Having been saved from the Lamanite pursuit, they could return to the city of Judea. However, it was highly likely that when the Lamanite army stopped pursuing them, that they had turned to fight Antipus. Helaman understood that likelihood, but did not command his young soldiers to fight. Rather, he asked them.
It is possible that the reason he only asked them was that they were so young, and that they had never been in battle (verse 47). Running way from an enemy was one thing. Turning to fight soldiers was quite another.
This is where Helaman is both surprised and proud. The young soldiers desired to go to battle. They clearly knew that soldiers died in battle, but they trusted in the promises of their parents. These were sons of fathers and mothers who had made a covenant not to take up arms. Their parents would have known many who died at Lamanite hands when they would not even take up arms to defend themselves. They knew the value of “the liberty of their fathers.” That liberty was the ability to live their religion (see comments on Alma 46:9–11, and 13–16).
It is possible that Helaman intended to parallel the “liberty of their fathers” with “the words of their mothers.” Both were important. The first was their commitment to their belief, and the second was that the mothers had communicated that importance to their sons. Along with that understanding of the importance of their religious principles, their mothers apparently applied the promise of the land very personally. If their sons were righteous, they would be delivered.