“An Account of the Destroyed People”

Monte S. Nyman

The people who were destroyed are called the Jaredites. Their account was later abridged and included in the record of the Book of Mormon by Moroni. It is the book of Ether, the next to the last book in the Book of Mormon. The building of the great tower (v. 17) is recorded in the Bible, Genesis 11:1–9. That record verifies what Mormon abridged: “So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:8–9). All people have or will have an opportunity to know of the Jaredites through the book of Ether (Mosiah 28:19). Mormon, abridging the record nearly five hundred years after Mosiah I had translated them, confirms that the records and sacred things had been handed down from generation to generation from the time Lehi left Jerusalem (v. 20).

Book of Mormon Commentary: These Records Are True

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