Mosiah 9:16 - 9:19

Mosiah 9:16 And it came to pass that I did arm them with bows, and with arrows, with swords, and with cimeters, and with clubs, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons which we could invent, and I and my people did go forth against the Lamanites to battle.

King Zeniff armed all of his people and they in turn attached the Lamanites. They were not armed at the time of the initial attached by the Lamanites but they now had weapons to defend themselves such as swords, cimeters, clubs slings and whatever thing they could use as a weapon. [Don’t know what a cimeter is]

Mosiah 9:17 Yea, in the strength of the Lord did we go forth to battle against the Lamanites; for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers.

Their allay against the Lamanites was the Lord. The people had prayed for the power to defend themselves against the Lamanite aggression. The Nephites remembered that the Lord had delivered their ancestors on various occasions, so they prayed that He would do so now.

Mosiah 9:18 And God did hear our cries and did answer our prayers; and we did go forth in his might; yea, we did go forth against the Lamanites, and in one day and a night we did slay three thousand and forty-three; we did slay them even until we had driven them out of our land.

The Lord responded positively and they were strengthened by an invisible hand. In a battle lasting but one whole day, the Nephites killed 3,043 Lamanites. The fight lasted until the Lamanites withdrew from Nephite lands. [The Nephites did not pursue them into their territory. It was the policy that they would only defend themselves not engage in reprisals on their enemies lands. I think the Lord wanted the people to know about His power of protection, not of His power to punish. That is strictly up to Him personally not for man.]

Mosiah 9:19 And I, myself, with mine own hands, did help to bury their dead. And behold, to our great sorrow and lamentation, two hundred and seventy-nine of our brethren were slain.

King Zeniff counted 279 of his own people killed in the fighting after he had helped bury the Lamanite dead.

Mosiah 9:11 - 9:15

Mosiah 9:11 Therefore it came to pass, that after we had dwelt in the land for the space of twelve years that king Laman began to grow uneasy, lest by any means my people should wax strong in the land, and that they could not overpower them and bring them into bondage.

After 12 years, king Laman started to put his plan into action. Besides he was beginning to get nervous about the Nephites and their growing numbers. [Much like pharaoh of Egypt towards the children of Israel in Moses’ day. I also wonder if their were other Nephites immigrating in from Zarahemla as well which may have added greater numbers?]

Mosiah 9:12 Now they were a lazy and an idolatrous people; therefore they were desirous to bring us into bondage, that they might glut themselves with the labors of our hands; yea, that they might feast themselves upon the flocks of our fields.

The Lamanites were not an industrious people in that they did not necessarily plant crops or maintain livestock. They lived off the land and king Laman thought he could just take what he wanted from the Nephites.

Mosiah 9:13 Therefore it came to pass that king Laman began to stir up his people that they should contend with my people; therefore there began to be wars and contentions in the land.

King Laman then started a campaign of propaganda to get the people angry at the Nephites enough to go to war with them. This was now the start of wars between the Nephites in the land of Nephi and the Lamanites.

Mosiah 9:14 For, in the thirteenth year of my reign in the land of Nephi, away on the south of the land of Shilom, when my people were watering and feeding their flocks, and tilling their lands, a numerous host of Lamanites came upon them and began to slay them, and to take off their flocks, and the corn of their fields.

In the 13th year of the occupation of the Nephites of the two cities they settled, the Lamanites attached some of the Nephites who had settled south of Shilom. In the attach many Nephites were killed and the Lamanites stole their corn and livestock.

Mosiah 9:15 Yea, and it came to pass that they fled, all that were not overtaken, even into the city of Nephi, and did call upon me for protection.

These settlers then fled for safety to the city of Nephi and for help from king Zeniff against the Lamanites.