Mormon

Contents

• Introduction
• 1 Nephi
• 2 Nephi
• Jacob
• Zeniff
• Mosiah
• Alma
• Helaman
• 3 Nephi
• Mormon
• Moroni

Introduction

^1:1 I, Jo­seph Smith, write this his­to­ry to put all inquirers af­ter truth in pos­ses­sion of the facts.

^1:5 There was in the place where I lived an un­u­su­al ex­cite­ment on the sub­ject of re­li­gion. ⁶ The cler­gy pro­mot­ed this scene of re­li­gious feel­ing in or­der to have eve­ry­body con­vert­ed, let them join what sect they pleased. Yet when the converts be­gan to file off, some to one par­ty and some to an­oth­er, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more pre­tend­ed than re­al, lost in a strife of words: priest contending against priest, con­vert against con­vert.

^1:7 I was at this time four­teen years old. ⁸ My mind was called up to se­ri­ous re­flec­tion and great un­eas­i­ness. My feelings were deep and of­ten poign­ant, but still I kept my­self a­loof from all the parties, though I at­tended their meetings as of­ten as oc­ca­sion would per­mit. So great were the con­fu­sion and strife a­mong the dif­fer­ent de­nom­i­na­tions that it was im­pos­si­ble for a per­son as young as I was to come to any cer­tain con­clu­sion who was right and who was wrong.

^1:10 In the midst of this war of words and tu­mult of opinions, I of­ten said to my­self, “What is to be done? If any of these parties is right, which is it, and how will I know?”

^1:11 One day I was read­ing James 1:5, which reads, “If any of you lacks wis­dom, let him ask God, who gives gen­er­ous­ly to all with­out re­proach, and it will be giv­en to him.” ¹² This pas­sage entered with great force in­to eve­ry feel­ing of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, know­ing that if any per­son needed wis­dom from God, I did; for the dif­fer­ent sects un­der­stood the same passages of scrip­ture so dif­fer­ent­ly as to de­stroy all con­fi­dence in set­tling the ques­tion by an ap­peal to the Bible.

^1:13 At length I came to the de­ter­mi­na­tion to “ask God.” ¹⁴ So, in ac­cord­ance with my de­ter­mi­na­tion, I re­tired to the woods to make the at­tempt. It was the first time in my life that I had made the at­tempt to pray vo­cal­ly.

^1:15 Hav­ing looked a­round me, and find­ing my­self a­lone, I kneeled down and be­gan to of­fer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarce­ly done so when ¹⁶ I saw a pil­lar of light over my head. ¹⁷ When the light rested up­on me, I saw two personages. One of them said to me, “Jo­seph, this is my be­lov­ed son. Hear him.”

^1:18 I asked the personages which of all the sects was right, and which I should join. ¹⁹ I was an­swered that I must join none of them.

^1:21 A few days af­ter I had this vi­sion, I was with one of the preachers who was very ac­tive in the re­li­gious ex­cite­ment. I gave him an ac­count of the vi­sion which I had had. He treated my com­mu­ni­ca­tion with con­tempt, say­ing that there were no such things as visions or rev­e­la­tions in these days.

^1:22 I soon found that my sto­ry had ex­cit­ed a great deal of prej­u­dice against me a­mong the professors of re­li­gion. They ex­cit­ed the pub­lic mind against me and cre­at­ed a bit­ter per­se­cu­tion. This was com­mon a­mong all the sects, ²³ and it of­ten caused me great sor­row.

^1:24 How­ev­er, it was nev­er­the­less a fact that I had seen a vi­sion, and all the per­se­cu­tion un­der heav­en could not make it oth­er­wise. ²⁵ I said in my heart, “Why per­se­cute me for tell­ing the truth? For I have seen a vi­sion. I know it, and I know that God knows it, and I can not de­ny it.”

^1:27 I con­tin­ued to pur­sue my com­mon vocations in life, all the time be­ing ²⁸ per­se­cut­ed by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kind­ly. If they sup­posed me to be de­lud­ed, they ought to have endeavored to re­claim me in a prop­er and af­fec­tion­ate man­ner. I was left to mingling with all kinds of so­ci­e­ty, and fre­quent­ly fell in­to many fool­ish errors. In mak­ing this con­fes­sion, no one need sup­pose me guilty of any great sins, but I was guilty of lev­i­ty and some­times as­so­ci­at­ed with jo­vi­al com­pa­ny.

^1:29 In con­se­quence of these things, I of­ten felt condemned for my weak­ness­es and im­per­fec­tions. One eve­ning, I com­mit­ted my­self to pray­er and sup­pli­ca­tion to God for for­give­ness of my sins and follies. ³⁰ While I was call­ing up­on God, a light ap­peared in my room, and im­me­di­ate­ly a per­son­age ap­peared.

^1:33 He called me by name, said that he was a mes­sen­ger from God, and that his name was Moroni. ³⁴ He said that there was a book, writ­ten up­on gold plates, giv­ing an ac­count of the for­mer in­hab­i­tants of this con­ti­nent. ⁴² The vi­sion was opened to my mind so that I could see the place where the plates were deposited. ⁴⁶ He added a cau­tion, tell­ing me that Satan would try to tempt me to get the plates for the purposes of get­ting rich. This he for­bid me, say­ing that I must on­ly get the plates to glo­ri­fy God. ⁵³ The mes­sen­ger in­formed me that the time for bring­ing forth the plates would ar­rive in four years.

^1:54 I went at the end of each year to the place where the plates were deposited. Each time I found the mes­sen­ger there, and re­ceived in­struc­tion from him.

^1:59 At length, the time ar­rived for obtaining the plates. Hav­ing gone as u­su­al at the end of an­oth­er year to the place where they were deposited, the same mes­sen­ger delivered them to me. ⁶⁷ I com­menced to trans­late the Book of Mormon:

1 Nephi

^1:1 I, Nephi, am mak­ing a rec­ord of my pro­ceed­ings dur­ing my life­time.

^1:4 In the first year of the reign of Zed­e­ki­ah, king of Judah, ¹⁸ God showed my fa­ther, Lehi, many things about the de­struc­tion of Je­ru­sa­lem. He went a­mong the peo­ple, and de­clared to them what he had seen. ²⁰ When the peo­ple heard these things, they were an­gry with him, and sought his life.

^2:2 God commanded my fa­ther in a dream to take his fam­i­ly, and de­part in­to the wil­der­ness. ⁴ He left his house, land, gold, sil­ver, and pre­cious things, and took noth­ing with him, ex­cept his fam­i­ly, provisions, and tents, and de­part­ed in­to the wil­der­ness.

^2:11 La­man and Lem­uel, my old­er brothers, grumbled against their fa­ther be­cause he had led them out of Je­ru­sa­lem, leav­ing their land, gold, sil­ver, and pre­cious things. They said he had done this be­cause of the fool­ish imag­i­na­tions of his heart. ¹³ They al­so did­nʼt be­lieve that Je­ru­sa­lem could be destroyed.

^2:16 I be­lieved all that my fa­ther had spo­ken. There­fore, I did­nʼt re­bel against him like my brothers.

^3:2 My fa­ther said to me, ³ “Laban has the rec­ord of the Jews, and itʼs en­graved on brass plates. ⁴ There­fore, God has commanded me that you and your brothers should re­turn to Je­ru­sa­lem, go to Labanʼs house, seek the records, and bring them here in­to the wil­der­ness.”

^3:7 I said to my fa­ther, “Iʼll do what God has commanded, for I know that God on­ly gives com­mand­ments if he prepares a way to ac­com­plish them.”

^3:19 I said to my brothers, “Itʼs wis­dom in God that we should ob­tain these records, that we can pre­serve for our chil­dren ²⁰ the words spo­ken by all the ho­ly prophets.”

^3:23 We went up to the house of Laban. ^4:38 My brothers and I took the brass plates, de­part­ed in­to the wil­der­ness, and jour­neyed to our fatherʼs tent.

^5:1 Af­ter we returned to our fa­ther, he was filled with joy, and al­so my moth­er was very glad. ²¹ We had obtained the records which God had commanded us, and found that they had great val­ue to us be­cause we could pre­serve the com­mand­ments of God for our chil­dren.

