Zeram was one of four men, with Amnor, Manti, and Limher, whom Alma the Younger, chief judge and high priest over the Nephites, sent around 87 B.C. to watch the camp of the Amlicites, the faction that had risen under Amlici during the Nephite-Lamanite war (Alma 2:22). Alma had dispatched them to follow the remnant of the Amlicites and learn their plans (Alma 2:21).
Each man went out with his own company. The next day they returned in haste to the Nephite camp, reporting that in the land of Minon, above Zarahemla, the Amlicites had joined a large host of Lamanites, and that the combined force was driving the Nephites’ brethren before them toward the city of Zarahemla (Alma 2:22-26).