In Alma 46–48, many facets in the lives of Captain Moroni and Amalickiah are presented. It is very interesting to contrast them: what were their stories? what were they interested in? and what were their strategies? As their lives are examined, one will hopefully find many things in Captain Moroni’s behavior that is worthy of emulation, and things in Amalickiah’s life that one would like to avoid.
Amalickiah was an imposing man and was able to push many people around. He was a Nephite, but in Alma 46:3 it states that he was wroth against his brethren. In Alma 46:1, we read, “It came to pass that as many as would not hearken to the words of Helaman and his brethren, were gathered together against their brethren.” Amalickiah became the party leader, no doubt in part because of his physical size and strong will. But this man was a member of the church, who had no doubt listened to Helaman preach and had rejected his authority as the successor to Alma.
A point about his descent. Amalickiah was a Nephite, but remember that the group known as “Nephites” incorporated Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites. Do we know which of those groups Amalickiah came from? In fact, in Alma 54:23, his brother, Ammoron, tells Captain Moroni that he was a descendant of Zoram. Most of the Zoramites had formed an alliance with the Lamanites and gone down to the land of Nephi. There had been Zerahemnah’s attack, and while all that occurred, Amalickiah was apparently still living in the Land of Zarahemla. His trademark was treachery; he may have been biding his time for a moment when he could conquer Zarahemla from the inside.