According to Lee Donaldson, the second element of ancient covenants was the historical prologue. The historical prologue of a covenant focuses the people's minds and hearts as they remember their history. Ancient Israel, for instance, always remembered the Exodus and the Sinai covenant as they recited their history. The brother of Jared's covenant to "serve the God of the land" (Ether 2:12) became the focal point of Jaredite historiography. In addition the Lord clearly states the stipulations of this covenant (covenant element #3):
"And he [the Lord] had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them." (Ether 2:8)
The reader should take note that Moroni repeats the stipulations of this covenant three additional times in the verses which immediately follow (Ether 2:9, 10, 12).
Moroni also concludes his tragic record of the Jaredites with Coriantumr remembering "the words [concerning the covenant] which had been spoken by the mouth of all the prophets, and he saw them that they were fulfilled thus far, every whit" (Ether 15:3). [Lee L. Donaldson, "The Plates of Ether and the Covenant of the Book of Mormon," in The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi through Moroni, From Zion to Destruction, p. 71] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 5:5; 1 Nephi 17:36-38; 2 Nephi 1:5-12]