^7:6 As we jour­neyed in the wil­der­ness, La­man and Lem­uel ¹⁶ were an­gry with me and tried to take a­way my life, ¹⁹ but some of our com­pa­ny plead with them, and they stopped try­ing to take a­way my life. ²¹ I for­gave them all that they had done, and we trav­eled again on our jour­ney.

^17:5 We came to the land which we called Boun­ti­ful, be­cause it had much fruit and wild hon­ey. God had pre­pared all these things that we might not per­ish. ⁶ We pitched our tents by the sea­shore and re­joiced great­ly.

^17:7 God said to me, Nephi, ⁸ “Con­struct a ship af­ter the man­ner that I will show you, that I may car­ry your peo­ple across these waters.”

^17:17 When my brothers saw that I was about to build a ship, they be­gan to grum­ble against me, “Our broth­er is a fool for he thinks that he can build a ship, and cross these great waters.”

^17:19 I was deep­ly grieved be­cause of the hard­ness of their hearts. When they saw this, they were glad, say­ing, “We knew that you could­nʼt con­struct a ship, and that you lacked judg­ment. ²⁰ Youʼre like our fa­ther, led a­way by the fool­ish imag­i­na­tions of his heart. He has led us out of the land of Je­ru­sa­lem, and weʼve wandered in the wil­der­ness all these years.”

^18:4 Af­ter I had fin­ished the ship, my brothers saw that it was good, and they humbled them­selves again be­fore God. ⁶ We pre­pared many provisions, went in­to the ship with our wives and chil­dren, ⁸ and put forth in­to the sea.

^18:23 Af­ter we had sailed for many days we ar­rived at the prom­ised land.

^19:1 I made plates of o­re on which to en­grave the rec­ord of my peo­ple, ⁵ to keep the more sa­cred things for in­struc­ting my peo­ple.

^19:7 The things which some men es­teem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught. ⁹ The world, be­cause of their in­iq­ui­ty, will judge Jesus to be a thing of naught.

^22:23 All churches which are built up to make a prof­it, and to get pow­er, and to be­come pop­u­lar in the eyes of the world, must be brought low in the dust.

^22:31 If you are o­be­di­ent to the com­mand­ments, and en­dure to the end, you will be saved at the last day.

2 Nephi

^4:13 Not many days af­ter Lehiʼs death, La­man and Lem­uel were an­gry with me, ^5:2 so they sought to take a­way my life. ⁵ God warned me to de­part from them, and flee in­to the wil­der­ness a­long with all those who would go with me. ⁶ There­fore, I took my fam­i­ly, and Sam, my old­er broth­er, and Jacob and Jo­seph, my young­er brothers, and al­so my sisters, and their fam­i­lies. All those who went with me were those who be­lieved in the warnings and rev­e­la­tions of God.

^5:7 We jour­neyed in the wil­der­ness for many days, and pitched our tents. ¹⁰ We were care­ful to keep the com­mand­ments of God in all things. ¹¹ We prospered great­ly, for we sowed seed, reaped in abun­dance, and raised flocks, herds, and an­i­mals of eve­ry kind.

^5:14 I made many swords so that our enemies would­nʼt come up­on us and de­stroy us.

^6:1 The words of Jacob, the broth­er of Nephi:

^9:27 Woe to him who has all the com­mand­ments of God, and trans­gresses them, and wastes the days of his pro­ba­tion.

^9:28 Oh the van­i­ty, and fool­ish­ness of men! When they are learn­ed they think they are wise, and they donʼt lis­ten to Godʼs coun­sel, for they set it a­side, sup­pos­ing they know of them­selves, there­fore, their wis­dom is fool­ish­ness and it does not prof­it them. ²⁹ But to be learn­ed is good if they lis­ten to Godʼs counsels.

^9:30 Woe to the rich who de­spise the poor, per­se­cute the meek, and whose hearts are on their treasures; there­fore, their treas­ure is their God.

^9:34 Woe to the li­ar, ³⁵ to the mur­der­er who kills de­lib­er­ate­ly, ³⁶ and to those who com­mit for­ni­ca­tion.

^9:39 Re­mem­ber, the mind set on the flesh is death, and the mind set on the spir­it is e­ter­nal life. ⁴⁵ Turn a­way from your sins. ⁴⁶ Pre­pare your souls for the day of judg­ment.

^9:51 Donʼt spend mon­ey on what has no val­ue, nor your la­bor on what can­not sat­is­fy.

^10:23 Cheer up your hearts, and re­mem­ber that you are free to act for your­selves: to choose the way of ev­er­last­ing death or the way of e­ter­nal life. ²⁴ There­fore, rec­on­cile your­selves to the will of God, and not to the will of the flesh.

^11:1 Jacob spoke many more things to my peo­ple, but I, Nephi, have on­ly writ­ten these.

^25:23 We la­bor dil­i­gent­ly to write, to per­suade our chil­dren, and al­so our brothers, to be­lieve in Christ, and to be rec­on­ciled to God. ²⁶ We talk of Christ, we re­joice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we proph­e­sy of Christ.

^26:21 There are many churches built up which cause en­vy, strife, and mal­ice. ²² The dev­il leads them by the neck with a flax­en cord un­til he binds them with his strong cords for­ev­er.

^26:23 God does­nʼt work in dark­ness. ²⁵ Does he say to any­one, “De­part from me”? No. ²⁶ Has he commanded any­one to de­part from the hous­es of wor­ship? No.

^26:29 He commands that there shall be no priest­crafts, which are when men preach and set them­selves up as a light to the world, to make a prof­it, and get praise of the world. ³⁰ God has for­bid­den this. There­fore, he has commanded that all men should have love, and ex­cept they have love they are noth­ing.

^26:32 God has commanded men not to mur­der, lie, steal, en­vy, take his name in vain, have mal­ice, con­tend with one an­oth­er, or com­mit for­ni­ca­tion. ³³ None of these iniquities come from God, for he does good a­mong the chil­dren of men.

^28:3 One church will say to the oth­er, “Be­hold, I, I am Godʼs.” And the oth­er churches will say, “I, I am Godʼs.” Thus will eve­ry one say that has built up churches, and not to God. ⁴ They will con­tend with one an­oth­er, and their priests will con­tend with one an­oth­er.

^28:8 Many will say, “Eat, drink, and be mer­ry, nev­er­the­less fear God. He will jus­ti­fy in com­mit­ting a lit­tle sin. Lie a lit­tle, take ad­van­tage of one be­cause of his words, dig a pit for your neigh­bor. There is no harm in this. Do all these things, for to­mor­row we die. If we are guilty, God will beat us with a few lashes, and at last we will be saved.”

^28:12 Be­cause of pride their churches have be­come cor­rupt­ed. ¹³ They rob the poor be­cause of their fi­ne sanc­tu­ar­ies and their fi­ne cloth­ing. They per­se­cute the meek and the poor in heart, be­cause in their pride they have be­come ar­ro­gant.

^28:16 Woe to those who turn a­side the just for noth­ing, and re­vile against what is good and say that it has no worth! ²⁹ Woe to him who says, “We have re­ceived the word of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have e­nough!”

^28:30 God says, “To him who receives I will give more. From them who say, ‘We have e­nough,’ will be tak­en a­way what­ev­er they have.

^29:3 “Some will say, ‘We have a Bible, and there can­not be any more Bible.’ ¹⁰ Be­cause you have a Bible you donʼt need to sup­pose that it contains all my words. ¹¹ For I com­mand all men to write the words which I speak to them.”

^30:17 There is noth­ing se­cret that will not be revealed.

^32:8 Know that you must pray, for the evil spir­it teaches a man that he must not pray.

Jacob

^1:2 Nephi gave me, Jacob, a com­mand­ment to write a few of the most pre­cious things. ¹⁵ The peo­ple be­gan to grow hard in their hearts, and to in­dulge some­what in wick­ed­ness, ¹⁷ there­fore I gave them these words:

^2:12 Many of you have be­gun to search for gold, sil­ver, and pre­cious ores, ¹³ and prov­i­dence has smiled on you most pleas­ing­ly, that you have obtained many rich­es. Be­cause some of you have obtained more abun­dant­ly than others, you are lifted up in the pride of your hearts be­cause of the cost­li­ness of your ap­par­el, and per­se­cute others be­cause you sup­pose that you are bet­ter than they. ¹⁴ Do you sup­pose that God justifies you in this thing? No, but he condemns you, and if you per­sist, his judgments will speed­i­ly come to you.

