As a newcomer to Zarahemla’s society—and furthermore, as one who has spent all his time organizing churches—Alma probably is not well informed about the history of these dissensions, which almost certainly had begun before Alma reached the city.
Alma cannot make a decision, probably because he recognizes that the problem is social as well as religious. He refers the dissenters to the king because they must share responsibility for this social/religious problem.
Variant: The printer’s manuscript for verse 9 reads: “And it came to pass that Alma did know concerning them there were many witnesses against them.… ” At this point, the printer’s manuscript is not in Oliver Cowdery’s hand, but Oliver did insert not into the sentence for some reason. Later, in the 1920 edition, the word but was added to help make sense of the sentence. The best sense comes from the version in the uncorrected printer’s manuscript.