- 56Now at the start of the 30th year of the judges’ rule, on the second day of the first month, Moroni received a letter from Helaman describing the affairs of the people in that region of the land. 2This is what he wrote: My dearly loved brother Moroni, both in the Lord and in sharing the difficulties of our warfare: My dear brother, I will tell you an account of our warfare in this part of the land. 3Two thousand of the sons of those people whom Ammon brought down out of the land of Nephi, descendants of Laman, who was the oldest son of our forefather Lehi, 4— now I needn’t tell you about their traditions or unbelief, since you know all about these things. 5Instead, I want to tell you that 2,000 of these young men have taken their weapons and have asked me to lead them; and together we’ve defended our country.
- 6Now you also know about the covenant their fathers made to not arm themselves in order to kill their Lamanite relatives. 7But in the 26th year, when they saw the troubles and difficulties we were having on their behalf, they were on the verge of breaking the covenant and using weapons in our defense. 8But I wouldn’t let them break their covenant, believing God would strengthen us, so that we wouldn’t suffer as a result of them keeping the oath they had taken. 9But here’s one thing to give you great joy: In the 26th year, I Helaman marched at the head of these 2,000 young men to the city of Judea to assist Antipus, whom you had appointed as a leader over the people of that part of the land. 10And I added my 2,000 sons (and they’re worthy to be called sons), to Antipus’ army, and Antipus thanked us for this added strength. Indeed, his army had suffered many losses from the Lamanites because their overwhelming numbers had killed a great number of our men; and we have reason to mourn over this. 11Still, we may console ourselves knowing they’ve died in the cause of their country and their God, and are happy. 12Now the Lamanites held many prisoners, all of whom are chief captains, since they killed everyone else, and we think they’re now in the land of Nephi; that is if they haven’t already been killed.
- 13Now these are the cities that the Lamanites have taken that cost the lives of so many of our valiant men: 14the city of Manti, and the cities of Zeezrom, Cumeni, and Antiparah. 15These were the cities they held when I arrived at the city of Judea. And I found Antipus and his men fortifying the city to the best of their ability. 16They were discouraged physically and spiritually, since they had fought valiantly by day and worked strenuously at night to maintain their cities. And so they had suffered great hardships of every kind. 17Now they were determined to conquer at this place or die. Therefore you can well imagine the little force I brought with me — those sons of mine — gave them a lot of hope and joy.
- 18Now when the Lamanites saw that Antipus had received added strength for his army, they were ordered by Ammoron not to come against the city of Judea or against us to battle. 19So we were blessed by the Lord. Because if they had attacked us in this weak condition of ours, they might’ve destroyed our little army; but we were spared. 20They were ordered by Ammoron to maintain those cities they had taken. And so ended the 26th year. At the start of the 27th year, we had prepared our city and ourselves for defense. 21Now we wanted the Lamanites to attack us, since we didn’t want to try to attack them in their strongholds. 22We kept spies out on all sides to watch the Lamanites’ movements, so they couldn’t pass us at night or by day to make an attack on our other cities, which were to the north. 23Because we knew that in those cities they weren’t strong enough to defend against them. Therefore we wanted, if they passed us by, to attack them from behind; and so attacking from behind at the same time they were met in front, we thought we could defeat them. But our hopes were dashed. 24They didn’t dare pass us by with their entire army, nor to pass us by with a part of it either, since they were afraid they wouldn’t be strong enough and would suffer a defeat. 25They also didn’t dare to march down against the city of Zarahemla, or dare to cross the head of the Sidon over to the city of Nephihah. 26And so with their forces they were determined to defend the cities they had taken.
