Shilom was both a city and an adjacent land in the land of Nephi. King Laman covenanted with Zeniff to let him possess the land of Lehi-Nephi and the land of Shilom, and commanded his own people to depart; Zeniff’s group then repaired the walls of the city of Shilom, tilled the ground with corn, wheat, barley, neas, and sheum, and prospered (Mosiah 9:6-9). Laman had yielded the land by craft, intending to bring Zeniff’s people into bondage and live off their labor and flocks (Mosiah 9:10-12).
In the thirteenth year of Zeniff’s reign, a Lamanite host attacked his people on the south of the land of Shilom while they watered their flocks; Zeniff armed his men and drove the attackers off, killing 3,043 Lamanites and losing 279 of his own (Mosiah 9:14-19). A later Lamanite army came up on the north of the land of Shilom, and Zeniff again drove them out (Mosiah 10:8-20).
Zeniff’s son Noah built many buildings in the land of Shilom and raised a great tower on the hill north of the land, a height that had earlier been a refuge for the children of Nephi (Mosiah 11:13). Under Noah the people fell to the Lamanites: the king was burned, his people were made to pay half of all they possessed as tribute, and his son Limhi succeeded him as a tributary ruler (Mosiah 19:6-28). When Limhi’s people escaped to Zarahemla under Ammon’s guidance, they traveled around the land of Shilom by night through the wilderness (Mosiah 22:8-11).
After the Lamanites took possession of the region, Amulon and the former priests of Noah were appointed teachers over the people in the land of Shilom, along with Shemlon and Amulon (Mosiah 24:1-2). The Lamanites of the land of Shilom were later among those converted through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren (Alma 23:8; 23:12).