“Encircled About with Everlasting Darkness and Destruction”

Brant Gardner

Literary: These three verses comprise a single concept. Ammon is explaining the cause for rejoicing in that the thousands of the Lamanites have been “loosed from the pains of hell.” His imagery uses paired sets of contrasts to make his point.

The “pains of hell” are contrasted by “redeeming love.” The pain/love pairing plays on both of the opposition of those emotions. They have been brought out of pain into love.

The “darkness and destruction” is contrasted by “his everlasting light.” The dark/light contrast is a very common one in religious themes contrasting good and evil.

As part of the discourse, Ammon uses the phrase “sing redeeming love.” This might be an allusion to Alma’s use of a similar phrase in Alma 5:26: “And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” It is also possible that this was simply a familiar phrase to Joseph, and readily available as he translated this meaning (see Mark D. Thomas. Digging in Cumorah. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, 1999, p. 134.)

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

References