- 27Now in the second month of this year, many supplies were brought to us from the parents of those 2,000 sons of mine. 28And 2,000 men also joined us from Zarahemla. So we were prepared with 10,000 men and supplies for them, and for their wives and children as well. 29Seeing our forces increase daily and supplies arrive for our support like this, the Lamanites began to be afraid and make periodic attacks, in order to interfere with us receiving supplies and strength. 30When we saw how the Lamanites began to grow uneasy, we were eager to develop a strategy against them. So Antipus ordered me to march out with my little sons to a neighboring city as if we were taking supplies there. 31The plan was for us to march near the city of Antiparah as if we were resupplying the city beyond it on the seashore. 32We marched out as if with resupplies to go to that city. 33Then Antipus marched out with a part of his army, leaving behind the rest to maintain the city. But he didn’t march out until I with my little army came near the city of Antiparah. 34Now the strongest Lamanite army was stationed in the city of Antiparah, indeed, the largest. 35When they were told by their spies, they came out with their army and marched against us.
- 36We retreated ahead of them to the north. And so we led away the most powerful Lamanite army 37for a considerable distance, so far away that when they saw Antipus’ army behind them, they moved as fast as they could without turning right or left but marched straight after us. We concluded their aim was to kill us before Antipus caught up to them to avoid being surrounded by our forces. 38And seeing our danger, Antipus increased the speed of his army’s march. But at nightfall they hadn’t overtaken us, and Antipus hadn’t overtaken them either. So we camped for the night.
- 39Before daybreak, the Lamanites were already pursuing us. Now we weren’t strong enough to fight them; indeed, I wouldn’t allow my little sons to fall into their hands. So we kept marching, and we directed our march into the wilderness. 40Now they didn’t dare turn to the right or left, for fear of being surrounded; and I wouldn’t turn to the right or left either, so we wouldn’t be overtaken. We couldn’t fight them without being killed, and then they would escape. And so we fled all that day into the wilderness, up until it was dark.
- 41At daybreak, we saw the Lamanites were once again threatening us; and we fled just ahead of them. 42But they didn’t pursue us very far before they halted in the morning of the third day of the seventh month. 43Now whether they were overtaken by Antipus, we didn’t know. But I said to my men: They might have halted in order to get us to attack them, to catch us in a trap. 44So what do you say, my sons? Will you go against them to battle? 45Now I tell you, my dear brother Moroni, I had never seen such great courage, no, not among all the Nephites. 46And because I had always called them my sons, since all of them were very young, they likewise said to me: Father, God is with us; He won’t let us die; so let’s go forward. We wouldn’t kill our brothers if they would leave us alone. Therefore let’s go so they don’t overpower the army of Antipus. 47Now they had never fought, yet they weren’t afraid of death. And they thought more about the liberty of their families than they did about their own lives. They had been taught by their mothers that if they didn’t doubt, God would protect them. 48They told me their mothers’ words, saying: We don’t doubt that our mothers knew.
- 49So I returned with my 2,000 against the Lamanites who had pursued us. Now Antipus’ armies had overtaken them, and a terrible battle had begun. 50And being tired because of their long march in such a short time, Antipus’ army was on the verge of defeat by the Lamanites. Had I not returned with my 2,000, they would have achieved that end. 51Because Antipus had died by the sword, and many of his leaders, on account of the fatigue brought on by the speed of their march. Therefore being confused because of the death of their leaders, Antipus’ men began to retreat before the Lamanites.
- 52The Lamanites were encouraged and began to overcome them. So the Lamanites were vigorously pursuing and attacking them when Helaman arrived from behind with his 2,000 and began to effectively kill them in great numbers, so the whole Lamanite army halted and turned to attack Helaman. 53When Antipus’ people realized the Lamanites had turned around, they regrouped and attacked the Lamanites from behind.
- 54Now we Nephites, including Antipus’ force and I with my 2,000, surrounded the Lamanites and slaughtered them, so that they were compelled to hand over their weapons and surrender as prisoners of war.
