When the Lamanites returned, having gone on a campaign against the Nephites in the land of Ammonihah (see 25:13; 27:1), they found that the Amalekites were very angry and they begin to destroy the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. Ammon and his people decide to ask the Lord what to do. Ammon was told, “Get this people out of this land” (27:12). He gets permission from the king of the Lamanites to do this, and he takes his converts to the wilderness between the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla (27:14). There he leaves the people, while he and his brothers return to Zarahemla to see if they can negotiate terms on which these refugees can be given a place.
One can easily imagine why these righteous Ammonites, however, would have rightly been concerned about relocating to the land of Zarahemla. They would be leaving their homeland, their culture, their language, their climate, their normal occupations, going into the land of their traditional enemies, into a new religious and cultural mix, and facing many other challenges. Immigrants and refugees today can certainly relate well to the challenges that these recent converts must have faced. But they went, seeking safety, protection, the free exercise of religion, and to follow the instruction of the Lord to emigrate to a new land of promise.