Verse 57 provides the most important result of Korihor’s trial. He had had some success, and the news of his dramatic conviction at God’s hands demonstrated that he had lied. Thus, the chief judge sends a proclamation out to the people to let them know of the results of the trial, and that if they had believed Korihor, they must swiftly repent, “lest the same judgments would come unto them.” Once again, this demonstrates that Korihor’s teachings were deemed extremely dangerous. It was not simply a question of what he might have believed, but that what he was teaching was essentially sedition. The result is that the people are convinced and “converted again unto the Lord.”
Korihor does not die. While it would have been understandable to put a traitor to death, the obvious result of God’s curse made him more valuable as a living symbol, rather than a possible martyr. However, not being able to speak, and the ignominy of his judgment, reduced him to begging. Mormon will use that part of Korihor’s story to move to the next story that he wants to tell about apostate Nephites.