“The Ninety and Third Year Did Also Pass Away in Peace Save It Were for the Gadianton Robbers”

George Reynolds, Janne M. Sjodahl

Those of the Nephites who believed that the wonderful signs and miracles which they had seen heralded the coming of the promised Messiah, experienced during the Ninety-third year of the Judges a peace that was rounded upon their righteous lives. However those who were righteous were not strong enough to overcome the vast hosts of Gadianton Robbers, who, time and time again, swarmed from their mountain retreats and carried carnage, rapine, and desolation to the homes of both Nephites and Lamanites.

In the Ninety-fourth year many Nephites dissented from the regularly constituted authority of the Commonwealth, and took refuge among the robber group, which defection caused "much sorrow unto those Nephites who did remain in the land," while at the same time it increased greatly the number of Gadiantons with whom the loyal citizens of the Republic were compelled to contend.

The rising generation of Lamanites brought sore affliction upon their fathers and mothers by their listening to some apostate Zoramites, who, "by their lyings and their flattering words," caused them to join the Robber Bands. In this manner the Lamanites, who had become even more righteous than were the Nephites, were themselves deprived of much spiritual strength "because of the wickedness of the rising generation."

Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 7

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