Culture: A careful reading discloses interesting information about the battle. The Lamanites had the numerical advantage, “being as numerous almost, as it were, as the sands of the sea” (v. 27). Additionally, the Nephites had pursued the Amlicites on the east side of the river, but the Amlicites, after joining forces with the Lamanites, were marching on Zarahemla from the river’s west side. Alma and his troops are approaching from the east, which means that the Nephites must ford a river to reach the battlefield, upon which a vastly larger army was waiting.
Strategically, the Lamanites could occupy dry land, wait for the Nephites to emerge from the river, and crush them with their topographical and numerical advantage. It should have been an easy Lamanite victory. It was not.
Two facets of the Nephite attack are important. Unquestionably, the individual battles between Alma and Amlici and the king of the Lamanites are most significant. But equally significant is the information in verses 34-35, which explains that Alma’s actions clear the way for his army to cross. In other words, the Lamanite force does not employ its numerical superiority. Rather than a general melee, Alma engages in two personal combats, one with Amlici and one with the Lamanite king.
Thus, each leader represents his army in a battle of kings, not a battle between the armies themselves. Alma crossed the river with a small number of men under his immediate command and began combat with Amlici. It could not have happened by chance that, in an army as numerous as grains of sand, Alma coincidentally fell on one of two opponents of his own social ranking.
Such a mode of battle is relatively rare, but certainly not without precedent. The Old Testament offers the story of David and Goliath, where the entire outcome of a people’s enslavement or freedom rested on the battle of champions. Furthermore, while Alma fights Amlici to a conclusive defeat, the rest of the Lamanite army does not interfere. Once Alma defeated Amlici, he then engaged in direct combat with Lamanite king. Verse 32 indicates that this king withdrew and sent his guards against Alma, making it clear that he could have mobilized those guards for action before that point and confirming that his combat with Alma, until his withdrawal, must have been an arranged combat. With the two leaders defeated, Alma’s victory was sufficient to allow his army to cross the river.
Redaction: For Mormon, the point of the conflict is to demonstrate Yahweh’s power, which he does by emphasizing the relative size of the two armies. When Alma attacks the opposing kings, one after another, he is an underdog. Mormon thus highlights Yahweh’s miraculous intervention.