Moroni understood the dire timing of internal dissent and a simultaneous Lamanite attack. He sought the power to take decisive action to limit the damage: sending a “petition, with the voice of the people.” This procedure parallels the process that the king-men had used in their attempt to alter the law that Pahoran had unilaterally rejected (v. 3). Moroni’s petition, in contrast, is put to the voice of the people (v. 16).
Geography: The Lamanites’ point of attack apparently required a lengthy travel time. Sorenson points out: “Amalickiah gathered together a large army and moved toward his attack point, the land of Moroni (v. 22). The distance for Amalickiah’s armies to travel must have been substantial (cf. 43:22–28), for between the time Moroni ‘saw that the Lamanites were coming into the borders of the land’ and the actual attack, he had time to obtain the voice of the people to act against the king-men and to march forth against and defeat them, surely taking weeks.”