^2:17 Think of others like your­selves, be fa­mil­iar with all, and free with your pos­ses­sions, that they may be rich like you. ¹⁸ But be­fore you seek for rich­es, seek for the king­dom of God. ¹⁹ Af­ter you have obtained a hope in Christ you will ob­tain rich­es, if you seek them, and you will seek them with the in­tent to do good: to clothe the na­ked, to feed the hun­gry, to lib­er­ate the cap­tive, and to ad­min­is­ter re­lief to the sick and the af­flict­ed. ²¹ Donʼt you sup­pose that one be­ing is as pre­cious in Godʼs sight as the oth­er?

^2:35 You have bro­ken your ten­der wivesʼ hearts, and lost your childrenʼs con­fi­dence, be­cause of your bad examples be­fore them. The sob­bing of their hearts ascends up to God against you.

^4:8 Donʼt de­spise Godʼs rev­e­la­tions. ¹⁰ Donʼt seek to coun­sel God, but to take coun­sel from him. For you know that he counsels in wis­dom, jus­tice, and great mer­cy.

^6:12 Be wise; what more can I say?

Zeniff

^11:1 Zeniff con­ferred the king­dom on No­ah, one of his sons. ² No­ah did­nʼt keep Godʼs com­mand­ments, but followed the desires of his own heart. ³ He im­posed a tax of one fifth of all the peo­ple pos­sessed ⁴ to sup­port him­self, and his priests.

^11:20 There was a man named Abin­a­di who went a­mong the peo­ple say­ing, “God says, ‘Woe to this peo­ple, for I have seen their abom­i­na­tions, their wick­ed­ness, and their for­ni­ca­tion. ²¹ Un­less they re­pent they will be brought in­to bond­age.’”

^11:27 When king No­ah heard of Abinadiʼs words, he was an­gry. He said, “Who is Abin­a­di that he should judge me and my peo­ple, or who is God to bring such great af­flic­tion on my peo­ple? ²⁸ Bring Abin­a­di here so I can kill him.”

^12:9 They took him and car­ried him bound be­fore the king. ²⁹ Abin­a­di said to the priests, “Why do you set your hearts on rich­es? Why do you spend your strength with pros­ti­tutes?

^13:4 “Youʼre an­gry with me be­cause Iʼve told you the truth. ^15:26 But fear and trem­ble be­fore God, for he redeems none who have wil­ful­ly rebelled against him, who have known his com­mand­ments and re­fused to keep them.”

^17:1 The king commanded the priests to take Abin­a­di and cause him to be put to death.

^17:2 There was a young man a­mong the priests whose name was Al­ma, and he be­lieved Abinadiʼs words, there­fore he be­gan to plead with the king to let Abin­a­di de­part in peace. ³ But the king was more an­gry and sent his servants af­ter Al­ma to kill him. ⁴ But he fled from them and hid. Be­ing concealed for many days, he wrote all the words which Abin­a­di had spo­ken.

^17:7 The king said, “Abin­a­di, ⁸ you will be put to death un­less you take back all the evil youʼve spo­ken about me and my peo­ple.”

^17:9 Abin­a­di said, “I will not take back what Iʼve spo­ken, for it is true. ¹⁰ It will stand as a tes­ti­mo­ny against you at the last day.”

^17:11 King No­ah was about to re­lease him, for he feared that Godʼs judgments would come up­on him. ¹² But the priests said, “He has re­viled the king.” There­fore, the king was in­cit­ed to an­ger against him, and delivered him to be killed.

^17:20 Abin­a­di suffered death by fire be­cause he would not de­ny the com­mand­ments of God, hav­ing sealed the truth of his words with his death.

^18:1 Al­ma, who had fled from king Noahʼs servants, be­gan to teach Abinadiʼs words. ³ Many be­lieved his words.

^18:31 These things were done in the borders of the land, that the king might not know. ³² But they were made known to the king. ³³ He said that Al­ma was in­cit­ing the peo­ple to re­bel­lion against him, there­fore he sent his ar­my to de­stroy them.

^23:1 Now Al­ma, hav­ing been warned by God, told his peo­ple, there­fore they gathered to­geth­er their flocks and their grain, and ³ they fled eight daysʼ jour­ney in­to the wil­der­ness.

^23:4 They came to a beau­ti­ful and pleas­ant land, ⁵ and be­gan to till the ground, and build build­ings. They were in­dus­tri­ous, and worked very hard.

^23:6 The peo­ple wanted Al­ma to be their king, for his peo­ple loved him. ⁷ But he said to them, “Itʼs not ex­pe­di­ent for us to have a king. ⁹ Re­mem­ber the in­iq­ui­ty of king No­ah and his priests. ¹² King No­ah oppressed you, and you were in bond­age to him and his priests. ¹³ Be­cause you have been delivered out of the hands of king No­ah and his peo­ple, I ask you not to trust any man to be a king over you.”

^23:15 Thus did Al­ma teach his peo­ple that eve­ry man should love his neigh­bor as him­self, and that there should be no con­ten­tion a­mong them.

Mosiah

^1:2 King Ben­ja­min had three sons, and he caused them to be taught so that they might be­come men of un­der­stand­ing. ³ He al­so taught them about the records which were en­graved on the brass plates: “My sons, ⁴ it was­nʼt pos­si­ble for our fa­ther, Lehi, to re­mem­ber all these things; but he could read these engravings, and teach them to his chil­dren, that they could teach them to their chil­dren, e­ven down to the pres­ent time.”

^1:9 King Ben­ja­min grew old, and saw that he must very soon go the way of all the earth. ¹⁸ There­fore, he proclaimed to all the peo­ple to gath­er them­selves to­geth­er to hear his words.

^2:5 When they ar­rived, they pitched their tents on eve­ry side, eve­ry fam­i­ly be­ing sep­a­rate from one an­oth­er.

^2:8 King Ben­ja­min caused his words to be writ­ten and sent to those who could not hear him, that they might al­so re­ceive his words. ⁹ These are the words which he spoke:

^2:10 I have not commanded you to come here to fear me, or to think that I am more than a mor­tal man. ¹¹ But I am like you, sub­ject to all kinds of in­fir­mi­ties in body and mind; yet the peo­ple have cho­sen me, and God has al­lowed me to be a king; to serve you with all the might, mind and strength which he has grant­ed me.

^2:12 I have been al­lowed to spend my days in your ser­vice, and have not sought gold, or sil­ver, or any kind of rich­es from you. ¹³ Nei­ther have I al­lowed you to be con­fined in dungeons, or to make slaves of one an­oth­er, or to mur­der, or steal, or com­mit adul­tery. ¹⁴ And e­ven I, my­self, have la­bored with my own hands that I might serve you, and that you should not be bur­dened with taxes.

^2:15 Yet, I have not done this to boast. ¹⁷ I tell you so you may learn wis­dom; that you may learn that when you serve your fel­low beings you are on­ly serv­ing God.

^2:18 If I, whom you call your king, la­bor to serve you, then should­nʼt you la­bor to serve one an­oth­er? ¹⁹ If I, whom you call your king, mer­it any thanks from you, O how you should thank your heav­en­ly king!

^2:41 Con­sid­er the bless­ed and hap­py state of those who keep Godʼs com­mand­ments. They are bless­ed in all things, both tem­po­ral and spir­it­u­al, and if they re­main faith­ful to the end they are re­ceived in­to heav­en to dwell with God in never-ending hap­pi­ness.

^3:19 The nat­u­ral man is an en­e­my to God, and will be for­ev­er, un­less he puts off the nat­u­ral man and be­comes like a child: sub­mis­sive, meek, hum­ble, pa­tient, full of love, will­ing to sub­mit to all things, e­ven as a child submits to his fa­ther.

^4:9 Be­lieve in God. Be­lieve that he is, and that he cre­at­ed all things. Be­lieve that he has all wis­dom. Be­lieve that man does not com­pre­hend all that God can com­pre­hend. ¹⁰ Be­lieve that you must re­pent of your sins and for­sake them, and hum­ble your­selves be­fore God. Ask in sin­cer­i­ty of heart that he would for­give you. And now, if you be­lieve all these things see that you do them.

