pgs. 144 and 145...I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things, which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do...his will.

7 And I do this for a ^awise ^bpurpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord ^cknoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he ^dworketh in me to do according to his ^ewill.

8 And my ^aprayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a ^bdelightsome people.

9 And now I, Mormon, *proceed to finish out my record, which I take from the plates of Nephi; and I make it according to the knowledge and the ^aunderstanding which God has given me.

10 Wherefore, it came to pass that after Amaleki had ^adelivered up these plates into the hands of king Benjamin, he took them and put them with the ^bother plates, which contained records which had been handed down by the ^ckings, from generation to generation until the days of king Benjamin.

11 And they were handed down from king Benjamin, from generation to generation until they have fallen into ^amy hands. And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which ^bmy people and their brethren shall be ^cjudged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.

12 And now, concerning this king Benjamin—he had somewhat of contentions among his own people.

13 And it came to pass also that the armies of the Lamanites came down out of the ^aland of Nephi, to battle against his people. But behold, king Benjamin gathered together his armies, and he did stand against them; and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the ^bsword of Laban.

14 And in the ^astrength of the Lord they did contend against their enemies, until they had slain many thousands of the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they did contend against the Lamanites until they had driven them out of all the lands of their ^binheritance.

15 And it came to pass that after there had been false ^aChrists, and their mouths had been shut, and they punished according to their crimes;

16 And after there had been ^afalse prophets, and false preachers and teachers among the people, and all these having been punished according to their crimes; and after there having been much contention and many dissensions away ^bunto the Lamanites, behold, it came to pass that king Benjamin, with the assistance of the holy ^cprophets who were among his people—

17 For behold, king Benjamin was a ^aholy man, and he did reign over his people in righteousness; and there were many holy men in the land, and they did speak the word of God with ^bpower and with authority; and they did use much ^csharpness because of the stiffneckedness of the people—

18 Wherefore, with the help of these, king ^aBenjamin, by laboring with all the might of his body and the ^bfaculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did once more establish peace in the land.

THE BOOK OF MOSIAH

CHAPTER 1

King Benjamin teaches his sons the language and prophecies of their fathers—Their religion and civilization have been preserved because of the records kept on the various plates—Mosiah is chosen as king and is given custody of the records and other things. About 130—124 B.C.

1 And now there was no more contention in all the ^aland of Zarahemla, among all the people who belonged to king Benjamin, so that king Benjamin had continual peace all the remainder of his days.

2 And it came to pass that he had three ^asons; and he called their names Mosiah, and Helorum, and Helaman. And he caused that they should be ^btaught in all the ^clanguage of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers, which were delivered them by the hand of the Lord.

3 And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the ^aplates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these ^bplates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ^cignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.

4 For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the ^alanguage of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.

5 I say unto you, my sons, ^awere it not for these things, which have been kept and ^bpreserved by the hand of God, that we might ^cread and understand of his ^dmysteries, and have his ^ecommandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the ^ftraditions of their fathers, which are not correct.

The Words of Mormon are his explanation between two sets of records. The plates that were handed down from generation to generation ending up with Mormon contained the history of two different groups that left Jerusalem and journeyed to the promised land. The first was Lehi's group and we just read all that was written from Nephi down to his last living heir, Amaleki, who had no children. After many years Lehi's descendants met up with the other group which was being led by King Benjamin. Amaleki gave the record to King Benjamin because he felt he was a good man (Omni v. 25.) King Benjamin then kept them with the plates that had been handed down to him through generations of kings (Words of Mormon v. 10.) Both sets of plates continued to be handed down and eventually ended up with Mormon who abridged them.

Mormon is now explaining this to readers because there is a transition in the abridgment from Lehi's group to King Benjamin's group. A part of this transition is that it changes from first person to third person. Even though Mormon abridged the books we have just read, the abridgment was not what ended up being translated by Joseph Smith. For some reason the Lord had Joseph Smith translate the original record. But, the next books we are about to read are in the third person because they are from Mormon's abridgment.