Alma, in sorrow, recalled to his listeners’ minds the wicked intents that filled the hearts of their fathers in Lehi-Nephi, and also the hearts of some of them that now heard his words. He reminded them, that in that land all but a few rejected the words of God’s holy prophet. But, Alma said that the Lord “changed their hearts.” As before they took pleasure in evil, they now rejoiced in sobriety. There was a change within; therefore, there was a change without. The things they once hated, they now love; what once they drew closely to their bosoms, they now despise. A keen desire to do no more evil but to do good, reigned supreme in their hearts. Light, love, joy, and peace—God’s most precious gift—overflowed their very existence. Nor, was that all! Knowledge from heaven illumined their souls; waters from the Wells of Salvation slaked their thirst; the words of God’s servants became meat to their once impoverished beings; the Lord “awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God.”
Behold, they were in the midst of darkness. Darkness, as used here, means, error, unbelief, or ignorance. The darkness which enshrouded the Nephites in Lehi-Nephi was dispelled by God’s holy word, and the preaching thereof by His servants brought light where, formerly, darkness prevailed. The words of this verse remind us of the words of Isaiah and also words of King David, “O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord,” (Psalm 36:9)
The bands of death, and the chains of hell. We will have Nephi, the son of Patriarch Lehi, comment on the meaning of these words:
O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.
And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.
And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to another; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect. (II Nephi 10:13)