- 55When they had surrendered to us, I counted those young men who had fought with me, fearing many of them had been killed. 56But to my great joy, not one soul had died. They had fought as if with the strength of God; indeed, men were never known to have fought with such miraculous strength. And they attacked the Lamanites with such fury that they intimidated them; and because of this the Lamanites surrendered as prisoners of war. 57But we had no place for our prisoners, where we could guard them to keep them from the Lamanite armies, so we sent them to Zarahemla, along with some of Antipus’ men who survived. And I took the rest and added them to my young Ammonites and directed our march back to the city of Judea.
- 57Then I received a letter from king Ammoron offering that if I would hand over the prisoners of war we had taken, then he would give the city of Antiparah back to us. 2But I sent a letter to the king telling him we were sure our forces were adequate to take the city of Antiparah by force, and therefore handing over prisoners for that city would be unwise of us, and we would only hand over our prisoners in an exchange. 3And because Ammoron refused my letter since he wouldn’t exchange prisoners, we began to prepare to go against the city of Antiparah. 4But the people of Antiparah left the city and fled to the other controlled cities, to fortify them. So the city of Antiparah fell into our hands. 5And so ended the 28th year of the judges’ rule.
- 6At the start of the 29th year, we received a set of supplies and an addition to our army from Zarahemla and the surrounding area adding 6,000 men, and another 60 of the sons of the Ammonites who had come to join their fellow Ammonites, my little band of 2,000. Now we were reinforced, and we also had plenty of supplies brought to us.
- 7At that point we planned to take the battle against the army stationed to protect the city of Cumeni. 8I have to tell you we soon achieved that objective. Indeed, with a part of our strong force we surrounded the city of Cumeni at night, a little while before they were going to receive a delivery of supplies. 9We camped on all sides of the city for many nights, sleeping on our swords and keeping guards so the Lamanites couldn’t attack us at night by surprise, which they attempted to do many times. But every time they attempted this, they were killed. 10In the end, their supplies arrived for delivery to the city at night. But instead of being Lamanites, we were Nephites who captured the delivery and took it for ourselves. 11Yet despite being cut off from their support like this, the Lamanites were still determined to maintain the city. So we thought it best for us to send these supplies to Judea and send our prisoners to Zarahemla.
- 12Not many days had gone by before the Lamanites started to lose all hope of aid; therefore they surrendered the city to us. And so we had achieved our goal of obtaining the city of Cumeni. 13But we had so many prisoners that despite our own huge numbers, we had to employ all our force guarding them or put them to death. 14Indeed, they would break out in great numbers and would fight with stones and clubs, or with whatever they could get their hands on, so we had to kill more than 2,000 of them after they had surrendered as prisoners of war. 15Therefore we had to either put an end to their lives or guard them sword in hand down to Zarahemla. Moreover, our supplies were only enough for our own people, despite what we had taken from the Lamanites. 16Now in these crucial circumstances it became a very serious matter to make a decision regarding those prisoners of war. Nevertheless, we decided to send them down to Zarahemla. So we chose some of our men and gave them responsibility over our prisoners to take them to Zarahemla.
- 17But they came back the very next day. Now we didn’t ask them about the prisoners, since the Lamanites were closing in on us, and they returned just in time to save us from being overtaken. For Ammoron had sent fresh supplies and large reinforcements for their support.
- 18The men we sent with the prisoners arrived just at the right time to stop them as they were beginning to overpower us. 19But my little band of 2,060 fought most desperately. Indeed, they were resolute before the Lamanites and delivered death to any who fought them. 20As the rest of our army was about to give way before the Lamanites, these 2,060 were firm and undaunted. 21And they obeyed and took care to strictly perform every word of command. Everything happened to them according to their faith. I remembered the words they told me their mothers had taught them. 22Now it was these sons of mine together with the men chosen to transport the prisoners to whom we owe this great victory, because they were the ones who defeated the Lamanites. Therefore they were driven back to the city of Manti. 23And we held onto our city of Cumeni and weren’t all killed by the sword; however, we had suffered great loss.