^4:11 Hum­ble your­selves, call­ing on God dai­ly. ¹² If you do this you will al­ways re­joice, ¹³ and you will not have a mind to in­jure one an­oth­er, but to live at peace, and to re­pay eve­ry man what he is due. ¹⁴ You will not al­low your chil­dren to go hun­gry, or na­ked, or to trans­gress Godʼs laws and fight and quar­rel with one an­oth­er. ¹⁵ But you will teach them to walk in the ways of so­ber truth, to love one an­oth­er, and to serve one an­oth­er.

^4:16 You will help those who need your help. You will give of your pos­ses­sions to him who stands in need. You wonʼt al­low the beg­gar to pe­ti­tion you in vain, and turn him a­way to per­ish. ¹⁷ Per­haps you will say, “The man has brought his mis­ery on him­self, there­fore I wonʼt give him of my food, or of my pos­ses­sions, for his pun­ish­ments are just.” ¹⁸ Who­ev­er does this has great cause to re­pent. Un­less he repents he perishes for­ev­er, and has no part in the king­dom of God. ¹⁹ For arenʼt we all beg­gars? Donʼt we all de­pend on God for all our pos­ses­sions, for food and cloth­ing, for gold and sil­ver, and for all our rich­es of eve­ry kind?

^4:22 If you judge the man who petitions you for your pos­ses­sions, that he per­ish not, and con­demn him, how much more just will be your con­dem­na­tion for with­hold­ing your pos­ses­sions, which donʼt be­long to you but to God. ²³ Woe to that man, for his pos­ses­sions will per­ish with him. I speak to those who are rich in the things of this world.

^4:24 I say to the poor, you who on­ly have e­nough to re­main from day to day; I mean all you who de­ny the beg­gar, be­cause you have not. Say in your hearts: “I donʼt give be­cause I donʼt have, but if I had I would give.” ²⁵ If you say this in your hearts you re­main guilt­less. Oth­er­wise you are condemned, for you cov­et what you have not re­ceived.

^4:26 To re­tain for­give­ness of your sins, share your pos­ses­sions with the poor, eve­ry man ac­cord­ing to what he has, such as feed­ing the hun­gry, cloth­ing the na­ked, visiting the sick and help­ing them, both spir­it­u­al­ly and tem­po­ral­ly, ac­cord­ing to their needs. ²⁷ And see that all this is done in wis­dom and or­der; for it is not nec­es­sary for a man to run faster than he has strength. It is ex­pe­di­ent for him to be dil­i­gent, that he might win the prize. There­fore, all things must be done in or­der.

^4:28 Re­mem­ber that who­ev­er borrows from his neigh­bor should re­turn the thing, as he has agreed, or else you will sin; and per­haps you will cause your neigh­bor to sin al­so.

^4:30 If you donʼt watch your­selves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and ob­serve Godʼs com­mand­ments, e­ven un­til the end of your lives, you must per­ish.

^5:13 How does a man know the mas­ter whom he has not served, and who is a strang­er to him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

^6:4 Mo­si­ah be­gan to reign in his fatherʼs place. ^25:1 He gathered all the peo­ple to­geth­er, and ⁵ read the records of Zeniff to them. ⁶ He al­so read the ac­count of Al­ma and his peo­ple. ¹⁵ Al­ma al­so spoke to them, preaching re­pent­ance and faith on God.

^28:10 King Mo­si­ah had no one to con­fer the king­dom on, for none of his sons would ac­cept the king­dom. ¹¹ There­fore, he took the records ²⁰ and con­ferred them on Al­ma, who was the son of Al­ma, and commanded him to keep and pre­serve them, and al­so to keep a rec­ord of the peo­ple, handing them down from one gen­er­a­tion to the next.

^29:4 King Mo­si­ah wrote to the peo­ple, ⁵ “You want to have a king. ⁶ He to whom the king­dom right­ly be­longs has de­clined. ⁷ If I ap­point an­oth­er in his place, I fear there would a­rise con­ten­tions which would cause wars, which would de­stroy the souls of many peo­ple.

^29:10 “Let us be wise and an­tic­i­pate these things, and do what will make for peace. ¹¹ There­fore, I will be your king for the rest of my life. Nev­er­the­less, let us ap­point judges to judge this peo­ple ac­cord­ing to our law, and we will new­ly ar­range the af­fairs of this peo­ple.

^29:16 “Be­cause all men are not just, it is not ex­pe­di­ent to have a king or kings to rule over you. ¹⁷ For be­hold how much in­iq­ui­ty one wick­ed king causes, and what great de­struc­tion!

^29:21 “You can on­ly de­throne an in­iq­ui­tous king through much con­ten­tion and blood­shed. ²² For he has his friends in in­iq­ui­ty, and he keeps his guards a­round him, and he tears up the laws of those who have reigned in right­eous­ness be­fore him, and he tramples Godʼs com­mand­ments un­der his feet, ²³ and he enacts laws ac­cord­ing to his own wick­ed­ness, and he destroys who­ev­er does­nʼt o­bey his laws.

^29:25 “There­fore, choose judges by the voice of the peo­ple, that you may be judged ac­cord­ing to the laws which have been giv­en by our fathers. ²⁶ Ob­serve this and make it your law: do your busi­ness by the voice of the peo­ple.”

^29:37 The peo­ple were con­vinced of the truth of his words, ³⁸ there­fore they re­lin­quished their de­sire for a king.

^29:40 The peo­ple loved Mo­si­ah, for they did­nʼt con­sid­er him a ty­rant who was seek­ing for that mon­ey which corrupts the soul, for he had­nʼt exacted rich­es from them, nei­ther had he de­light­ed in shed­ding blood, but he had es­tab­lished peace in the land, and had grant­ed to his peo­ple that they should be delivered from all kinds of bond­age, there­fore they esteemed him be­yond meas­ure.

^29:41 They ap­point­ed judges to judge them ac­cord­ing to the law. ⁴² Al­ma was ap­point­ed to be the first chief judge.

^29:47 Thus ended the reign of the kings over the peo­ple.

Alma

^1:2 In the first year of Almaʼs reign in the judg­ment seat, there was a man named Nehor ³ who was preaching that eve­ry priest and teach­er should be­come pop­u­lar, and should not la­bor with his hands, but be supported by the peo­ple.

^1:7 As he was preaching, Nehor be­gan to con­tend sharp­ly with a man ⁸ named Gid­e­on. ⁹ Nehor drew his sword and killed Gid­e­on.

^1:10 Nehor was brought be­fore Al­ma to be judged. ¹² Al­ma said to him, ¹⁴ “You are condemned to die ac­cord­ing to the law.”

^1:15 Nehor suffered a shame­ful death, ¹⁶ yet this did not stop priest­craft from spreading through the land, for there were many who loved the vain things of the world.

^1:21 There was a strict law a­mong the peo­ple of the church that no one should per­se­cute those who did not be­long to the church. ²⁷ They imparted of their pos­ses­sions to the poor, the needy, the sick, and the af­flict­ed. They did­nʼt wear ex­pen­sive cloth­ing, yet they were neat and come­ly.

^1:29 Be­cause of the stead­i­ness of the church they be­came very rich, hav­ing an abun­dance of eve­ry­thing they needed. ³⁰ In their pros­per­ous cir­cum­stances, they did­nʼt send a­way any who were na­ked, hun­gry, or sick. They did­nʼt set their hearts on rich­es, there­fore they were gen­er­ous to all.

^4:6 The peo­ple of the church be­gan to grow proud be­cause of the great rich­es they had obtained by their dil­i­gence. They were lifted up in pride, for they be­gan to wear very ex­pen­sive cloth­ing. ⁷ Now this caused Al­ma much af­flic­tion.

^4:9 There be­gan to be great con­ten­tions a­mong the peo­ple of the church. There was en­vy, strife, mal­ice, per­se­cu­tion, and pride.

