether witnessed the people of Zarahemla discover Coriantumr. This is reading a bit into the text, but would seem to resolve the issue. Another view might be that the prophecy in verse 21 only consists of the first sentence—that Coriantumr's household would all be destroyed except himself—and that the rest of the verse is an editorial comment by a later redactor.

• Ether 13:31-14:2, 14:17-25. In the first of these two episodes (13:31-14:2) the great curse is that people cannot hang on to their possessions. In the second, parallel episode (14:17-25), the piles of dead bodies indicate that one has trouble even hanging to his or her own life.

• Ether 14:3-8, 11-17. We know that Moron was the Jaredite capitol (7:6; 14:6). We also know that the Wilderness of Akish shares the same name with the man who first introduced secret combinations to the Jaredite people, that he ascended the throne through intrigue against his own father, and that under his rule the Jaredite people were almost completely destroyed for the first time. A connection is thus drawn in the middle episodes (14:3-17) between Corinatumr and his challengers, who alternately occupy these two locations. In fact, at the center of this section (13:23-14:31) it is Coriantumr who dwells in the Wilderness of Akish. Coriantumr and his challengers are thus shown to really all be the same, and Coriantumr is not be viewed as better than his challengers or as the last remaining bastion of civil order.

• Ether 14:9-10. Gilead is murdered by his high priest (nice religion!) while sitting on his throne, who is in turn killed in a hidden secret passageway. While the battles in most of this section (13:23-14:31) show open formal challenges for power, these two central events demonstrate that in an environment of secret combinations no one can be trusted anywhere. Even far removed from battle, even the most powerful man in the country is not safe, not on his public throne, not in a secret passage.

Ether 15 / Verses 15:1-34

• Baptism occurs at the age of eight years, circumcision at eight days, Noah was saved as one of eight people on the ark, the Jaredites arrived in eight boats, and now the Jaredites are destroyed in eight days of battle. They are being held accountable by God.

• Ether 15:1-5: Corinatumr misunderstands his situation. The destruction is finally reaching Coriantumr's heart. He wants it to stop. But the problem is that he still fails to recognize his true opponent. He still thinks he can cut a deal with Shiz. In fact he is standing in opposition to God and his prophet Ether, and Ether has already provided the terms under which the destruction will stop. Because Coriantumr instead asks the wrong person (Shiz) to stop the destruction on the wrong terms, the effort is doomed to fail before it even begins.

• Ether 15:1-5: Coriantumr is not a good shepherd. In the opening section of this closing narrative Coriantumr was unwilling to repent, or to give up his way of life. Here he is unwilling to give up his life. He is not a good shepherd.

• Ether 15:12-15. Everyone is forcibly brought into this Satanic machine of destruction, and people are denied the choice of opting out. Society is ripe for destruction.

• Ether 15:15-17. You cannot run away from this machine of destruction. It will chase you down.

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 15:31: Death of Shiz. Why is there such a graphic description of the death of Shiz? What's to be gained from reading this?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

Home > The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 12-15 > Chapters 13b-15 / Verses 13:13-15:34
Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether

This page would ideally always be under construction. You are invited to contribute.

Summary

This section should be very brief. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Relationship to Chapters 12-15. The relationship of Chapters 13b-15 to the rest of Chapters 12-15 is discussed at Chapters 12-15.

Story. Chapters 13b-15 consists of three major sections:

• Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)
• Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Chapters 13b-15 include:

Discussion

This section is for detailed discussion such as the meaning of a symbol, how a doctrinal point is developed throughout a passage, or insights that can be further developed in the future. Contributions may range from polished paragraphs down to a single bullet point. The focus, however, should always be on understanding the scriptural text consistent with LDS doctrine. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Outline

● Ether's warning to avoid destruction by repenting (Chapter 13b)

a. Ether rejected, views destruction from hiding (13:13-14)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:15-16)

c. no one repents (13:17)

b. wars between secret combinations and king (13:18-19)

a. Ether prophesies final destruction and in hiding, no one repents (13:20-22)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by fighting four usurpers (Chapter 14)

a. Corinatumr and Shared battle three days (13:23-30)

b. curse on the land (13:31-14:2)

c. Coriantumr and Gilead battle in Akish and Moron (14:3-8)

d. self-destruction within secret combinations (14:9-10)

c. Coriantumr and Lib II battle in Moron and Akish (14:11-16)

b. fear of Shiz sweeping the earth (14:17-25)

a. Coriantumr and Shiz battle three days (14:26-31)

● Coriantumr tries to avoid destruction by negotiating, destruction fulfilled over eight days (Chapter 15)

a. Coriantumr sees that prophecy is being fulfilled, tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:1-5)

b. battle at seashore, Coriantumr faints (15:6-11)

c. camping four years to gather strength (15:12-14)

d. days 1-2 of final battle (15:15-17)

e. Coriantumr again tries to avoid destruction by negotiating (15:18-19)

d. days 3-6 of final battle (15:20-26)

c. days 7-8 of final battle, Coriantumr's group flees (15:27-29a)

b. Shiz and Coriantumr both faint, Coriantumr kills Shiz (15:29b-32)

a. Ether's witness that prophesied destruction is fulfilled (15:33-34)

How to avoid destruction

A main point of this section is that the destruction can be avoided only through repentance. Ether tells Coriantumr at the beginning to repent. Coriantumr tried to overcome the destructive forces within his society instead by force of arms, or by relying upon the arm of flesh. He then tries to reach an accommodation through negotiation. Neither works because he does not repent as the prophet insisted must be done. So Coriantumr and his people are destroyed over the course of an eight day battle.

