pgs. 206 and 207...I desire that this land be a land of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike.

27 And ^aif the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.

28 And now if ye have judges, and they do not ^ajudge you according to the law which has been given, ye can cause that they may be judged of a higher judge.

29 If your higher judges do not judge righteous judgments, ye shall cause that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together, and they shall judge your higher judges, according to the voice of the people.

30 And I command you to do these things in the fear of the Lord; and I command you to do these things, and that ye have no king; that if these people commit sins and iniquities they shall be answered upon their own heads.

31 For behold I say unto you, the sins of many people have been ^acaused by the iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings.

32 And now I desire that this ^ainequality should be no more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land of ^bliberty, and ^cevery man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit that we may live and inherit the land, yea, even as long as any of our posterity remains upon the face of the land.

33 And many more things did king Mosiah write unto them, unfolding unto them all the trials and ^atroubles of a righteous king, yea, all the travails of soul for their people, and also all the murmurings of the people to their king; and he explained it all unto them.

34 And he told them that these things ought not to be; but that the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might ^abear his part.

35 And he also unfolded unto them all the disadvantages they labored under, by having an unrighteous ^aking to rule over them;

36 Yea, all ^ahis iniquities and abominations, and all the wars, and contentions, and bloodshed, and the stealing, and the plundering, and the committing of whoredoms, and all manner of iniquities which cannot be enumerated—telling them that these things ought not to be, that they were expressly repugnant to the commandments of God.

37 And now it came to pass, after king Mosiah had sent these things forth among the people they were ^aconvinced of the truth of his words.

38 Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal ^achance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins.

39 Therefore, it came to pass that they assembled themselves together in bodies throughout the land, to cast in their ^avoices concerning who should be their ^bjudges, to judge them according to the ^claw which had been given them; and they were exceedingly rejoiced because of the ^dliberty which had been granted unto them.

40 And they did wax strong in love towards Mosiah; yea, they did esteem him more than any other man; for they did not look upon him as a ^atyrant who was seeking for gain, yea, for that ^blucre which doth ^ccorrupt the soul; for he had not exacted riches of them, neither had he delighted in the shedding of blood; but he had established ^dpeace in the land, and he had granted unto his people that they should be delivered from all manner of bondage; therefore they did esteem him, yea, exceedingly, beyond measure.

41 And it came to pass that they did ^aappoint ^bjudges to rule over them, or to judge them according to the law; and this they did throughout all the land.

42 And it came to pass that Alma was appointed to be the first ^achief judge, he being also the ^bhigh priest, his father having conferred the office upon him, and having given him the charge concerning all the affairs of the church.

43 And now it came to pass that Alma did ^awalk in the ways of the Lord, and he did keep his commandments, and he did judge righteous judgments; and there was continual peace through the land.

44 And thus *commenced the ^areign of the judges throughout all the land of Zarahemla, among all the people who were called the Nephites; and Alma was the first and chief judge.

45 And now it came to pass that his father died, being eighty and two years old, having lived to fulfil the commandments of God.

46 And it came to pass that Mosiah ^adied also, in the thirty and third year of his reign, being ^bsixty and three years old; making in the whole, five hundred and nine years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem.

47 And thus ended the reign of the kings over the people of Nephi; and thus ended the days of Alma, who was the founder of their church.

* VERSE 44 (91 B.C.).


This reading ends the Book of Mosiah and tomorrow we will start on Alma. As we just read both King Mosiah and Alma have passed away and the people have chosen Alma the Younger to be their chief judge. I have to admit that the book of Alma intimidates me. With over 150 pages covering 63 chapters it is about one third of the Book of Mormon. I am mostly afraid of the "war chapters" but we will just take them 2 pages at a time like we have taken everything else so far. Line upon line, right?