Alma uses interesting language to describe the pains he suffered when he was struck by the Lord. During those trying three days and three nights, he was wading through much tribulation (v. 28), he was in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity, he was in the darkest abyss. He continues in Alma chapter 36, I was racked with eternal torment, my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins (Alma 36:12). I was tormented with the pains of hell…for three days and three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul (Alma 36:13-16). The key to Alma’s pain and suffering was the following, the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror (Alma 36:14).
It is apparent from the above passages that Alma suffered terribly. Yet, the Lord has revealed that for those who do not repent, the suffering will be even worse. He commands, repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not (DC 19:15). What Alma experienced was just a taste, a mere glimpse of the pains of eternal punishment. Although his description sounds awful, he did not get the full punishment from the Lord:
’…the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows;
Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof;
Nevertheless, I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but straightway shut it up again;
Wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except those who are ordained unto this condemnation’ (DC 76:45-48).