The first section (verses 13:13-22) sets up the thesis of the closing narrative in Ether: Destruction may be avoided only by repentance. This is that the prophet Ether tells the king Coriantumr. The rest of this closing narrative is a lesson about what happens when the king ignores this message from the prophet. Throughout this closing narrative Coriantumr thinks he is fighting a succession of competing political foes: Shared, Gilead, Lib, Shiz, but really it is about the conflict between Coriantumr and the prophet Ether.

Ether 13b / Verses 13:13-22

• Ether 13:20-22. In Verse 12:1-3; 13:2, 13 the people rejected Ether's warning to repent. Now in Verse 13:20-22 the king Coriantumr also rejects the warning to repent. Coriantumr was given the chance to repent for his people, much like a Davidic king who stands between the Lord and his people.

Ether 14 / Verses 13:23-14:31

• Ether 13:23-30. We do not know anything about the geography mentioned in the first episode (13:23-30) except that "hills, plains and valleys" may be intended to mean everywhere.

• Ether 13:27: Prophecy. This verse seems to state that Ether would be alive with Coriantumr when he is found in the book of Omni. But then in the last chapter of Ether, it states that all of the Lord's words had been fulfilled, yet I still don't see how Ether saw the Nephites possess this land. Does anyone have any insight into this passage?

• Good question. Ether 15:33 says that Ether wrote that "the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" and yet Ether doesn't witness (or at least mention) that Coriantumr saw "another people receiving the land"—this prophesy seems to be fulfilled in Omni 1:26, but Ether doesn't mention it.

• One view might be that when Ether "beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled" (Ether 15:34), Ether witnessed the people of Zarahemla discover Coriantumr. This is reading a bit into the text, but would seem to resolve the issue. Another view might be that the prophecy in verse 21 only consists of the first sentence—that Coriantumr's household would all be destroyed except himself—and that the rest of the verse is an editorial comment by a later redactor.

• Ether 13:31-14:2, 14:17-25. In the first of these two episodes (13:31-14:2) the great curse is that people cannot hang on to their possessions. In the second, parallel episode (14:17-25), the piles of dead bodies indicate that one has trouble even hanging to his or her own life.

• Ether 14:3-8, 11-17. We know that Moron was the Jaredite capitol (7:6; 14:6). We also know that the Wilderness of Akish shares the same name with the man who first introduced secret combinations to the Jaredite people, that he ascended the throne through intrigue against his own father, and that under his rule the Jaredite people were almost completely destroyed for the first time. A connection is thus drawn in the middle episodes (14:3-17) between Corinatumr and his challengers, who alternately occupy these two locations. In fact, at the center of this section (13:23-14:31) it is Coriantumr who dwells in the Wilderness of Akish. Coriantumr and his challengers are thus shown to really all be the same, and Coriantumr is not be viewed as better than his challengers or as the last remaining bastion of civil order.

• Ether 14:9-10. Gilead is murdered by his high priest (nice religion!) while sitting on his throne, who is in turn killed in a hidden secret passageway. While the battles in most of this section (13:23-14:31) show open formal challenges for power, these two central events demonstrate that in an environment of secret combinations no one can be trusted anywhere. Even far removed from battle, even the most powerful man in the country is not safe, not on his public throne, not in a secret passage.

Ether 15 / Verses 15:1-34

• Baptism occurs at the age of eight years, circumcision at eight days, Noah was saved as one of eight people on the ark, the Jaredites arrived in eight boats, and now the Jaredites are destroyed in eight days of battle. They are being held accountable by God.

• Ether 15:1-5: Corinatumr misunderstands his situation. The destruction is finally reaching Coriantumr's heart. He wants it to stop. But the problem is that he still fails to recognize his true opponent. He still thinks he can cut a deal with Shiz. In fact he is standing in opposition to God and his prophet Ether, and Ether has already provided the terms under which the destruction will stop. Because Coriantumr instead asks the wrong person (Shiz) to stop the destruction on the wrong terms, the effort is doomed to fail before it even begins.

• Ether 15:1-5: Coriantumr is not a good shepherd. In the opening section of this closing narrative Coriantumr was unwilling to repent, or to give up his way of life. Here he is unwilling to give up his life. He is not a good shepherd.

• Ether 15:12-15. Everyone is forcibly brought into this Satanic machine of destruction, and people are denied the choice of opting out. Society is ripe for destruction.

• Ether 15:15-17. You cannot run away from this machine of destruction. It will chase you down.

Unanswered questions

This section is for questions along the lines of "I still don't understand ..." Please do not be shy. The point of these questions is to identify things that still need to be addressed on this page. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for life application

This section is for prompts that suggest ways in which a passage can influence a person's life. Prompts may be appropriate either for private self reflection or for a class discussion. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Prompts for further study

This section is for prompts that invite us to think about a passage more deeply or in a new way. These are not necessarily questions that beg for answers, but rather prompts along the lines of "Have you ever thought about ..." Prompts are most helpful when they are developed individually, thoughtfully, and with enough background information to clearly indicate a particular direction for further study or thought. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

• Ether 15:31: Death of Shiz. Why is there such a graphic description of the death of Shiz? What's to be gained from reading this?

Resources

This section is for listing links and print resources, including those that are also cited elsewhere on this page. A short comment about the particular strengths of a resource can be helpful. Click the link above and to the right to edit or add content to this heading. →

Notes

Footnotes are not required but are encouraged for factual assertions that average readers cannot easily evaluate for themselves (such as the date of King Solomon’s death or the nuanced definition of a Greek word). In contrast, insights rarely benefit from footnoting, and the focus of this page should always remain on the scriptures themselves rather than what someone has said about them. Links are actively encouraged on all sections of this page, and links to authoritative sources (such as Strong's Bible Concordance or the Joseph Smith Papers) are preferable to footnotes.

Previous page: Chapter 13a                      This is the last page for Ether