Helaman³, son of Helaman², was a Nephite record keeper and chief judge. Before his death, his uncle Shiblon conferred the sacred records on him, and he was named after his father (Alma 63:11). He kept the records that became the book bearing his name.
Helaman³ was appointed to the judgment-seat by the voice of the people around 50 B.C., after a vacancy left by the deaths of two prior chief judges: Pahoran², murdered by Kishkumen, and Pacumeni, killed in war (Helaman 1:9; 1:21; 2:1-2). Kishkumen then lay in wait to kill Helaman³ as well, backed by a band whose leader was Gadianton. A servant of Helaman³ learned the plot, met Kishkumen on the way to the judgment-seat, and stabbed him dead (Helaman 2:3-9).
Helaman³ filled the judgment-seat “with justice and equity,” kept the commandments of God, and prospered in the land (Helaman 3:20). Under his administration the people fasted and prayed often, growing in humility and faith — “even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God” — with joy and consolation (Helaman 3:35). He had two sons, Nephi and Lehi, whom he named after their first parents who came out of Jerusalem, so that remembering the names they would remember to do good (Helaman 5:5-13). He taught them to build their foundation “upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ,” warning that only this foundation protects against being dragged “down to the gulf of misery and endless wo” when the devil’s storms beat upon them (Helaman 5:12).
Helaman³ died in the fifty-third year of the reign of the judges (about 39 B.C.), and his eldest son Nephi succeeded him in the judgment-seat (Helaman 3:37).