^4:15 Al­ma, see­ing the af­flic­tions, per­se­cu­tions, and in­e­qual­i­ty, be­gan to be very sorrowful. ¹⁶ He selected a wise man and ¹⁸ delivered the judg­ment seat to him. ¹⁹ He did this so that he might go out a­mong his peo­ple to re­mind them of their du­ty, and to tear down all the pride, craft­i­ness, and con­ten­tion a­mong them. ²⁰ And thus, Al­ma delivered up the judg­ment seat, and con­fined him­self whol­ly to the priest­hood of God.

^5:2 Al­ma said to the peo­ple of the church, ¹⁴ “I ask you, have you ex­pe­ri­enced a mighty change in your hearts? ¹⁵ Do you look for­ward and view this mor­tal body raised in im­mor­tal­i­ty to stand be­fore God to be judged ac­cord­ing to the deeds which have been done in the mor­tal body?

^5:17 “Do you imag­ine that you can lie to God in that day, and say, ‘God, our works have been right­eous,’ and that he will save you?

^5:26 “If you have ex­pe­ri­enced a change of heart, can you feel so now? ²⁷ Have you walked, keep­ing your­selves blame­less be­fore God? Could you say, if you were called to die at this time, that you have been suf­fi­cient­ly hum­ble? ²⁸ Are you strip­ped of pride? If not, you are not pre­pared to meet God.

^5:30 “Is there one a­mong you who mocks his broth­er, or heaps per­se­cu­tions on him? ³¹ Woe to such a one, for he is not pre­pared, and must re­pent!

^5:57 “All of you who de­sire to fol­low the voice of the good shep­herd, come out from the wick­ed, be sep­a­rate, and donʼt tou­ch their un­clean things.

^7:2 “If I had­nʼt giv­en the judg­ment seat to an­oth­er, to reign in my place, I could not have come at this time.

^7:15 “Lay a­side eve­ry sin which so eas­i­ly entangles you, which binds you down to de­struc­tion. Show God that you are will­ing to re­pent of your sins. ²³ Be hum­ble, sub­mis­sive, gen­tle, o­pen to rea­son, full of pa­tience and long-suffering; ex­er­cis­ing self-control in all things; dil­i­gent in keep­ing the com­mand­ments of God at all times; asking for what­ev­er you need, both spir­it­u­al and tem­po­ral; al­ways thanking God for what­ev­er you re­ceive.”

^8:6 Al­ma came to a city called Am­mon­i­hah. ¹⁹ As he entered the city he said to a man, “Will you give a hum­ble serv­ant of God some­thing to eat?”

^8:21 The man was named Am­u­lek. He brought bread and meat, and placed them be­fore Al­ma. ²⁷ Al­ma stayed with Am­u­lek for many days be­fore he be­gan to preach to the peo­ple.

^8:30 Al­ma and Am­u­lek went out a­mong the peo­ple to de­clare Godʼs words. ^12:9 Al­ma be­gan to ex­plain things to them say­ing, “God on­ly imparts to the chil­dren of men ac­cord­ing to the at­ten­tion and dil­i­gence which they give him. ¹⁰ There­fore, he who hardens his heart receives the less­er por­tion of the word, and he who will not hard­en his heart receives the greater por­tion of the word.

^12:12 “All men must die and be brought be­fore God to be judged ac­cord­ing to our works. ¹⁴ For our words, our works, and our thoughts will con­demn us.

^12:24 “We see that death co­mes to man­kind. Nev­er­the­less there was a space grant­ed to man in which he might re­pent; there­fore this life be­came a pro­ba­tion­ary state; a time to pre­pare to meet God. ³⁷ Be­cause we know these things, let us re­pent, and not hard­en our hearts.

^13:27 “I wish, from the in­ner­most part of my heart, that you would lis­ten to my words, and cast off your sins, and not pro­cras­ti­nate the day of your re­pent­ance, ²⁸ but that you would hum­ble your­selves be­fore God, and watch and pray con­tin­u­al­ly that you may not be tempted above what you can bear, be­com­ing hum­ble, meek, sub­mis­sive, pa­tient, full of love and all long-suffering; ²⁹ hav­ing faith in God; hav­ing hope that you will re­ceive e­ter­nal life; al­ways hav­ing the love of God in your hearts.”

^13:31 Al­ma spoke many more words to the peo­ple which are not writ­ten in this book.

^14:1 Af­ter he had spo­ken to the peo­ple, many of them be­lieved his words, and be­gan to re­pent, and to search the scrip­tures.

^15:16 Am­u­lek had left all his gold, sil­ver, and pre­cious things, be­ing rejected by those who were once his friends and al­so by his fa­ther and his relatives. ¹⁸ Al­ma, see­ing all these things, took Am­u­lek to his own house, and ministered to him in his trib­u­la­tions.

^29:2 I, Al­ma, would de­clare re­pent­ance to eve­ry­one, that they should re­pent and come to God, that there might be less sor­row on the earth. ³ But I sin in my wish, for I should be con­tent with what God has al­lot­ted me. ⁸ For God grants to all nations, of their own na­tion and lan­guage, peo­ple to teach what he sees fit that they should have.

^30:6 A man named Kor­i­hor be­gan to preach against the com­ing of Christ. ⁷ Now there was no law against a manʼs be­lief. ⁹ If a man de­sired to serve God, it was his priv­i­lege, but if he did not be­lieve in him there was no law to pun­ish him.

^30:12 Kor­i­hor preached, ¹⁴ “These things which you call prophecies are fool­ish tra­di­tions of your fathers. ¹⁵ You canʼt know of things you donʼt see. ¹⁶ You say that you see a re­mis­sion of your sins, but itʼs the ef­fect of a fren­zied mind. This de­range­ment of your minds co­mes be­cause of the tra­di­tions of your fathers which lead you a­way to be­lieve in things which are not so.” ¹⁷ And he told them that what­ev­er a man did was no crime.

^30:31 He re­viled against Al­ma and the priests, ac­cus­ing them of lead­ing a­way the peo­ple af­ter the sil­ly tra­di­tions of their fathers, to glut on the labors of the peo­ple.

^30:32 Al­ma said to him, “You know that we donʼt glut our­selves on the labors of this peo­ple. Iʼve la­bored with my own hands for my sup­port. ³³ Not­with­stand­ing the many labors Iʼve performed in the church, Iʼve nev­er re­ceived as much as one pen­ny for my la­bor; nei­ther have any of my brothers.”

^31:1 Al­ma re­ceived news that one Zoram was lead­ing the peo­ple to bow down to idols. ⁵ As preaching the word had a great ten­den­cy to lead the peo­ple to do what was just—it had had a more pow­er­ful ef­fect on the minds of the peo­ple than the sword, or any­thing else which had happened to them—there­fore Al­ma thought it was ex­pe­di­ent to try the pow­er of the word of God. ⁷ There­fore, he went a­mong the Zoramites to preach the word to them.

^32:2 Af­ter much la­bor, they be­gan to have suc­cess a­mong the poor, for they were cast out of the syn­a­gogues be­cause of their coarse cloth­ing. ⁵ One of them said, “They cast us out of our syn­a­gogues and we have no place to wor­ship God. What shall we do?”

^32:7 Al­ma said to them, ¹⁰ “Do you sup­pose that you can on­ly wor­ship God in your syn­a­gogues? ¹¹ Do you sup­pose that you must on­ly wor­ship God once per week?

^32:22 “God is mer­ci­ful to all who be­lieve his word. ²³ He imparts his word to men and wom­en. This is not all, lit­tle chil­dren of­ten have words giv­en to them which con­found the wise and the learn­ed.

^32:28 “We will com­pare the word to a seed. If you make room to plant a seed in your heart, you will be­gin to say with­in your­selves, ‘Itʼs a good seed, for it begins to en­light­en my un­der­stand­ing.’ ³³ Be­cause you have tried the ex­per­i­ment, and planted the seed, ³⁴ you know that the word has sprouted up, that your un­der­stand­ing begins to be en­light­ened, and your mind begins to ex­pand. ³⁷ As the tree begins to grow, you will say, ‘Letʼs nour­ish it care­ful­ly, that it may bear fruit.’ ³⁸ But if you ne­glect the tree, and donʼt think about its nour­ish­ment, it with­ers a­way. ³⁹ Now, this is­nʼt be­cause the seed was not good, or be­cause its fruit would not be de­sir­a­ble, but itʼs be­cause you wonʼt nour­ish the tree.

