Mosiah 11:1 - 11:5

Mosiah 11:1 And now it came to pass that Zeniff conferred the kingdom upon Noah, one of his sons; therefore Noah began to reign in his stead; and he did not walk in the ways of his father.

Zeniff chose his son Noah to be the new king. Noah, however, was not a good man

Mosiah 11:2 For behold, he did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart. And he had many wives and concubines. And he did cause his people to commit sin, and do that which was abominable in the sight of the Lord. Yea, and they did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness.

He did not behave as his father in relation to keeping the commandments of the Lord. He was into living life as his passions dictated and he committed many grievous sins.

Mosiah 11:3 And he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed, a fifth part of their gold and of their silver, and a fifth part of their ziff, and of their copper, and of their brass and their iron; and a fifth part of their fatlings; and also a fifth part of all their grain.

He taxed the people 20% in order to pay for his life style. This included everything the people produced such as silver, ziff, copper, brass, iron live stock and their grain.
[Don’t know what ziff is. Wonder why gold is not mentioned. Maybe there was no gold in the land, don’t think ziff is another name for gold.]

Mosiah 11:4 And all this did he take to support himself, and his wives and his concubines; and also his priests, and their wives and their concubines; thus he had changed the affairs of the kingdom.

The conduct of the king changes the affairs of the kingdom. Instead of the king supporting himself by his own labor, king Noah uses the tax money to support his life style and that of his priests. [He must have had a police force to back him up as well who would harass those who objected to the taxes and the king’s immoral behavior.]

Mosiah 11:5 For he put down all the priests that had been consecrated by his father, and consecrated new ones in their stead, such as were lifted up in the pride of their hearts.

The priest under his father were all replaced with his hand picked appointees who would support the changes he made.