When the final hour of his trial arrived, Abinadi was accused of yet another crime—that he had spoken blasphemously against God, for which he would be put to death, unless he retracted the curses that he had place upon the king and the people (17:8). When Abinadi refused and offered to undergo an ordeal to validate his testimony (17:10), Noah was about to withdraw all accusations against Abinadi (17:11). But then the priests advanced a fourth charge—having previously charged him with the offenses of lying, false prophecy, and blasphemy—they now accused Abinadi of having "reviled" against the king (17:12), which indeed was against the law in Exodus 22:28, which states: "Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people" (see Table 1).
Because offending the king would have been considered a "matter of the king" (2 Chron. 19:11), the law gave Noah the final say. He delivered Abinadi up to be killed (17:12). Abinadi was put to death by fire, mirroring the fact that he had spoken insolently about the king by saying that Noah’s life would be valued as a garment in a fiery furnace. But death by burning was a rare form of execution under biblical law. Thus, it was seen as particularly aberrational and contrary to normal legal rules and order.
As he died, Abinadi aimed his final prophetic judgment against the priests who had largely influenced the outcome of Abinadi’s case. His predictions that the priests’ "seed shall cause many to suffer even the pains of death by fire" (17:15), and that they themselves would be "taken by the hand of your enemies, and then … shall suffer, as I suffer, the pains of death by fire" (17:18), apparently soon came to pass. Regarding Noah’s death by fire, see Mosiah 19:20. Regarding the fulfillment of the prophecy that the seed of these priests, led by Amulon, would cause other believers to be put to death by fire, see Alma 25:7, 12. Regarding the deaths of some of the priests of Noah, see Alma 25:4; and on the continued hunting of the remainder, see Alma 25:9, 12. In this violent aftermath of the death of Abinadi, many people died, and at least some of them died by fire, all of which was seen as fulfilling these final prophecies of Abinadi (see Alma 25:9, 11).
A true martyr, Abinadi was "put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God," and he "sealed the truth of his words by his death" (17:20). His horrific death casts a long shadow throughout the Book of Mormon and adds to the world’s chronicles of consecrated righteousness.
| Charge | Evidence | Mosaic Law in Question |
|---|---|---|
| Lying (Mosiah 12:14) | Abinadi had said that the people had hardened their hearts and had committed evil abominations (Mosiah 12:1) | "Thou shalt not bear false witness" (Exodus 20:16) "Thou shalt not raise a false report" (Exodus 23:1) "Ye shall not … lie" (Leviticus 19:11) |
| False prophecy (Mosiah 12:14) | "He pretendeth the Lord hath spoken it" (Mosiah 12:12) | "The prophet [who] shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, … shall die" (Deuteronomy 18:20) |
| Blasphemy (Mosiah 17:7-8) | Abinadi had said that God himself would come down (Mosiah 7:26–28; 15:1–8) | "He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 24:16) |
| Reviling against the king (Mosiah 17:12) | With a simile curse, Abinadi said that Noah’s life would be as a garment in a hot furnace (Mosiah 12:3, 10–12) | "Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people" (Exodus 2:28) |
John W. Welch, "The Trial of Abinadi," in The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: BYU Press, 2008), 201–209.