^33:2 “Youʼve said that you could­nʼt wor­ship God be­cause youʼre cast out of your syn­a­gogues, but youʼre great­ly mis­tak­en. ³ Do you re­mem­ber what Zenos, the proph­et of old, said about pray­er? ⁴ He said, ‘You are mer­ci­ful, O God, for you have heard my pray­er, e­ven when I was in the wil­der­ness, ⁵ and when I cried to you in my field. ⁶ And again, when I turned to my house, you heard my pray­er. ⁸ You are mer­ci­ful to your chil­dren when they cry to you, to be heard by you and not by men, and you will hear them.’”

^34:1 Af­ter Al­ma had spo­ken, Am­u­lek taught them, ²⁰ “Cry to God when youʼre in your fields, over all your flocks. ²¹ Cry to him in your hous­es, over all your house­hold, both morn­ing, mid­day, and eve­ning. ²⁴ Cry to him over the crops of your fields, that you may pros­per in them. ²⁵ Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may in­crease. ²⁶ You must pour out your souls in your se­cret places, and in your wil­der­ness.

^34:28 “Donʼt sup­pose that this is all; if you turn a­way the needy, and the na­ked, and donʼt vis­it the sick and af­flict­ed, your pray­er is emp­ty, and brings you noth­ing, and you are hypocrites.

^34:32 “This life is the time for men to la­bor. ³³ Donʼt pro­cras­ti­nate the day of your re­pent­ance. ⁴⁰ Have pa­tience, and bear all kinds of af­flic­tion. Donʼt re­vile against those who cast you out be­cause of your great pov­er­ty, lest you be­come sinners like them.”

^35:16 Al­ma gathered his sons to­geth­er:

^37:1 My son Helaman, take the records which have been entrusted to me, ² and keep a rec­ord of this peo­ple. ⁶ You may sup­pose that this is fool­ish­ness, but by small and sim­ple things are great things brought to pass. ⁸ These things have en­larged the mem­o­ry of this peo­ple, and con­vinced many of the er­ror of their ways.

^37:35 In your youth, learn wis­dom and to keep the com­mand­ments of God. ⁴⁷ Be so­ber. My son, fare­well.

^38:1 My son Shiblon, ¹⁰ be dil­i­gent and tem­per­ate in all things. ¹¹ Donʼt be lifted up in pride. Donʼt boast in your own wis­dom, or in your much strength. ¹² Use bold­ness, but not over­bear­ance. Bri­dle all your passions, that you may be filled with love. Re­frain from i­dle­ness.

^38:14 Donʼt say, “God, I thank you that weʼre bet­ter than our brothers.” Rath­er say, “God, for­give my un­wor­thi­ness, and re­mem­ber my brothers in mer­cy.”

^38:15 Be so­ber. My son, fare­well.

^39:1 My son Cor­i­an­ton, ² this is what I have against you: you went on boasting in your strength and your wis­dom, ³ and you went af­ter a pros­ti­tute. ⁵ Donʼt you know that these things are an abom­i­na­tion to God?

^39:9 Re­pent and for­sake your sins, and donʼt go af­ter the lusts of your eyes any­more. ¹¹ Donʼt al­low your­self to be led a­way by any vain or fool­ish thing. ¹⁴ Donʼt seek af­ter rich­es or the vain things of this world, for you canʼt car­ry them with you.

^41:14 Be mer­ci­ful to your brothers. Deal just­ly, judge right­eous­ly, and do good con­tin­u­al­ly. ¹⁵ For what you send out will re­turn to you again.

^42:27 Who­ev­er will come may par­take of the waters of life free­ly, and who­ev­er will not come is not com­pelled to come.

^42:31 My son, de­clare the word with truth and so­ber­ness.

Helaman

^3:37 In the fifty-third year of the reign of the judges, Nephi, the son of Helaman, the son of Helaman, be­gan to reign in the judg­ment seat.

^4:18 In the sixty-second year of the reign of the judges, ^5:1 Nephi delivered the judg­ment seat to Cezoram, ⁴ for Nephi was wea­ry be­cause of the in­iq­ui­ty of the peo­ple. He gave up the judg­ment seat to preach the word of God for the rest of his life, and his broth­er Lehi al­so. ⁵ For they re­mem­bered what their fa­ther Helaman had said to them:

^5:6 “My sons, de­clare these words to the peo­ple: ¹² Re­mem­ber that it is up­on the rock of Christ that you must build your foun­da­tion; that when the dev­il sends forth his mighty winds, when all his hail and his mighty storm beats up­on you, it will have no pow­er to dra­g you down to the gulf of mis­ery and end­less woe be­cause of the rock on which you are built.”

^6:15 In the sixty-sixth year of the reign of the judges, Cezoram was murdered. His son, who had been ap­point­ed by the peo­ple in his place, was al­so murdered.

^6:16 The peo­ple grew very wick­ed. ¹⁷ For God had bless­ed them so long with the rich­es of the world that they be­gan to set their hearts on their rich­es. They be­gan to seek for prof­it that they might be lifted up one above an­oth­er. There­fore they be­gan to mur­der, rob, and plun­der, to get mon­ey.

^6:18 Those murderers and plunderers were a band formed by Gadianton. ²² They had signs and se­cret words to rec­og­nize a broth­er who had entered in­to the cov­e­nant, that what­ev­er wick­ed­ness he did he should not be in­jured by those who be­longed to his band. ²³ Thus they might mur­der, plun­der, steal, and com­mit for­ni­ca­tion and all kinds of wick­ed­ness, con­tra­ry to the laws of their coun­try and the laws of God.

^7:4 Nephi saw the peo­ple in a state of aw­ful wick­ed­ness, and the Gadianton robbers fill­ing the judg­ment seats, hav­ing usurped the au­thor­i­ty of the land; ⁵ let­ting the guilty go un­pun­ished be­cause of their mon­ey; be­ing held in of­fice to get mon­ey and glo­ry of the world, that they might more eas­i­ly com­mit adul­tery, steal, and kill.

^7:6 This great in­iq­ui­ty had come up­on the peo­ple in on­ly a few years.

^7:13 Nephi said to the peo­ple, ²⁰ “How could you have for­got­ten God? ²¹ Be­hold, itʼs to get mon­ey, and to be praised of men. ²⁶ Woe will come to you be­cause of that pride which you have al­lowed to en­ter your hearts, which has lifted you up be­cause of your very great rich­es!

^8:25 “You have rejected the truth, and rebelled against God. In­stead of stor­ing up for your­selves treasures in heav­en, where noth­ing destroys, you are ac­cu­mu­lat­ing for your­selves an­ger for the day of judg­ment.”

^10:18 They would not lis­ten to his words.

^12:1 Thus we can see the un­steadi­ness of the hearts of the chil­dren of men. ² At the very time when God prospers his peo­ple, do­ing all things for their wel­fare and hap­pi­ness, then is the time that they hard­en their hearts and for­get God be­cause of their ease and very great pros­per­i­ty.

^12:4 How fool­ish, vain, and quick to do in­iq­ui­ty, and how slow to do good, are the chil­dren of men. How quick to set their hearts on the vain things of the world! ⁵ How quick to be lifted up in pride; how quick to boast; and how slow to re­mem­ber God, to lis­ten to his guid­ance, and to walk in wisdomʼs paths!

^12:6 They ne­glect Godʼs guid­ance, and will not have him as their guide. ²³ Bless­ed are they who will re­pent and lis­ten to the voice of God.

^13:2 There was one Samuel who came in­to the land and preached re­pent­ance to the peo­ple. ⁴ They would­nʼt let him en­ter the city, so he got on the city wall, and ⁵ said to them, ⁸ “God says, ‘Be­cause of the hard­ness of the hearts of the peo­ple, un­less they re­pent I will take a­way my word from them. ¹⁰ Your enemies of the fourth gen­er­a­tion will live to see your ut­ter de­struc­tion.’

^13:21 “Your rich­es are curs­ed be­cause youʼve set your hearts on them, and have­nʼt listened to the words of him who gave them to you. ²² You donʼt re­mem­ber God in the things with which he has bless­ed you, but you al­ways re­mem­ber your rich­es, not to thank God for them. Your hearts swell with great pride un­to boasting, en­vy, strife, mal­ice, per­se­cu­tion, mur­der, and all man­ner of in­iq­ui­ty.