- 24After the Lamanites fled, I immediately gave orders for my wounded men to be separated and recovered from the dead lying on the ground, and to have their wounds treated. 25There were 200 out of my 2,060 who had fainted from blood loss. Nevertheless, according to God’s goodness and to our great astonishment and the joy of our whole army, not one of them died. But there wasn’t a single one of them who hadn’t received many wounds. 26Now their preservation was astonishing to our entire army. They were all spared while a thousand of our fellow soldiers were killed. And we rightly ascribe it to God’s miraculous power because of their great faith in what they had been taught to believe, that there was a just God, and that whoever didn’t doubt would be kept safe by His miraculous power. 27Now this was the faith of these men I’m telling you about. They are young and their minds are firm, and they put their trust in God continually.
- 28Now after we had taken care of our wounded men and buried our dead and the many dead Lamanites, we asked Gid about the prisoners they had set out with for Zarahemla. 29Now Gid was the chief captain over the company appointed to guard them down to that land. 30Gid told me: We set out to go down to Zarahemla with our prisoners. And we met the spies of our armies, who had been watching the Lamanite camp. 31They called out to us, saying: the Lamanite armies are right now marching toward the city of Cumeni. And they’re going to attack them and kill our people.
- 32Our prisoners heard their shouts, which encouraged them, and they rose up in rebellion against us. 33Because of their rebellion, we attacked them with our swords. They all ran together, as one, upon our swords, and as a result most of them were killed. The rest broke through and fled. 34When they were gone and we were unable to catch up to them, we started quickly to the city of Cumeni. We arrived in time to assist our fellow Nephites in holding onto the city. 35And we have once again been freed from the power of our enemies. And blessed is the name of God; He’s the one who’s rescued us, who’s done this great thing for us.
- 36Now when I Helaman had heard Gid’s words, I was filled with great joy because of God’s goodness in keeping us safe, so we didn’t all die. I trust that the spirits of those who have been killed have entered God’s rest.
- 58Now our next objective was to take control of the city of Manti. Yet there wasn’t any way for us to lure them out of the city with our small force. They remembered how we had defeated them before. That being the case, we couldn’t lure them away from their strongholds. 2They were so much more numerous than our army that we didn’t dare go attack their strongholds. 3Also it was essential for us to keep our men protecting the parts of our land we had recovered. Therefore we needed to wait, so we could receive more strength from Zarahemla and also a fresh set of supplies.
- 4And so I reported by messenger to the chief governor of our land to acquaint him with the state of affairs of our people. We waited to receive supplies and strength from Zarahemla. 5But this only helped a little, and was offset by the Lamanites also receiving reinforcements from day to day and many supplies as well. These were our circumstances at this time. 6The Lamanites were making surprise attacks against us from time to time, trying to kill us with this new approach. However, we couldn’t really engage them in a battle because of their protected strongholds.
- 7We were left in these difficult circumstances for many months, until we were about to starve for lack of food. 8Eventually we received food brought to us under guard by an army of 2,000 men who came to join us. This limited assistance was all we received to defend ourselves and our country against an almost innumerable enemy. 9Now we didn’t understand what caused these difficulties we faced, or the reason why they didn’t send us more strength. Therefore it troubled us and we were afraid God’s judgments might fall upon our land and let us be overthrown and completely destroyed. 10Therefore we poured out our souls in prayer to God that He would strengthen us and rescue us from our enemies, and give us strength, so we could maintain our cities, lands, and property to save our people. 11The Lord our God gave us assurances He would liberate us, speaking peace to our souls, giving us renewed faith, and letting us look forward to Him liberating us. 12We were satisfied with the small force we received and were firmly resolved to defeat our enemies and to maintain our lands and possessions and our wives and children and our liberty. 13And so we went with all our strength to battle the Lamanites in the city of Manti. We pitched our tents beside the wilderness near the city. 14On the following day, when the Lamanites saw we camped beside the wilderness near the city, they sent spies to count the number and estimate the strength of our army.
