“Why Tempt Ye Me?”

Brant Gardner

Rhetorical: Amulek turns his righteous wrath on Zeezrom, for as we shall see in the next verse, Amulek has perceived a hidden agenda in Zeezrom's opening move. Amulek first declines, vehemently, the offer of the six onties. The next thing he does is to turn the questioning process back on Zeezrom. Amulek asks a question. However, he does not wait for an answer, but rather answers it himself.

Amulek does this because he knows that Zeezrom will have some smooth way out of the accusation. What Amulek does is to question whether or not Zeezrom believes in God, and then acknowledges that he does. However, Amulek uses the offer of the onties as proof that Zeezrom loves lucre more than God. Amulek is suggesting that Zeezrom believed Amulek might have accepted the onties precisely because Zeezrom would have considered it a tempting offer. Amulek is using Zeezrom's offer to accuse Zeezrom of the very thing that Zeezrom would have accused Amulek.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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