Moroni has secured the most dangerous threat by removed the Lamanites from the fortified sectors. Before Moroni turns his attention to the western front again, he begins to improve the defensive position of the Nephite hegemony. It is important to note that not only does he increase the fortifications, he also has work done in the fields. He begins to “deliver... their women and their children from famine and affliction, and providing food for their armies.” This has been protracted battle, and has occupied many forces during the growing season.
We remember that a year had passed before Moroni came to the aid of Teancum in the east. That delay had been caused by conflict. Having had a year pass, a growing season had already passed, and perhaps most of the men who would have tended the fields were in the military and actively engaged. The Lamanites would have had unthreatened fields, and perhaps more people who could tend the fields and supply the army.
The Nephites must have had a reduced number of people farming, which translated directly into lower yields, which inevitably led to the famine noted. The famine would likely have been worse among the women with so much food being moved to the armies who needed their strength for hand to hand combat.
What we have described here is precisely the conditions that should have existed in a threatened territory in ancient warfare. With the reduction in labor for the planting of the crops comes the diminished yield and the inevitable famines. The Book of Mormon text scores a direct hit with this description of Moroni’s concern to begin planting to alleviate the famine and to increase the available supplies for the army that is still in the field. We may assume that while Moroni keeps an alert, he has released many men to attend to the fields.
Translation: In verse 6 we have the phrase: “the city of Mulek, which was one of the strongest holds of the Lamanites in the land of Nephi.” Ludlow noted the problem with placing Mulek in the “land of Nephi:”
“The reference to the city of Mulek as “one of the strongest holds of the Lamanites in the land of Nephi” is puzzling because the city of Mulek is evidently located in the greater land of Zarahemla. (See Alma 51:26.)
Here are three possible explanations of this puzzle: (1) Perhaps this land is being called “the land of Nephi” by the Lamanites because they now possess it as they also possess the land of Nephi in the south. (2) The Nephites could have a “land of Nephi” in the north, although such a land has not been mentioned before and is not mentioned later. (3) The phrase “in the land of Nephi” might be used to identify those particular Lamanites mentioned in the verse and to differentiate them from Lamanites living in other parts of the country.” (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 236.)
Unfortunately, none of these solutions is satisfying. There is not evidence whatsoever that there was ever a “land of Nephi” north. The idea that the Lamanites would have renamed the land is interesting, but this is a Nephite record, and unlikely to use Lamanite names (indeed we cannot be sure that the Lamanites called their land the “land of Nephi.”)
What we have is a mistake in the text, one of those mistakes for which Moroni plead forgiveness (Mormon 8:17). The city of Mulek is in Nephite territory, but not the “land of Nephi.” This error is a slip in writing what was intended (John L. Sorenson. The Geography of the Book of Mormon: A Source Book. FARMS 1990, p. 286. Sorenson assumes that the slip of mind was in the “original scribe or Mormon.”). The question is who made this particular slip of the pen?
This mental slip clearly plays on the presence of Lamanites in Nephite territories. It is possible that the mental construction of the phrase should have been: “the city of Mulek, which was one of the strongest holds of the Lamanites in the land of [the] Nephi[tes].” The slip plays on the word “Nephi” and therefore depends upon the interchangeability of Nephite territory and the land of Nephi. This is the evidence that suggests that this particular slip of the mind was Joseph, and not on the original plates. While we may understand Nephite lands, “Nephite” is not the typical designation of the lands controlled by the people we know as Nephite. The internal reference to the political entity holding this land is the land of Zarahemla. Nephite was a designation for a group of people, but it is not used in the text as a reference for the land. Thus it would be very difficult for Mormon, who clearly understood the nature of the land, to make this kind of mistake. The commonality of land and Nephite would not exist for Mormon, but it could easily exist for Joseph, who was not as attuned to the geo-political territories as was Mormon.