According to McConkie and Millet, our first scriptural reference to gall, a bitter and poisonous herb, is found in Deuteronomy 29:18, where it is used as a metaphor to describe the spiritual state of those who turn from the God of Israel to embrace idolatry. The phrase Moses used was "gall and wormwood." Wormwood also was a plant with a bitter taste. The doctrine being taught by Alma's comment is that to leave righteousness and truth to embrace wickedness and falsehood embitters and poisons the soul toward those covenants that have been abandoned. Thus it is to be expected that those leaving the Church to satiate carnal appetites will not be able to remain neutral toward it but rather will be characterized by a bitter and poisonous spirit. Alma2 was a classic example of this sequence and here announces that he has been freed from the spirit of bitterness. (See also Alma 36:18; 41:11; Mormon 8:31; Moroni 8:14; Acts 8:23.) [Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. II, p. 308]