Prisoners of War Exchanged

Event 119

Reference: Alma 54:1-24; 55:1-35

AND now it came to pass in the commencement of thetwenty and ninth year of the judges, that Ammoron sentunto Moroni desiring that he would exchange prisoners.MormonCamp of Moroni63 B.C.2 And it came to pass that Moroni felt to rejoiceexceedingly at this request, for he desired the provisionswhich were imparted for the support of the Lamaniteprisoners for the support of his own people; and he alsodesired his own people for the strengthening of his army. 3Now the Lamanites had taken many women and children,and there was not a woman nor a child among all theprisoners of Moroni, or the prisoners whom Moroni hadtaken; therefore Moroni resolved upon a stratagem to obtainas many prisoners of the Nephites from the Lamanites as itwere possible. 4 Therefore he wrote an epistle, and sent itby the servant of Ammoron, the same who had brought anepistle to Moroni. Now these are the words which he wroteunto Ammoron, saying:5 Behold, Ammoron, I have written unto you somewhatconcerning this war which ye have waged against my people, orrather which thy brother hath waged against them, and which yeare still determined to carry on after his death. 6 Behold, I wouldtell you somewhat concerning the justice of God, and the sword ofhis almighty wrath, which doth hang over you except ye repentand withdraw your armies into your own lands, or the land of yourpossessions, which is the land of Nephi. 7 Yea, I would tell youthese things if ye were capable of hearkening unto them; yea, Iwould tell you concerning that awful hell that awaits to receivesuch murderers as thou and thy brother have been, except yerepent and withdraw your murderous purposes, and return withyour armies to your own lands. 8 But as ye have once rejectedthese things, and have fought against the people of the Lord, evenso I may expect you will do it again.Moroni9 And now behold, we are prepared to receive you; yea, and exceptyou withdraw your purposes, behold, ye will pull down the wrathof that God whom you have rejected upon you, even to your utterdestruction. 10 But, as the Lord liveth, our armies shall come uponyou except ye withdraw, and ye shall soon be visited with death,for we will retain our cities and our lands; yea, and we willmaintain our religion and the cause of our God. 11 But behold, itsupposeth me that I talk to you concerning these things in vain; orit supposeth me that thou art a child of hell; therefore I will closemy epistle by telling you that I will not exchange prisoners, save it be on conditions that ye will deliver up a man and his wife and hischildren, for one prisoner; if this be the case that ye will do it, Iwill exchange.MoroniCamp of Moroni63 B.C.12 And behold, if ye do not this, I will come against you with myarmies; yea, even I will arm my women and my children, and Iwill come against you, and I will follow you even into your ownland, which is the land of our first inheritance; yea, and it shall beblood for blood, yea, life for life; and I will give you battle evenuntil you are destroyed from off the face of the earth. 13 Behold, Iam in my anger, and also my people; ye have sought to murder us,and we have only sought to defend ourselves. But behold, if yeseek to destroy us more we will seek to destroy you; yea, and wewill seek our land, the land of our first inheritance. 14 Now I closemy epistle. I am Moroni; I am a leader of the people of theNephites.15 Now it came to pass that Ammoron, when he hadreceived this epistle, was angry; and he wrote anotherepistle unto Moroni, and these are the words which hewrote, saying:MormonCamp ofAmmoron16 I am Ammoron, the king of the Lamanites; I am the brother ofAmalickiah whom ye have murdered. Behold, I will avenge hisblood upon you, yea, and I will come upon you with my armies forI fear not your threatenings. 17 For behold, your fathers did wrongtheir brethren, insomuch that they did rob them of their right to thegovernment when it rightly belonged unto them. 18 And nowbehold, if ye will lay down your arms, and subject yourselves to begoverned by those to whom the government doth rightly belong,then will I cause that my people shall lay down their weapons andshall be at war no more. 19 Behold, ye have breathed out manythreatenings against me and my people; but behold, we fear notyour threatenings. 20 Nevertheless, I will grant to exchangeprisoners according to your request, gladly, that I may preserve myfood for my men of war; and we will wage a war which shall beeternal, either to the subjecting the Nephites to our authority or totheir eternal extinction.Ammoron21 And as concerning that God whom ye say we have rejected,behold, we know not such a being; neither do ye; but if it so bethat there is such a being, we know not but that he hath made us aswell as you. 22 And if it so be that there is a devil and a hell,behold will he not send you there to dwell with my brother whomye have murdered, whom ye have hinted that he hath gone to sucha place? But behold these things matter not. 23 I am Ammoron,and a descendant of Zoram, whom your fathers pressed andbrought out of Jerusalem. 24 And behold now, I am a boldLamanite; behold, this war hath been waged to avenge theirwrongs, and to maintain and to obtain their rights to thegovernment; and I close my epistle to Moroni. 1 NOW it came to pass that when Moroni had received thisepistle he was more angry, because he knew that Ammoronhad a perfect knowledge of his fraud; yea, he knew thatAmmoron knew that it was not a just cause that had causedhim to wage a war against the people of Nephi. 2 And hesaid:MormonCamp of Moroni63 B.C.Behold, I will not exchange prisoners with Ammoron save he willwithdraw his purpose, as I have stated in my epistle; for I will notgrant unto him that he shall have any more power than what hehath got. 3 Behold, I know the place where the Lamanites do guardmy people whom they have taken prisoners; and as Ammoronwould not grant unto me mine epistle, behold, I will give unto himaccording to my words; yea, I will seek death among them untilthey shall sue for peace.Moroni4 And now it came to pass that when Moroni had said thesewords, he caused that a search should be made among hismen, that perhaps he might find a man who was adescendant of Laman among them.Mormon5 And it came to pass that they found one, whose name wasLaman; and he was one of the servants of the king who wasmurdered by Amalickiah. 