This was Alma’s second visit to the city of Ammonihah. He had been rejected and “cast out of their city,” but was commanded by an angel to return (see Alma 8:8–16). On the return visit Alma first met Amulek, a resident of the city, with whom he “tarried many days” (Alma 8:27). The people did not associate Amulek with Alma and assumed that Alma was alone again (Alma 9:2). Their questioning of God sending only one man appears to be based on the scriptural injunction of establishing the truth “at the mouth of two witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:15). They seem to be ridiculing Alma as someone who claimed to represent God (Alma 9:6).
Their two suppositions of what Alma might prophecy: that “the earth should pass away” (v. 2), and that “this great city should be destroyed in one day” (v. 4) were intended by them to be impossible occurrences. Alma as he wrote his record, or Mormon as he abridges the account, acknowledges that both of these supposed impossibilities were within the realm of God’s power (v. 3 and v. 5).