Moroni repeats his threat. He will come upon the government to bring it down if they do not fulfill their rightful obligations. He will be justified in doing this because he follows the commands of God. While others might try to bring down the leader so that they might accept power (as we saw Amalickiah do), Moroni has no desire for power, only to “pull it down.” Of course his definition of power in this case is an unrighteous power.
Textual: The ending of this inserted epistle signals the end of a chapter. The next chapter will begin with Pahoran’s reply. Since there is another inserted text, and a change of writers, Mormon changes chapters.
[i] Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr, and Edward Cook. The Dead Sea Scrolls. A New Translation. Harper San Franciso, 1996, p. 281. Reynolds and Sjodahl suggest that the vessel is related to a verse in Isaiah:
Isaiah 52:11 ¶ Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, edited and arranged by Philip C. Reynolds, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1955-1961], 5: 164.)
This verse does provide the connection between the words “clean” and “vessels” but it has no application to the use Moroni makes of the verse he is citing. The Isaiah text should not be considered as the underlying scripture to which Moroni refers.