The Essential Works of Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith Jr.

it again.

      Alma 54:9

       9 And now behold, we are prepared to receive you; yea, and

       except you withdraw your purposes, behold, ye will pull down the

       wrath of that God whom you have rejected upon you, even to your

       utter destruction.

      Alma 54:10

       10 But, as the Lord liveth, our armies shall come upon you

       except ye withdraw, and ye shall soon be visited with death, for

       we will retain our cities and our lands; yea, and we will

       maintain our religion and the cause of our God.

      Alma 54:11

       11 But behold, it supposeth me that I talk to you concerning

       these things in vain; or it supposeth me that thou art a child of

       hell; therefore I will close my epistle by telling you that I

       will not exchange prisoners, save it be on conditions that ye

       will deliver up a man and his wife and his children, for one

       prisoner; if this be the case that ye will do it, I will

       exchange.

      Alma 54:12

       12 And behold, if you do not this, I will come against you with

       my armies; yea, even I will arm my women and my children, and I

       will come against you, and I will follow you even into your own

       land, which is the land of our first inheritance; yea, and it

       shall be blood for blood, yea, life for life; and I will give you

       battle even until you are destroyed from off the face of the

       earth.

      Alma 54:13

       13 Behold, I am in my anger, and also my people; ye have sought

       to murder us, and we have only sought to defend ourselves. But

       behold, if ye seek to destroy us more we will seek to destroy

       you; yea, and we will seek our land, the land of our first

       inheritance.

      Alma 54:14

       14 Now I close my epistle. I am Moroni; I am a leader of the

       people of the Nephites.

      Alma 54:15

       15 Now it came to pass that Ammoron, when he had received this

       epistle, was angry; and he wrote another epistle unto Moroni, and

       these are the words which he wrote, saying:

      Alma 54:16

       16 I am Ammoron, the king of the Lamanites; I am the brother of

       Amalickiah whom ye have murdered. Behold, I will avenge his

       blood upon you, yea, and I will come upon you with my armies for

       I fear not your threatenings.

      Alma 54:17

       17 For behold, your fathers did wrong their brethren, insomuch

       that they did rob them of their right to the government when it

       rightly belonged unto them.

      Alma 54:18

       18 And now behold, if ye will lay down your arms, and subject

       yourselves to be governed by those to whom the government doth

       rightly belong, then will I cause that my people shall lay down

       their weapons and shall be at war no more.

      Alma 54:19

       19 Behold, ye have breathed out many threatenings against me and

       my people; but behold, we fear not your threatenings.

      Alma 54:20

       20 Nevertheless, I will grant to exchange prisoners according to

       your request, gladly, that I may preserve my food for my men of

       war; and we will wage a war which shall be eternal, either to the

       subjecting the Nephites to our authority or to their eternal

       extinction.

      Alma 54:21

       21 And as concerning that God whom ye say we have rejected,

       behold, we know not such a being; neither do ye; but if it so be

       that there is such a thing, we know not but that he hath made us

       as well as you.

      Alma 54:22

       22 And if it so be that there is a devil and a hell, behold will

       he not send you there to dwell with my brother whom ye have

       murdered, whom ye have hinted that he hath gone to such a place?

       But behold these things matter not.

      Alma 54:23

       23 I am Ammoron, and a descendant of Zoram, whom your fathers

       pressed and brought out of Jerusalem.

      Alma 54:24

       24 And behold now, I am a bold Lamanite; behold, this war hath

       been waged to avenge their wrongs, and to maintain and to obtain

       their rights to the government; and I close my epistle to Moroni.

      Alma 55 Chapter 55

      Alma 55:1

       1 Now it came to pass that when Moroni had received this epistle

       he was more angry, because he knew that Ammoron had a perfect

       knowledge of his fraud; yea, he knew that Ammoron knew that it

       was not a just cause that had caused him to wage a war against

       the people of Nephi.

      Alma 55:2

       2 And he said: Behold, I will not exchange prisoners with

       Ammoron save he will withdraw his purpose, as I have stated in my

       epistle; for I will not grant unto him that he shall have any

       more power than what he hath got.

      Alma 55:3

       3 Behold, I know the place where the Lamanites do guard my

       people whom they have taken prisoners; and as Ammoron would not

       grant unto me mine epistle, behold, I will give unto him

       according to my words; yea, I will seek death among them until

       they shall sue for peace.

      Alma 55:4

       4 And now it came to pass that when Moroni had said these words,

       he caused that a search should be made among his men, that

       perhaps he might find a man who was a descendant of Laman among

       them.

      Alma 55:5

       5 And it came to pass that they found one, whose name was Laman;

       and he was one of the servants of the king who was murdered by

       Amalickiah.

      Alma 55:6

       6 Now Moroni caused that Laman and a small number of his men

       should go forth unto the guards who were over the Nephites.

      Alma 55:7

       7 Now the Nephites were guarded in the city of Gid; therefore

       Moroni appointed Laman and caused that a small number of men