Benjamin's Address And Abinadi's Martyrdom

Mosiah opens Mormon's abridgment of the large plates, the fuller political and military record that runs alongside the small plates Nephi began. The record's own account of Mosiah's early reign is described by later Latter-day Saint editors as lost along with a portion of the original manuscript, so the book as it survives opens partway through the story, with King Benjamin, Mosiah's father, delivering a farewell address to his people before his death. The address is one of the most quoted passages in the Book of Mormon, urging service, humility and a covenant relationship with God, and it closes with the people entering into that covenant collectively.

The book then follows a separate group under Zeniff who had earlier resettled the land of Nephi, only to fall under Lamanite oppression. Within that community the prophet Abinadi confronts the wicked King Noah, is condemned and burned to death for his testimony, but not before converting a priest named Alma, who flees and founds a church among believers hiding at the Waters of Mormon. Mosiah closes by bringing these threads together: Alma's people and Zeniff's remnant both return to Zarahemla, and Mosiah replaces kingship with a system of judges.