Scriptural repetition -- Book of Mormon examples 3

I return to the topic introduced in this post, with a note on the recurring theme of a wicked people casting out, stoning and killing prophets. Already in the first chapter of the Book of Mormon, we read

And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. (1 Nephi 1:20)

I tried to look for accounts in the Old Testament, where this had happened, but could not find many. There is one in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21

20 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you.

21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord.

We also read about prophets being rejected in times of wickedness in Israel. Elijah, for instance flees for his life from the queen, Jezabel, in 1 Kings. But the Book of Mormon indicates that there are other examples not recorded in our current Old Testament

15 For it is not written that Zenos alone spake of these things, but Zenock also spake of these things—

16 For behold, he said: Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son.

17 And now, my brethren, ye see that a second prophet of old has testified of the Son of God, and because the people would not understand his words they stoned him to death. (Alma 33)

At least in the Book of Mormon, casting out, stoning and slaying the prophets is a repeated theme. Nephi prophesies

And after the Messiah shall come there shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection; and great and terrible shall that day be unto the wicked, for they shall perish; and they perish because they cast out the prophets, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the blood of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them. (2 Nephi 26:3)

This prophecy is repeated by Samuel the Lamanite, a prophet who himself was cast out (Helaman 13:2) and almost stoned (Helaman 16:2).

24 Yea, wo unto this people, because of this time which has arrived, that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, and cast stones at them, and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, even as they did of old time.

25 And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out. (Helaman 13)

I don't know if this is significant or what the meaning would be, but I do notice that there is a certain order repeated in all the quotes so far up until Helaman 13:24.

1. Cast out
2. Stone
3. Slay

But in Helaman 13:25, the order is reversed as in a chiasmus. A few verses later, Samuel states

32 And in the days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts. And then shall ye lament, and say:

33 O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out. (Helaman 13)

The reversal is kept, also when the fulfillment of this prophecy is described almost verbatim in 3 Nephi 8:25

And in another place they were heard to cry and mourn, saying: O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and had not killed and stoned the prophets, and cast them out; then would our mothers and our fair daughters, and our children have been spared, and not have been buried up in that great city Moronihah. And thus were the howlings of the people great and terrible.

This triplet shows up again in Ether 8:25, still reversed compared to the examples up until Helaman 13:24.

For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.

As far as I can tell, I have quoted all the verses that include this triplet. But the topic comes up frequently in the scriptures, sometimes mentioning only one or two of these actions signifying rejection of the prophets. There is much focus on this topic in conjunction with the coming of Christ. As we have seen, Nephi prophesied it in 2 Nephi 26. Samuel the Lamanite prophecied it in the verses quoted from Helaman 13, in addition to Samuel himself being cast out and thrown stones at.

In this context, it is interesting to note the Savior's own words in Matthew 23.

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23)

Only a few days after having spoken those words, Jesus was crucified. Jerusalem killed the greatest prophet of them all, the Son of God himself. 

As Jesus died on the cross in the Old World, there begun terrible natural disasters in the New World as fulfillment of Samuel the Lamanite's prophecy.  After the tempest and earthquakes, Jesus' voice was heard throughout the land, saying

And behold, the city of Laman, and the city of Josh, and the city of Gad, and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof, because of their wickedness in casting out the prophets, and stoning those whom I did send to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and their abominations. (3 Nephi 9:10)

5 And again, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, who have fallen; yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, ye that dwell at Jerusalem, as ye that have fallen; yea, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not.

6 O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart.

7 But if not, O house of Israel, the places of your dwellings shall become desolate until the time of the fulfilling of the covenant to your fathers. (3 Nephi 10)

These words were only spoken a few days apart, first by the mortal Jesus in the Old World, then out of heaven by his spirit in the New World. In addition to repeating the stoning of the prophets, he repeats a couple of other themes from Matthew 23:37-38. The voice heard by the people in the Americas even refers to Jerusalem (see the italic part), even though the people dwelling in Jerusalem 600 years after Lehi's exodus might seem less relevant to the people at that point. But his mention of Jerusalem further underscores the reference to the first quote in Matthew. 

Bottom line is, the descendants of Lehi who left Jerusalem have become just like the people at Jerusalem. They were supposed to separate as a righteous branch in a new promised land, but have become corrupted like the people they separated from. Killing the prophets is the indicator of this corruption. Because of that, Jesus is not able to gather them as he would like and their houses become desolate, in the New World as in the Old. 

