“Coriantumr Had Taken All the People with Him”

Brant Gardner

Redaction: Coriantumr in his flight had “taken all the people with him,” apparently relocating the entire population of his followers and thus paralleling the removal of the Nephites in their final wars (Morm. 4:22). Shiz kills noncombatants (v. 17), yet another parallel to the final attack of the Gadianton-infused Lamanite army against the Nephites (Moro. 9.) The parallels are so close that I suspect that Moroni, rather than Jaredite history, is its source. In Mormon’s day, this scorched-earth/take-no-prisoners type of warfare was apparently new, one for which the Nephites were ill prepared. A war of total destruction using similar tactics for the Jaredites fits the cyclical view of history; thus, whatever historical atrocities against civilians may have been part of Lib’s tactics, Moroni probably molded them into a closer match with the Nephite demise.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6

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