Book of Mormon; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saints
As there were two lands of Nephi, the greater and the less, so, for
exactly the same reason, there were two lands of Zarahemla; the one
occupying the whole of South America, from the great wilderness, which
formed its southern border, northward to the land Bountiful; the other,
the district immediately surrounding the capital city.
That there was a Zarahemla within Zarahemla is shown by various
passages in which persons are spoken of as journeying to the land of
Zarahemla, when they were already within the borders of the greater
land of that name. For instance, Minon, on the river Sidon, is said
to have been situated above the land of Zarahemla (_Alma ii. 24_);
again, Alma took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla from
Sidon (_Alma xv. 18_). While in many other places, notably where the
boundaries of the possessions of the Nephites are given, the name
Zarahemla is applied to the whole of the lands of that people, even
sometimes including Bountiful, which is generally spoken of separately.
In the days of the first Mosiah and his son, Benjamin, the greater
portion of the Nephites appear to have been located in and immediately
around the city of Zarahemla. King Benjamin, when about to resign
the royal authority into the hands of his son Mosiah, commanded him
to gather his people together, For, he adds, on the morrow I shall
proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth, that thou art a
king and a ruler over this people (_Mosiah i. 10_). The proclamation
was sent forth and the people were gathered in an unnumbered host;
a thing that could not have been done in so short a time had their
habitations been widely scattered over an extended territory.
In the reign of the younger Mosiah, the people stretched out in all
directions, and colonies were planted in distant regions. This vigorous
policy was continued, only on a much larger scale, during the days of
the Judges.
After carefully perusing the Book of Mormon, we suggest that the lands
or cities (which in Nephite geography appear to be frequently used
interchangeably, or one for the other), included within the borders of
the Nephites, in the days of the Judges, were:
In the extreme north, the land of Bountiful, which extended southward
from the Isthmus of Panama. On its southern frontier lay the land of
Jershon.
On the River Sidon: Zarahemla, Minon, Gideon and Manti.
In the interior, eastward of the Sidon: Antionum, Siron, and probably
Nephihah.
On the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea: Mulek,
Morianton, Lehi, Omner, Gid, Aaron and Moroni.
In the interior, west of the Sidon: Melek, Noah, Ammonihah and Sidom.
Between the upper waters of the Sidon and the Pacific Ocean, or in the
extreme south-west: Cumeni, Antiparah, Judea and Zeezrom.
Besides the above the following cities are mentioned, but only
in connection with their destruction at the time of the terrible
convulsions that marked the sacrifice at Jerusalem of the world's
Redeemer:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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