6 Now Moroni caused that Lamanand a small number of his men should go forth unto theguards who were over the Nephites.7 Now the Nephites were guarded in the city of Gid;therefore Moroni appointed Laman and caused that a smallnumber of men should go with him. 8 And when it wasevening Laman went to the guards who were over theNephites, and behold, they saw him coming and they hailedhim; but he saith unto them:City of GidFear not; behold, I am a Lamanite. Behold, we have escaped fromthe Nephites, and they sleep; and behold we have taken of theirwine and brought with us.Laman9 Now when the Lamanites heard these words they receivedhim with joy; and they said unto him:MormonGive us of your wine, that we may drink; we are glad that ye havethus taken wine with you for we are weary.Lamanite Guards10 But Laman said unto them:MormonLet us keep of our wine till we go against the Nephites to battle.LamanBut this saying only made them more desirous to drink ofthe wine; 11 For, said they:Mormon We are weary, therefore let us take of the wine, and by and by weshall receive wine for our rations, which will strengthen us to goagainst the Nephites.Lamanite GuardsCity of Gid63 B.C.12 And Laman said unto them:MormonYou may do according to your desires.Laman13 And it came to pass that they did take of the wine freely;and it was pleasant to their taste, therefore they took of itmore freely; and it was strong, having been prepared in itsstrength.Mormon14 And it came to pass they did drink and were merry, andby and by they were all drunken.15 And now when Laman and his men saw that they wereall drunken, and were in a deep sleep, they returned toMoroni and told him all the things that had happened.Camp of Moroni16 And now this was according to the design of Moroni.And Moroni had prepared his men with weapons of war;and he went to the city Gid, while the Lamanites were in adeep sleep and drunken, and cast in weapons of war untothe prisoners, insomuch that they were all armed; 17 Yea,even to their women, and all those of their children, asmany as were able to use a weapon of war, when Moronihad armed all those prisoners; and all those things weredone in a profound silence. 18 But had they awakened theLamanites, behold they were drunken and the Nephitescould have slain them.City of Gid19 But behold, this was not the desire of Moroni; he did notdelight in murder or bloodshed, but he delighted in thesaving of his people from destruction; and for this cause hemight not bring upon him injustice, he would not fall uponthe Lamanites and destroy them in their drunkenness. 20 Buthe had obtained his desires; for he had armed thoseprisoners of the Nephites who were within the wall of thecity, and had given them power to gain possession of thoseparts which were within the walls. 21 And then he causedthe men who were with him to withdraw a pace from them,and surround the armies of the Lamanites.22 Now behold this was done in the night-time, so that whenthe Lamanites awoke in the morning they beheld that theywere surrounded by the Nephites without, and that theirprisoners were armed within. 23 And thus they saw that theNephites had power over them; and in these circumstances they found that it was not expedient that they should fightwith the Nephites; therefore their chief captains demandedtheir weapons of war, and they brought them forth and castthem at the feet of the Nephites, pleading for mercy.MormonCity of Gid63 B.C.24 Now behold, this was the desire of Moroni. He took themprisoners of war, and took possession of the city, andcaused that all the prisoners should be liberated, who wereNephites; and they did join the army of Moroni, and were agreat strength to his army.25 And it came to pass that he did cause the Lamanites,whom he had taken prisoners, that they should commence alabor in strengthening the fortifications round about the cityGid.26 And it came to pass that when he had fortified the cityGid, according to his desires, he caused that his prisonersshould be taken to the city Bountiful; and he also guardedthat city with an exceedingly strong force.City of Bountiful27 And it came to pass that they did, notwithstanding all theintrigues of the Lamanites, keep and protect all theprisoners whom they had taken, and also maintain all theground and the advantage which they had retaken.28 And it came to pass that the Nephites began again to bevictorious, and to reclaim their rights and their privileges. 29Many times did the Lamanites attempt to encircle themabout by night, but in these attempts they did lose manyprisoners. 30 And many times did they attempt to administerof their wine to the Nephites, that they might destroy themwith poison or with drunkenness. 31 But behold, theNephites were not slow to remember the Lord their God inthis their time of affliction. They could not be taken in theirsnares; yea, they would not partake of their wine, save theyhad first given to some of the Lamanite prisoners. 32 Andthey were thus cautious that no poison should beadministered among them; for if their wine would poison aLamanite it would also poison a Nephite; and thus they didtry all their liquors.Cities near theeast sea33 And now it came to pass that it was expedient for Moronito make preparations to attack the city Morianton; forbehold, the Lamanites had, by their labors, fortified the cityMorianton until it had become an exceeding stronghold. 34And they were continually bringing new forces into thatCity of Morianton city, and also new supplies of provisions. 35 And thus endedthe twenty and ninth year of the reign of the judges over thepeople of Nephi.MormonCity of Morianton63 B.C.