- 15When they saw we were few in number, and fearing we would intercept their supplies unless they came out to fight and kill us, and believing they could easily kill us with their much larger armies, therefore they prepared to attack. 16When we saw they were preparing to attack, I had Gid, with a few chosen men, hide on the right flank in the wilderness. I also had Teomner, with a few chosen men, hide on the left flank. 17When they were in place, I remained with the rest of my army in the same place where we originally camped, waiting for the Lamanites to attack.
- 18The Lamanites came out in their strength against us. When they arrived and were about to attack us with their swords, I had those men who were with me retreat into the wilderness.
- 19The Lamanites quickly chased us, since they needed to catch up to us so they could kill us. Therefore they followed us into the wilderness. And we passed between Gid and Teomner’s men, who went unnoticed by the Lamanites.
- 20When the Lamanites passed, meaning the army had passed by, Gid and Teomner emerged from their hiding places and killed their lookouts, to prevent any Lamanite messengers from sending word, thereby preventing a retreat to the city. 21After cutting them off, they ran to the city and attacked the guards left to guard the city, killing them and taking the city. 22Now this was accomplished because the Lamanites sent their whole army, except for only a few guards, after our decoy into the wilderness.
- 23And by means of this, Gid and Teomner had taken their stronghold. Then, after having traveled a great deal in the wilderness, we changed our course toward Zarahemla. 24When the Lamanites saw they were marching toward Zarahemla, they were very afraid our plan was to lure them to their destruction. So they began to retreat into the wilderness, returning the way they had come. 25Then at night they camped. Now the chief captains of the Lamanites thought the Nephites would be tired from their march; and because they thought they chased our whole army away, they didn’t worry about the city of Manti.
- 26Once it was dark, I had my men, instead of sleeping, march by a different route back to Manti. 27And because we moved during the night, the next day we were well ahead of the Lamanites, arriving before them at the city of Manti. 28And so using this strategy we took the city of Manti without losing any men.
- 29When the Lamanite armies approached the city and saw we were there prepared to battle, they were shocked, extremely frightened, and so taken off guard that they fled into the wilderness. 30Other Lamanite armies followed and abandoned this entire region of the land. But they took away many women and children with them. 31And now all the cities taken by the Lamanites have returned to our hands. And our parents, wives, and children are returning to their homes, everyone except those who have been captured and removed by the Lamanites. 32But our armies are too small to protect so many cities and lands. 33We believe it’s God who’s given us victory over these lands, letting us again control our cities and lands that were originally ours.
- 34Now we don’t understand the reason the government doesn’t provide more support for us; and the men who came up to join us don’t know why we haven’t received more support, either. 35We don’t know whether your struggles have taken priority and received more support for your region. If so, we don’t want to complain. 36But if that’s not the case, we’re afraid there might be some faction in the government interfering with them sending more men to help us. Because we know they have more men than the ones they’ve sent. 37But it doesn’t matter. We trust God will save us, despite our armies’ weakness, and rescue us from our enemies. 38This is toward the end of the 29th year, and we now control our lands and the Lamanites have retreated to the land of Nephi.
- 39And those sons of Ammon’s people I’ve spoken so highly about, are with me in the city of Manti. The Lord has protected them, and kept them from dying by the sword, and not even one soul has been killed. 40But they’ve suffered many wounds. Despite that, they remain committed to the liberty God has given them. They’re continually faithful to the Lord who is God. They make sure to always keep His statutes, judgments, and commandments. And they have absolute faith in the prophecies about what’s to come. 41Now, my dear brother Moroni, may the Lord our God, who’s redeemed us and made us free, keep you continually in His presence, and may He favor this people, giving you success in retaking control of everything God gave us, and which the Lamanites took from us. Now I end my letter. I am Helaman, Alma’s son.
Chapter 26