^13:24 “Woe to you be­cause you drive out the prophets, mock them, throw stones at them, and kill them, just as they did long a­go. ²⁵ And now you say, ‘If we had lived in the time of our fathers, we would not have killed the prophets. We would not have stoned them and driv­en them out.’

^13:26 “Youʼre worse than they. If a proph­et co­mes to you and declares your sins and iniquities, youʼre an­gry with him, and look for ways to de­stroy him. Youʼll say that heʼs a false proph­et be­cause he testifies that your deeds are evil.

^13:27 “But if a man co­mes to you and says, ‘Do this and there is no in­iq­ui­ty. Walk af­ter the pride of your eyes, and do what­ev­er your heart desires,’ youʼll say that heʼs a proph­et. ²⁸ Youʼll dress him in ex­pen­sive cloth­ing be­cause he speaks flat­ter­ing words and says that all is well.

^14:30 “Re­mem­ber that you are free. You are permitted to act for your­selves. ³¹ God has al­lowed you to know good from evil, and to choose life or death. You can do good and have good re­stored to you, or you can do evil and have evil re­stored to you.”

^16:1 Many heard the words of Samuel, be­lieved him, and confessed their sins. ² But those who did­nʼt be­lieve Samuel were an­gry with him. They threw stones and shot ar­rows at him as he stood on the wall, but they could­nʼt hit him.

^16:7 He jumped down from the wall, fled out of their land, ⁸ and was nev­er heard from again.

3 Nephi

^2:10 The peo­ple still remained in wick­ed­ness. ¹¹ The Gadianton robbers had be­come so nu­mer­ous, and killed so many of the peo­ple, that all the peo­ple ¹² were com­pelled, for the safe­ty of their lives and their wom­en and their chil­dren, to take up arms against those Gadianton robbers to main­tain their lib­er­ty.

^6:4 The peo­ple be­gan again to pros­per, and there was great or­der in the land. ⁵ There was noth­ing to hin­der the peo­ple from prospering con­tin­u­al­ly, ex­cept if they fell in­to trans­gres­sion.

^6:10 There be­gan to be some disputes a­mong the peo­ple, and some were lifted up in pride and boasting be­cause of their very great rich­es, e­ven to great per­se­cu­tions. ¹² The peo­ple be­gan to be dis­tin­guished by rank, ac­cord­ing to their rich­es and their chances for learn­ing. Some were ig­no­rant be­cause of their pov­er­ty, and others re­ceived great learn­ing be­cause of their rich­es. ¹⁴ And thus there a­rose a great in­e­qual­i­ty in the land, so the church be­gan to be bro­ken up.

^6:15 Now the cause of the in­iq­ui­ty was this: the peo­ple were puffing up with pride, seek­ing for pow­er, au­thor­i­ty, rich­es, and the vain things of the world. ¹⁸ They did not sin ig­no­rant­ly, be­cause Godʼs will had been taught to them, there­fore they wil­ful­ly rebelled against God.

^7:14 The peo­ple di­vid­ed in­to tribes, eve­ry man ac­cord­ing to his fam­i­ly. They had come to an agree­ment that they would not go to war with one an­oth­er, or tres­pass against one an­oth­er, so in some de­gree they had peace in the land. Nev­er­the­less, their hearts were turned from God, and they stoned the prophets and cast them out.

^7:17 Nephi preached many things to the peo­ple. ¹⁸ They were an­gry with him. ²¹ On­ly a few were con­vert­ed to God.

^11:1 A great mul­ti­tude were gathered to­geth­er ² talking about Jesus Christ. ³ While they were talking with one an­oth­er, they heard a voice as if it came from heav­en. ⁸ They looked up and saw a man de­scend­ing out of heav­en. He came down and stood a­mong them. ⁹ He reached out his hand and spoke to the peo­ple, say­ing, ¹⁰ “I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets tes­ti­fied would come in­to the world.”

^11:12 When Jesus said these words the whole mul­ti­tude fell to the ground, for they re­mem­bered that it had been prophesied that Christ would show him­self to them.

^11:18 Jesus commanded Nephi to come for­ward, ²² and called others, and said to them, ²⁸ “There shall be no disputes a­mong you, as there have been un­til now. ²⁹ For he that has the spir­it of con­ten­tion is not of me, but is of the dev­il, who is the fa­ther of con­ten­tion, and he stirs up the hearts of men to con­tend with an­ger, one with an­oth­er.”

^12:1 When Jesus had spo­ken these words to Nephi and those who had been called, he said to the mul­ti­tude:

^12:3 Bless­ed are the poor in spir­it who come to me, for the king­dom of heav­en is theirs. ⁴ Bless­ed are all those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵ Bless­ed are the meek, for they will in­her­it the earth. ⁶ Bless­ed are all those who hun­ger and thirst for right­eous­ness, for they will be filled with the ho­ly spir­it. ⁷ Bless­ed are the mer­ci­ful, for they will re­ceive mer­cy. ⁸ Bless­ed are all the pure in heart, for they will see God. ⁹ Bless­ed are all the peace­mak­ers, for they will be called sons of God. ¹⁰ Bless­ed are all those who are per­se­cut­ed be­cause of my name, for the king­dom of heav­en is theirs. ¹¹ Bless­ed are you when peo­ple in­sult you and per­se­cute you, and false­ly say all kinds of evil against you be­cause of me, ¹² for you will have great joy and be glad, for your re­ward in heav­en will be great; for in the same way they per­se­cut­ed the prophets who were be­fore you.

^12:15 Do peo­ple light a lamp and put it un­der a bas­ket? No, but on a stand, and it gives light to eve­ry­one in the house. ¹⁶ There­fore, let your light shine be­fore this peo­ple so that they may see your good works and glo­ri­fy God who is in heav­en.

^12:19 You have the com­mand­ments. ²⁰ Un­less you keep my com­mand­ments, you will nev­er en­ter in­to the king­dom of heav­en.

^12:21 Itʼs writ­ten that you shall not mur­der, and who­ev­er murders will be sub­ject to Godʼs judg­ment. ²² But I tell you that eve­ry­one who is an­gry with his broth­er will be sub­ject to his judg­ment. And who­ev­er says, “You fool,” will be sub­ject to hell fire. ²³ There­fore, if you want to come to me, and re­mem­ber that your broth­er has some­thing against you, ²⁴ go to your broth­er, first be rec­on­ciled to him, then come to me with full pur­pose of heart, and I will re­ceive you.

^12:27 Itʼs writ­ten that you shall not com­mit adul­tery. ²⁸ But I tell you that eve­ry­one who looks at a wom­an with lust for her has al­ready com­mit­ted adul­tery in his heart.

^12:29 Al­low none of these things to en­ter your heart, ³⁰ for itʼs bet­ter to de­ny your­selves these things than to be thrown in­to hell.

^12:33 Itʼs writ­ten that you shall not break your oath but shall ful­fill your oaths to God. ³⁴ But I tell you, make no oath at all, ³⁷ but let your state­ment be “Yes” or “No”. Any­thing more than this is evil.

^12:38 Itʼs writ­ten, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. ³⁹ But I tell you, donʼt re­sist an evil per­son. In­stead, if some­one slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the oth­er al­so. ⁴⁰ If some­one wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat al­so. ⁴¹ If some­one forces you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴² Give to him who asks you, and donʼt turn a­way from him who wants to bor­row from you.

^12:43 Itʼs writ­ten, “Love your neigh­bor and hate your en­e­my.” ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mis­treat you and per­se­cute you ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of God. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good.

^13:1 You should give to the poor, but be­ware of prac­tic­ing your right­eous­ness be­fore men to be seen by them. ² So when you give to the poor, donʼt sound a trum­pet be­fore you, as the hypocrites do, to be praised by men. They have their re­ward. ³ But when you give to the poor, donʼt let your left hand know what your right hand is do­ing, ⁴ so that your giv­ing may be in se­cret.

^13:5 When you pray, donʼt do as the hypocrites, for they love to pray to be seen by men. They have their re­ward. ⁶ But when you pray, go in­to your room, shut your door, and pray to God who is in se­cret. ⁷ When you pray, donʼt use mean­ing­less rep­e­ti­tion like the pagans, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

^13:16 When you fast, donʼt look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they dis­fig­ure their faces to show men that theyʼre fasting. They have their re­ward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face ¹⁸ so that your fasting is not ob­vi­ous to men, but to God, who is in se­cret.

