General comments on Mosiah 19-22 In these chapters Gideon is a prominent character, and the text sometimes seems to be told from his point of view (e.g., 19:4-8, 19:18, 20:17-22, 22:3-9). Perhaps Gideon kept a record, or even the main record, which Mormon later made use of in his abridgement. This would explain his prominence in the various narratives. Comments on Mosiah 19 v1-8 The army returns unsuccessful from its mission of destroying the alleged rebellion (v. 1), only to have an insurrection break out amongst themselves (v. 2-3). One of the stronger men among the army is determined to kill Noah (v. 4) and ends up fighting him. Noah flees to a tower and climbs it (v. 5), and sees invading Lamanites armies (v. 6). He then uses this as an excuse to be spared (v. 8), so he can save the people (v. 7). One would have to assume the dissent among the ranks was brewing for some time given the apparent lack of support Noah had among the army. Verse 3 says there was great contention among the army, but once Gideon takes it upon himself to kill Noah there is nothing in the text at all suggesting anyone did anything to stop him or protect Noah. We might assume dissent was because "the forces of the king were small, having been reduced" (v. 2). Whether they were reduced by conflict with the Lamanites, through desertion, or the king was too cheap to financially support them, morale would have been low regardless. v2 "the remainder of the people", the people of the army that is, cp. 23:1-2 where "the armies" are set in parallel to "the people" in the same fashion as it is here in v. 1 and 2. v4 "Gideon", while Gideon may have been the captain of the army at this point, he is not positively identified as such until 20:17 when Limhi is king. His activities in v. 18-23 suggest he was the leader of the dissenters having men following him, but that doesn't necessarily preclude his being captain. If he was captain at that point it might explain why nobody intervened when he faced off against the king, as that would have represented a sort of coup d'etat. v9-17 Noah, having been spared, takes command of the people and tells them to flee (v. 9). They do so, but the Lamanites begin overtaking them (v. 10), so Noah tells the men to abandon the women and children and run (v. 11). Many of the men, including Gideon and his followers, refuse to abandon their families (v. 12), so when the Lamanites overtake them they have their wives and daughters plead with the Lamanites not to kill them (v. 13) and it works (v. 14). The Lamanites agree not to kill them if they return to the land and forfeit half of all they have to them and turn over the king (v. 15). Limhi, one of the sons of Noah (v. 16), being a just man, doesn't want to see his father executed (v. 17). v18-24 After they have been spared by the Lamanites, Gideon secretly sends some men to find king Noah. They find the men who fled with Noah back in v. 11 (v. 18), but they are told Noah was executed by them (v. 20) and the priests fled because they feared the same fate (v. 21, 23). When the men who had fled are told their wives and families are still alive (v. 23) they rejoice because they assumed they were dead (v. 24) and were about to return to go and die with them in battle against the Lamanites (v. 19). v19 Why the men fled and then swore they would return is not clear. Perhaps they thought Noah was attempting a retreat to organize an assault on the Lamanites, or more likely they were just stung by their own cowardice. v20 "death by fire", per Abinadi's prediction, cp. 12:3. It would have been particularly ironic if the people who put Noah to death here were the same ones in 12:10 who said such things as Abinadi had predicted would never happen. Perhaps they were even driven by Abinadi's prediction to fulfil it literally. Had Gideon killed Noah on the tower, Abinadi's prediction would have been only been fulfilled figuratively and not literally. v24 "the ceremony", I would assume they are referring to the execution of the king in v. 20. It couldn't have been Limhi being made king (cf. v. 26) because this group is separate and doesn't return to the land of Nephi until after "the ceremony". The word "ceremony" doesn't ever appear anywhere else in the LDS canon, so what exactly is meant by it is difficult to determine. The word "ceremonies" does appear once in Num. 9:3, but that is in reference to the rites associated with the Feast of Passover, so that clearly has no relevant connection. Perhaps what is meant is that just as Abinadi was subjected to a trial and execution, no matter how unjustifiable, these people subjected Noah to the same thing, and considered it a "ceremony" as it had been instituted by Noah himself as a means of execution. v25-29 Limhi takes over as king and they have peace again for a couple of years, but are in bondage to and surrounded by the Lamanites, ct. 12:15. Copyright © 2001 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. Digital or printed copies may be freely made and distributed for personal and public non-commercial use.