At last this miracle is so definitive that the people “esteem” Nephi as “a great prophet.” They had seen one miracle when Nephi identified the chief judge’s murderer, but many explained it away by assuming Nephi’s complicity. In this case, however, Nephi has shown Yahweh’s great power, not only by stopping the rains, but by starting them again. In addition, their very lives were at peril. It was a prophecy that was much more personal than the murder of a public official whom most people likely did not even know. The people repented when the famine was sore. When it was relieved, they fully accepted Nephi as a prophet and “did rejoice and glorify God.”
Although the Gadiantons were forced out of power, these miracles did not bring unity to the Nephites except for the brief unity of desperation and relief. Their fundamental tendencies toward division would return.