Though Mormon attempted to rally his people, as Captain Moroni had done centuries earlier, to fight for their wives, children, houses, and homes (Alma 46:12; 58:12), Nephite society was then so enervated or depleted that they had little physical strength and no spiritual power to stand up for good and withstand evil. Without the Lord’s Spirit as a constant source of rejuvenation, all things wind down, all things are overtaken by entropy—from people, to planets, to universes. The Nephites were left to themselves in a state of complete weakness and vulnerability.