Amulek would no doubt have had a lot of sympathetic listeners in this crowd if it had not been for the agitation of the lawyers. They were shrewd and rude and crude. The record says:
“Nevertheless, there were some among them who thought to question them, that by their cunning devices they might catch them in their words, that they might find witness against them, that they might deliver them to their judges that they might be judged according to the law, and that they might be slain or cast into prison, according to the crime which they could make appear or witness against them. Now it was those men who sought to destroy them, who were lawyers, who were hired or appointed by the people to administer the law at their times of trials, or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges. Now these lawyers were learned in all the arts and cunning of the people; and this was to enable them that they might be skilful in their profession. And it came to pass that they began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him cross his words, or contradict the words which he should speak.”