Mormon uses the terms “wars and contentions.” In Mormon’s usage these two often are placed together, which may lead us to believe that they both describe the same conditions. They do not. For Mormon, wars are against an external foe, and contentions are against an internal foe. Thus we have war because of the Lamanites, but contentions due to the Amlicites. Notice that the introduction of the Amlicite problem in Alma 2:1 “And it came to pass in the commencement of the fifth year of their reign there began to be a contention among the people; for a certain man, being called Amlici…”
Mormon is consistent in making a distinction between wars and contentions, and when we see “contentions” we must understand that we are dealing with internal strife and divisions, not external problems with the Lamanites.
Textual: Mormon’s summary conclusion is simply that peace returns, and they have a time where they will not have trouble from their enemies. We have the typical ending statement that these things end in a particular year, in this case the fifth year of the reign of the judges, which correlates to AD 87 in the correlation used in this commentary. While this is typically a closing statement, and indeed is the concluding statement of this chapter in verse 27.
This suggests that Mormon had intended to close his account with this year-statement, but then adds the editorial insertion that we have as verses 26 and 27. When he finishes with that moral conclusion, he returns to the intended conclusion.