In their last encounter, Limhi’s people had been fairly successful against the Lamanites (Mosiah 20:11). Their mistake was to assume that their success was due to their own power and strength. Now, after suffering more Lamanite-induced affliction, Limhi’s people become the aggressors. They strike first in three different ill-fated military campaigns. This behavior was in defiance of the will of the Lord regarding any military activities. The people of the Lord are not to be the aggressors, Inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense, neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies (Alma 43:46), and they were also taught never to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives (Alma 48:14). This law against aggression was repeated to the persecuted saints of Missouri:
’Now, I speak unto you concerning your families--if men will smite you, or your families, once, and ye bear it patiently and revile not against them, neither seek revenge, ye shall be rewarded;
But if ye bear it not patiently, it shall be accounted unto you as being meted out as a just measure unto you.
And again, if your enemy shall smite you the second time, and you revile not against your enemy, and bear it patiently, your reward shall be an hundredfold.
And again, if he shall smite you the third time, and ye bear it patiently, your reward shall be doubled unto you four-fold;
And these three testimonies shall stand against your enemy if he repent not, and shall not be blotted out…
And then, if he shall come upon you or your children, or your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation, I have delivered thine enemy into thine hands’ (DC 98:23-29, italics added)
The blood thirstiness of Limhi’s people was rewarded with pain and suffering so severe that it caused a great mourning and lamentation…the widow mourning for her husband, the son and the daughter mourning for their father, and the brothers for their brethren.