Implied in these verses are the several partial or intermittent judgments that occur during the postmortal phase of our eternal existence. The righteous are those who have been baptized and remained faithful in mortality. At death they are judged worthy to be gathered to one part of the spirit world—paradise. All others go to other parts of the spirit world.34 Verses 13–14 speak of that part of the spirit world reserved for those who once knew the ways of righteousness but ultimately rejected the things of God. It does not refer to those who died in ignorance.
“Outer darkness, or hell, is made up of those who in mortality spurned the ways of righteousness, those who defied the word of truth, those who chose to walk in their own paths or in paths of disobedience. Joseph Smith pointed out, ‘The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers’ (Teachings, pp. 310–311; compare p. 358). Thus hell or outer darkness is both a place—a part of the world of spirits where suffering and sorrow and appropriate preparation go on—and a state—a condition of the mind associated with remorseful realization.”35
The “first resurrection” in verse 16 is the same one discussed by Abinadi (see Mosiah 15:21–26).