Helaman and his two thousand had been sent as reinforcements to the city of Judea, and find themselves in a critical defensive position. Judea was strong enough that the Lamanites did not want to attack, but they couldn’t simply move on past, or as they moved to the next defended city northward, the men of Judea could attack them from the rear. There was, at least for a little while, a stalemate that stopped overt military actions. The Lamanites couldn’t advance, and the army in Judea was not strong enough to attempt retaking the cities that had been lost.