“Even As a Goat Fleeth with Her Young from Two Lions”

Alan C. Miner

As the prison walls fall down as Alma and Amulek emerge from the prison, Mormon uses a "simile" phrase to describe the scene: "they . . . fled from the presence of Alma and Amulek even as a goat fleeth with her young from two lions" (Alma 14:29). Although there were no true Old World lions in Mesoamerica, two Mesoamerican Jaguars or two Pumas (both foreign to the vocabulary of Joseph Smith) could be substituted for the two lions in the cultural imagery here. However, it is just as likely that Mormon was using scriptural imagery from the brass plates. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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