Redaction: This passage confirms that Alma’s soliloquy was triggered by the return of Mosiah’s sons. Certainly he expressed these emotions on that occasion, but when did he write this heartfelt exclamation? First, he may have written it as a personal testimony after hearing the stories of Mosiah’s sons. Second, he may have delivered it publicly and a scribe recorded it (or Alma himself recorded it after writing it). While the text itself gives no indication, I read it as a public speech, written as he remembered it and probably polished in the process. The references tie Alma’s speech to the sons of Mosiah’s mission, a setting that clearly triggered the sentiments, but which did not provide leisure for on-the-spot recording. Such a sequence also has the advantage of following the pattern for the vast majority of quoted discourses recorded in the Book of Mormon.