The poetic form that is used on the facing page comes from Grant Hardy, The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition. Hardy was the first scholar to render this passage in poetic verse, as it probably was intended to be. Readers who are familiar with the biblical book of Proverbs will recognize many of the same elements from proverbial wisdom literature, which often is cast as fatherly advice to a son (or, as is the case with Proverbs 31, a mother’s instructions to her son). Here, Alma is still speaking to his son Helaman, exhorting him to model the humility of Christ for the people he will one day lead.