But what were the Zoramites, who were behind all of this, so angry about? Why were they attacking? In Alma 31:8–10, we learn that the Zoramites decided not to observe the Nephite religious requirements, especially the performances of the Church. The Zoramites left, and Alma the Younger tried to convert them back. Did he win any converts? Yes, but who were they? The poor and the working classes. As in all ancient societies, the rich, like those who had built the Rameumptom and a synagogue, needed cheap human labor more than anything else, but Alma the Younger had taken the working-class Zoramites to the land of Jershon.
The people of Ammon and other refugees from the land of Nephi-Lehi were already in the land of Jershon, and some of the Lamanites were also already angry about their having left, as was seen in the War of the Ammonite Secession in Alma 28, when there had been a terrible battle in which the Lamanites unsuccessfully tried to get them back. So, it is logical here that the Zoramites and the Lamanites would combine their forces to set right a similar grievance.