There is so much more to learn about and from the great Jaredite voyage. There is also much to learn about and from the political developments among the Jaredites after the death of Jared and the brother of Jared. The political intrigues, divisions, rebellions, usurpations, wars, strife, and captivity are fascinating and complex. Furthermore, Moroni alludes to the geographical overlap between the Jaredite and the Nephite kingdoms. There are also intriguing similarities between Jaredite names and names of significant characters in Nephite history. Even if all that remained of the Book of Mormon were this single chapter, it would boggle the greatest minds to explain how an uneducated farm-boy in his early twenties could have come up with one verse of this chapter. Then when we consider a single verse of this single chapter in the context of the entire Book of Mormon, it is clear that no modern man could have possibly written it. This is because Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. It is because the Book of Mormon truly is an ancient record of myriad prophets who testified of Jesus Christ and prophesied of things to come.
Unsurprisingly, the brother of Jared was right to predict that kingship lead to captivity. Mosiah knew that monarchy sometimes works well as long as there are righteous kings. But human nature remains constant under any form of government. Orihah was a righteous king. How could he possibly forget the miracles that he had experienced while crossing the ocean with his father, Jared, and his uncle, the brother of Jared, and their family and friends? Orihah lived to a ripe old age. Moroni doesn’t tell us exactly how old he was, but I wonder if these ancient Jaredites lived many years like the even more ancient Methuselahs. Another evidence of Orihah’s long life is that he begat thirty-one children: twenty-three sons and eight daughters. That’s a lot of children.
How could Orihah have so many children? The most reasonable explanation that I can think of is that he and his people practiced polygamy. It is possible that Orihah married one wife after another and each died in childbirth or in other ways. Thirty-one children may have been born to a few or several different wives. I don’t know. The large number of children that sprang from Jared and the brother of Jared also suggest to me that the Jaredites practiced polygamy. The following commentary on Jaredite polygamy seems reasonable to me:
It is hard to imagine how Orihah had 31 children unless he had more than one wife. The practice of polygamy (or more accurately, polygyny) was probably regularly practiced among the Jaredites. The brother of Jared had 22 children (Ether 6:20), Shule also begat many sons and daughters (v. 12), Corihor had many sons and daughters (v. 14), and the people had become exceedingly numerous (v. 11) in the space of only a couple of generations. The practice was abused by Riplakish, who did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord, for he did have many wives and concubines (Ether 10:5). The record implies not that he started the practice, but that he abused it.
However, among the Lamanites and Nephites, the practice of polygamy was expressly forbidden, For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none (Jacob 2:27). The only known instance in which it was practiced among them was the wicked king Noah, who had many wives and concubines...and they did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness (Mosiah 11:2).
Thus, the Lord allows the practice under certain special conditions-specifically, he has said, if I will...raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things (Jacob 2:30). (See also here, here, here, and here)
However Orihah managed to beget thirty-one children, one of them, begotten in his old age, was Kib. Kib inherited the kingdom from his father, and Kib begat Corihor. Many of the Jaredite names seem strange and foreign to Nephite names (Jared, Moriancumr, Orihah, Kib, etc.), but Corihor is a name that we recognize from Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates of Nephi. Robert F. Smith’s overview of the reuse of Jaredite names among the Nephites is helpful.
A lot more has been and could be written about Jaredite and Nephite names. I find it interesting that the Jaredite Corihor caused problems among the Jaredites and the Nephite Korihor caused problems among the Nephites. It’s also interesting that when Corihor, age thirty-two, rebelled against his father, he went over and dwelt in the land of Nehor. Corihor dwelling in Nehor? Korihor and Nehor were two of the major anti-Christs (besides Sherem) who wrecked havoc among the Nephites. Surely Moroni knew this. It may be that Moroni used Nephite names for some of the geography. Whatever the case, Corihor rebelled against his father Kib, and Corihor drew away many people after him. They were good looking people, exceedingly fair.
Corihor was Jared’s great grandson. It only took four generations before the brother of Jared’s prediction began to be verified. Corihor gathered together an army in the land of Moron where King Kib dwelt, and Corihor took King Kib captive, thus vindicating the brother of Jared’s prediction. Let’s recall the brother of Jared’s prediction and the real results in Jaredite history:
And now behold, this was grievous unto them. And the brother of Jared said unto them: Surely this thing leadeth into captivity. (Ether 6:23)
And when he had gathered together an army he came up unto the land of Moron where the king dwelt, and took him captive, which brought to pass the saying of the brother of Jared that they would be brought into captivity. (Ether 7:5)
As just another side note on names, doesn’t the name Moroni, or Moronihah, come from the name Moron? Probably.
Corihor kept his father Kib in captivity, but Kib, in his old age and in captivity, still begat Shule. Shule, therefore, must have grown up in captivity. Shule was angry with his brother Corihor, and somehow Corihor allowed Shule to wax strong and mighty in judgment. Shule made steel swords, raised up an army, battled against Corihor, reobtained the kingdom, and restored the kingdom to his father Kib. Kib then bestowed the kingdom upon Shule. Some order was therefore restored, and Shule was a righteous king who begat many sons and daughters. Shule was also a very merciful and benevolent king because he bestowed power upon his penitent brother Corihor.
