Abstract: Under the duress of a lengthy war, and prompted by recent Lamanite military successes, as well as incensed at the government’s failure to resupply Helaman’s armies with provisions and to send men to reinforce the city Nephihah, Moroni sent a second scathing letter to the leaders of the Nephite nation in the Nephite capital city Zarahemla. As other scholars have noted, the name Zarahemla likely denotes “seed of compassion” or “seed of sparing.” In this article, I propose that Moroni’s rhetoric in the letter includes an acerbic word-irony involving the meaning of Zarahemla perhaps achieved in terms of the Hebrew verb yaḥmōl (“[he] will spare,” from ḥml, “spare,” “have compassion.” This word-irony points out that although the Lord had spared the people of Zarahemla and the Nephites in the past, the uncompassionate behavior of the nation’s leaders in Zarahemla was creating conditions under which the Lord would not spare the leadership in Zarahemla. Moroni wrote, “Behold, I come unto you, even in the land of Zarahemla, and smite you with the sword … For behold, the Lord will not suffer that ye shall live and wax strong in your iniquities to destroy his righteous people. Behold, can you suppose that the Lord will spare you…?” (Alma 60:30–32). The covenant background of this threat will also be explored.

Writing at the very end of Nephite civilization, Moroni states, “And if our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have written in the Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also. And if we could have written in the Hebrew, behold, ye would have [Page 200]had none imperfection in our record” (Mormon 9:33).1 This statement suggests that the Hebrew language and script remained a vital part of the Nephite linguistic repertory throughout the entirety of Nephite history, although they underwent change over time as language and language usage inevitably do. Amaleki, writing during King Benjamin’s reign,2 mentions that Mosiah I encountered in Zarahemla a “corrupted” language — presumably a dialect of Hebrew — being spoken among the descendants of Muloch,3 who “had brought no records with them” (Omni 1:17) and kept no records. With no written record and no scriptures to act as a language (and religious) conservator, their language had changed rapidly. Nevertheless, shared linguistic affinities between the Nephites under Mosiah I and the Mulochites would explain how Mosiah could have “caused that they should be taught in his language” with evident facility and could unite together in the way that they did (Omni 1:18–19). Nephite recordkeeping and scribal practices ensured that Hebrew remained a prominent part of the Nephite linguistic and literary repertory after the time of Mosiah I, Benjamin, and Mosiah II, and throughout the reign of the judges, even to the time of Mormon and Moroni2.

Scholars working in the Latter-day Saint tradition widely agree that “seed of compassion,” “seed of pity,” or “seed of sparing” (Hebrew noun zeraʿ, “seed,” + noun ḥemlâ, “compassion”) represents the most likely etymology and meaning of the Book of Mormon personal name and toponym Zarahemla.