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A Single Prayer, A Whole Book

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A Single Prayer, A Whole Book

The Book of Enos is built around one extended episode: Enos, son of Jacob, describes going alone into the forest to hunt and being overtaken there by a wrestle in prayer, seeking first his own forgiveness and then, once he receives assurance of it, extending his prayer to the wellbeing of his own people and, further still, to the Lamanites, the rival people descended from Laman and Lemuel. The book frames this widening circle of concern, from self to community to a people considered adversaries, as the shape genuine repentance takes.

Enos closes his short record by noting his own approaching age and his hope that the record will be preserved and eventually reach the Lamanites themselves, a hope the Book of Mormon's later chapters present as centuries away from fulfillment. The book is one of the shortest in the entire collection, and its concentrated focus on a single episode rather than an extended narrative sets it apart from the books immediately before and after it.

Enos does not describe the content of his prayer in detail; the book instead narrates the act and its emotional shape, the wrestle, the anguish, the eventual assurance, which has made it a frequently cited example within the tradition of a prayer narrative built around process rather than petition.

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