But the peace didn’t last long. Jaredite instability had just begun. Corihor’s son Noah rebelled against King Shule and former King Corihor. Noah drew away many people, including all of his brothers, and his brother Cohor. Noah battled against Shule until he obtained the land of their first inheritance and became king over that part of the land. Then Noah battled against King Shule again, and carried him away into captivity. By this time, the brother of Jared must have been rolling over in his grave. How could his people have so quickly forgotten the miracles and promises of the Lord?
Noah was about to put King Shule to death, but then Shule’s sons crept into the house of Noah by night and slew him. They broke down the prison door, liberated Shule, and placed him upon his throne in his own kingdom. Shule’s kingdom grew and prospered, but the rival kingdom of Noah continued under the reign of his son Cohor. Thus the Jaredite kingdom was divided between the people of Shule and the people of Cohor. The Jaredites were divided, much like the Nephites divided from the Lamanites. Have we learned anything from these divided peoples who preceded us? Lincoln gave his famous “House Divided Speech” in 1858. Look at us now. Although there are no kings now as there were among the Jaredites and the Nephites, divisions between democratic and republican factions are just as bad, if not worse than the divisions between Shule and Cohor or the divisions between the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Clinton vs. Trump divisions, and the current Biden vs. Trump divisions are just as terrible, if not worse than anything in ancient America.
Cohor went to battle against Shule. Shule slew Cohor. Cohor’s son Nimrod restored his father’s kingdom to Shule, and then Nimrod gained favor in Shule’s eyes so that Shule bestowed great favors upon Nimrod. Can we see how power politics began to work among the Jaredites? Things were getting out of hand, and therefore the Lord began to send prophets among the Jaredites:
And also in the reign of Shule there came prophets among the people, who were sent from the Lord, prophesying that the wickedness and idolatry of the people was bringing a curse upon the land, and they should be destroyed if they did not repent. (Ether 7:23)
Thus the Jaredites fell from their righteous roots and foundations with the great Jared and the great brother of Jared, and degenerated into wickedness and idolatry in only a few short generations. How easily we forget and fail to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in our lives and the lives of those who paved the way for us to enjoy the freedom that we enjoy. Whereas Jared and his brother worship the Lord and thanked Him for the multitude of His tender mercies, their great grandchildren had already begun to worship idols and war against each other. The Lord did not send the Jaredites to the Promised Land to worship idols and war against each other. In His great mercy and patience, the Lord sent prophets among the people to call them unto repentance lest they should be destroyed. And what was the reaction of the people?
As you can probably guess, and as is typical of human nature, the Jaredites did not appreciate the Lord’s merciful methods. The Jaredites reviled against the prophets, and mocked them. Fortunately for both the prophets and the people, Shule was a righteous king who wielded his political power in such a way as to support the work of the prophets and punish those who reviled against and mocked the prophets. The lack of internal restraints among the Jaredites increased the necessity for external restraints by laws that the righteous King Shule executed. Thus Shule reestablished order among his people. It was a kind of Jaredite refounding, perhaps somewhat like the refounding of America under Lincoln after the Civil War:
And he did execute a law throughout all the land, which gave power unto the prophets that they should go whithersoever they would; and by this cause the people were brought unto repentance. (Ether 7:25)
The righteous Nephite kings made similar laws that enabled the prophets to do their work successfully. The righteous Founders of the United States of America also laid a firm foundation that paved the way for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. As the Jaredites repented, the Lord blessed them:
And because the people did repent of their iniquities and idolatries the Lord did spare them, and they began to prosper again in the land. And it came to pass that Shule begat sons and daughters in his old age. (Ether 7:26)
Shule and the prophets did a great job in restoring peace and order among the Jaredites:
And there were no more wars in the days of Shule; and he remembered the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did execute judgment in righteousness all his days. (Ether 7:27)
I think of Moroni as he abridged this record of the Jaredites from the twenty-four gold plates. He must have been fascinated and saddened by the wars and strife among the Jaredites. As he worked on the abridgment of the Jaredite records, he must have also reflected on the parallels between Jaredite society and his own fallen people. Moroni must have rejoiced when he learned that the Lord sent prophets among the Jaredites to declare repentance, and when the Jaredites repented, and the Lord spared them. How could Moroni not help but notice how the pride cycle worked among the Jaredites as it had among his own people? Moroni must have felt gratitude for King Shule because King Shule remembered the great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them across the great deep into the Promised Land. As Moroni recorded his abridgment of King Shule’s reign, certainly Moroni remembered how what the Lord had done for his own fathers, Lehi and Nephi, in bringing them across the great deep into the Promised Land. As and you and I study about Shule’s memory and Moroni’s memory, can we not remember the great things that the Lord has done for our own fathers, from Columbus to the Pilgrims and other American colonists, in bringing them across the great deep and establishing them in the Promised Land?
For those of us who have forgotten these things - including those of us who have been deceived by the foolishness of the woke agenda, the 1619 Project, the racism of Kendi, and other radical ideologies - I recommend Fathom the Good as a way to refresh our memory of the great things that the Lord has done for our fathers here in the United States of America. First I recommend repentance and a serious study of the Book of Mormon and other scriptures. But I also recommend Fathom the Good as a way to understand how the same patterns that played out among the Jaredites and the Nephites are playing out again among us as modern Americans. We need historical, political, and philosophical literacy as much as we need scriptural and spiritual literacy.