^13:19 Donʼt store up for your­selves treasures on earth, where moth and rust de­stroy, and thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for your­selves treasures in heav­en, where nei­ther moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treas­ure is, there your heart will be al­so.

^13:24 No one can serve two masters, for ei­ther heʼll hate the one and love the oth­er, or heʼll be de­vot­ed to the one and de­spise the oth­er. You canʼt serve God and mon­ey.

^14:1 Donʼt judge, so that you wonʼt be judged. ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and with the meas­ure you use, it will be meas­ured to you. ³ Why do you look at the speck in your brotherʼs eye but donʼt no­tice the log in your own eye? ¹² There­fore, what­ev­er you want others to do to you, do al­so to them.

^14:15 Be­ware of false prophets who come to you in sheepʼs cloth­ing, but in­ward­ly are rav­en­ous wolves. ¹⁶ You will rec­og­nize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn­bushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Like­wise, eve­ry good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree can­not bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ²⁰ So youʼll rec­og­nize them by their fruits.

^14:24 Eve­ry­one who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall, be­cause its foun­da­tion was on the rock.

^14:26 Eve­ry­one who hears these words of mine and does­nʼt act on them, will be like a fool­ish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell.

^15:9 Turn to me, and en­dure to the end, and you will live. For to him who endures to the end, I will give e­ter­nal life. ¹⁰ Iʼve giv­en you the com­mand­ments, there­fore keep my com­mand­ments.

^17:2 I can see that youʼre weak, that you canʼt un­der­stand eve­ry­thing Iʼm speak­ing to you. ³ There­fore, go to your homes, pon­der on what Iʼve said, and ask God that you may un­der­stand.

^18:18 You must watch and pray al­ways to a­void temp­ta­tion. ²¹ Pray to God in your fam­i­lies that your wives and your chil­dren may be bless­ed. ²² Meet to­geth­er of­ten, and for­bid no man from com­ing to you when you meet to­geth­er, ²³ but pray for them, and donʼt cast them out.

^18:36 When Jesus fin­ished these sayings, ³⁹ he de­part­ed from them.

Mormon

^8:1 I, Moroni, fin­ish the rec­ord of my fa­ther, Mormon. I on­ly have a few things to write, which things my fa­ther commanded me.

^8:3 Our enemies killed my fa­ther, and I a­lone re­main to write the sad tale of the de­struc­tion of my peo­ple. I donʼt know wheth­er they will kill me. ⁵ All my relatives have been killed in bat­tle, and I have no friends, and no­where to go.

^8:12 Who­ev­er receives this rec­ord, and does­nʼt con­demn it be­cause of its im­per­fec­tions, will know of greater things than these; ¹⁹ for one who judges rash­ly will be judged rash­ly again; for his wages will be ac­cord­ing to his works. ²⁰ The scrip­ture says, “God says, ‘Man shall not strike, nei­ther shall he judge, for judg­ment is mine, and venge­ance is mine al­so, and I will re­pay.’”

^8:22 For the e­ter­nal purposes of God will roll on un­til all his promises are ful­filled.

^8:31 Many will say, “Do this or do that, and it does­nʼt mat­ter, for God will up­hold them at the last day.” But woe to them, for they are in the gall of bit­ter­ness and in the bonds of in­iq­ui­ty. ³² Churches will be built up that will say, “Come to me and for your mon­ey you will be for­giv­en of your sins.” ³³ You wick­ed and per­verse and stub­born peo­ple.

^8:36 I know that you walk in the pride of your hearts, to wear­ing very fi­ne cloth­ing, to en­vy­ing, strife, mal­ice, per­se­cu­tion, and all man­ner of in­iq­ui­ty. ³⁷ For you love mon­ey, your pos­ses­sions, your fi­ne cloth­ing, and adorn­ing your churches more than you love the poor and the needy, the sick and the af­flict­ed. ³⁹ Why do you adorn your­selves with what has no life and yet al­low the hun­gry, the needy, the na­ked, the sick, and the af­flict­ed to pass by you, and not no­tice them?

^9:27 Donʼt doubt, but be­lieve, and come to God with all your heart, and work out your own sal­va­tion with fear and trem­bling be­fore him. ²⁸ Be wise dur­ing your pro­ba­tion. Strip your­selves of all im­pu­ri­ty. Donʼt ask so that you may spend it on your pleasures, but ask with an un­wa­ver­ing firm­ness that you will yield to no temp­ta­tion, but serve the true and liv­ing God.

^9:31 Donʼt con­demn me or my fa­ther be­cause of our im­per­fec­tions, nei­ther those who have writ­ten be­fore us. Rath­er, give thanks to God that he has revealed our im­per­fec­tions to you, that you may learn to be wis­er than we have been.

Moroni

^7:1 I, Moroni, write some of the words of my fa­ther Mormon:

^7:2 I, Mormon, speak to you. ⁵ I re­mem­ber Godʼs word, which says you will rec­og­nize them by their works, for if their works are good then they are al­so good. ⁶ For God has said, an evil man can­not do what is good. For if he offers a gift, or prays to God, un­less he does it with re­al in­tent he gains noth­ing, ⁷ for it is not counted to him as right­eous­ness. ⁸ For if an evil man gives a gift, he does it re­luc­tant­ly, there­fore itʼs counted to him the same as if he had retained the gift, there­fore heʼs counted evil be­fore God.

^7:9 Like­wise, itʼs counted evil to a man if he prays with­out re­al in­tent of heart. He gains noth­ing, for God receives none such. ¹⁰ There­fore, an evil man can­not do what is good. ¹¹ A bit­ter spring can­not pour out good wa­ter, nei­ther can a good spring pour out bit­ter wa­ter.

^7:13 That which is of God invites and entices to do good con­tin­u­al­ly. There­fore, eve­ry­thing which invites and entices to do good, to love God, and to serve him, is in­spired of God. ¹⁴ Be on guard that you donʼt judge what is evil to be of God, or what is good and of God to be of the dev­il. ¹⁸ See that you donʼt judge un­just­ly, for with the same judg­ment that you judge you will al­so be judged.

^7:44 If a man does­nʼt have love he is noth­ing. ⁴⁵ Love is pa­tient, is kind, does­nʼt en­vy, is­nʼt ar­ro­gant, is­nʼt self-seeking, is­nʼt ir­ri­ta­ble, keeps no rec­ord of wrongs, does­nʼt re­joice in un­righ­teous­ness but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, be­lieves all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

^7:46 There­fore, love nev­er ends. Hold fast to love, which is the great­est of all, for all things must end, ⁴⁷ but love endures for­ev­er, and who­ev­er possesses it at the last day, it will go well with him.

^10:1 Now I, Moroni, ³ ex­hort you that when you read these things, you should re­mem­ber how mer­ci­ful God has been to the chil­dren of men, and pon­der it in your hearts.

^10:8 Donʼt de­ny the gifts of God, for they are many, and they come from the same God. There are dif­fer­ent ways that these gifts are ad­min­is­tered, but itʼs the same God who works all things in all men, and theyʼre giv­en to prof­it men. ⁹ To one is giv­en that he may teach a mes­sage of wis­dom, ¹⁰ to an­oth­er teach­ing a mes­sage of knowl­edge, ¹¹ to an­oth­er very great faith, to an­oth­er the gifts of heal­ing, ¹² to an­oth­er work­ing mighty miracles, ¹³ to an­oth­er proph­e­sy about all things, ¹⁴ to an­oth­er see­ing an­gels and min­is­ter­ing spirits, ¹⁵ to an­oth­er all kinds of tongues, ¹⁶ and to an­oth­er the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of languages. ¹⁷ All these gifts come from God to eve­ry man in­di­vid­u­al­ly, as he wills.

^10:21 Un­less you have love, faith, and hope, you can­not be saved. ²² If you donʼt have hope you must be in de­spair, and de­spair co­mes be­cause of in­iq­ui­ty.

^10:34 I say to all, fare­well. I soon go to rest in Godʼs par­a­dise.