Difference between revisions of "Alma 44:6-10"

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The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 44

Questions

• v. 7 ~ The nature of covenants. Are these "covenants" as we think of them today? Or merely oaths/promises? (It is called an "oath" up until verse 14, where it specifically mentions the "covenant of peace.") If the former, how can it be a true covenant when the only other option is destruction?
• v. 8-9 ~ Zarahemnah refuses on the grounds that he won't be able to keep the oath? Isn't this honorable--refusing to promise something you won't be able to do? Or is it proud--refusing to take the oath, because he doesn't want to maintain peace for the rest of his life? Which of the two does Zarahemnah mean when he says "we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break"? He goes on to speak of his children as also being unable to keep this oath--how can he speak for them? Does this support the latter interpretation of his refusal?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 10

An interesting distinction arises beginning in this verse. Although in verse 8 Zarahemnah surrenders "his sword and his cimeter and his bow," in verse 10 Moroni returns "the sword and the weapons of war." This distinction between "sword" and "weapons of war" continues until verse 20. The sword is further singled out in verse 12, where Zarahemnah rushes to kill Moroni, who is defended by one of his soldiers: "as he raised his sword, behold, one of Moroni's soldiers smote it even to the earth, and it broke by the hilt" (emphasis added). Not only is the word "sword" distinguished from the all-inclusive "weapons of war," but this dramatic moment is related in detail; Zarahemnah's sword is shattered at the hilt and falls to the earth, followed by the shameful scalping of this Lamanite leader, who the retreats to hide among the throng of his armies, leaving the borken sword at Moroni's feet. What does the sword symbolize in this culture? Is it involved in a kind of ritual of surrender? Or does it have something to do with the sword of Laban and its role in the legitimacy of Nephite government?

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