A few thoughts on faith and reason

As I have reflected on this topic lately, I came to think of all the heart and mind passages in the Book of Mormon. I thought it was significant that heart (faith and desire) always was mentioned before mind (our intellect). But as I studied it further, I realized that it is all about our faith and desire. I created a post about this when I realized that the original word for "mind" in the Book of Mormon probably has little to do with our intellect.

I have had my share of discussion with former believers or non-believers. I think I understand where they are coming from. When you don't believe in God, the highest intelligence in the universe that you are aware of is that of man. In our time, using logic and reason and the principles of the scientific approach is not only the best approach to discovering and verifying truth, it is the only approach. To the non-believers, religion and faith, like any other topic, must be approached this way. "To a man with the hammer, everything looks like a nail". The scientific approach is the hammer and religion is just another nail.

For a believer like me, matters of faith differ significantly from matters of quantum physics, biochemistry or even social sciences. If there really exists

1. a supreme intelligence (God)
2. revelation

it goes without saying that I should "despise not the revelations of God" (Jacob 4:8) and that whatever enables me to receive revelation is the best approach to eternal truth. This is not a viable option for atheists. They will not accept revelation as a possible approach to learn truth before they accept the existence of God, and they cannot verify the existence of God with the only approach they know. They will pound away on that screw with the hammer without getting the desired result and quickly conclude that the screw is useless.

Don't get me wrong. I think that science is a great tool for its purpose. It is also hard to draw clear lines between all the different fields or subjects and in some cases they overlap. For instance, there are church historians who obviously use common approaches within the field of history to learn about the past of the church. But I think that the successes of science in the last century or two has caused it to sometimes overstep its bounds. One example is when some atheists try to convince themselves and others that science has disproved God. In other words, they are using a tool that is only capable of investigating the observable to disprove something unobservable.

Since this is a Book of Mormon blog, I will get to what I have learned from it about this subject. Science was obviously not a familiar concept to Book of Mormon authors, at least not the same way as today. But logic and reason or "wisdom of men", is mentioned several times, and it is usually connected to wickedness and disbelief. A great illustration of this is found in Helaman 16

15 Nevertheless, the people began to harden their hearts, all save it were the most believing part of them, both of the Nephites and also of the Lamanites, and began to depend upon their own strength and upon their own wisdom, saying:
16 Some things they may have guessed right, among so many; but behold, we know that all these great and marvelous works cannot come to pass, of which has been spoken.
17 And they began to reason and to contend among themselves, saying:
18 That it is not reasonable that such a being as a Christ shall come; if so, and he be the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, as it has been spoken, why will he not show himself unto us as well as unto them who shall be at Jerusalem?

We have repeated several times on this blog that the Book of Mormon plainly teaches that a hard heart leads to lack of understanding. When depending on their own limited wisdom the coming of Christ was not "reasonable". Interestingly, their argument is based on a wrong assumption. This is basically the reaction of the people after Samuel's speech in Zarahemla. He only talked about Christ's birth and death in Jerusalem without mentioning that he would appear to the Nephites after his resurrection. The people assumed that Christ would only show himself to those at Jerusalem and not to them. 

Their hard hearts prevented the "greater portion of the word" (Alma 12:10) and they were left with "their own wisdom". Because of those limitations, they were missing vital understanding and it led them to the conclusion that the prophecies they had heard were "not reasonable". 

I think the same thing is happening a lot today, sometimes with believers like me as well. We apply logic and reason to "make sense" of the gospel and eternal truths. Sometimes it doesn't, but that is probably because we are concluding based on limited information, often as a consequence of hardened hearts. We tend to be unwilling to admit that the error is on our part. Some other ways the Book of Mormon teaches us about this topic:

But behold, the devil hath deceived me; for he appeared unto me in the form of an angel, and said unto me: Go and reclaim this people, for they have all gone astray after an unknown God. And he said unto me: There is no God; yea, and he taught me that which I should say. And I have taught his words; and I taught them because they were pleasing unto the carnal mind; and I taught them, even until I had much success (Alma 30:53)

The teaching that there is no God was pleasing unto the carnal mind. Interesting. Another well-known scripture:

28 O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish...
42 And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. (2 Nephi 9)

Does this mean that logic and reason has no place in religion at all? Of course not. What the Book of Mormon warns against is depending solely on the wisdom of man. Wisdom of man is simply inadequate to know the things of God

How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him (Jacob 4:8)

Faith must come first

God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word. (Alma 32:22)

Then a heart that is soft enough to enable the planting of a seed. Speaking of Alma 32, I find it quite interesting that the best description that I know in the Book of Mormon of developing faith and learning eternal truth, uses the term, "experiment".

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith (Alma 32:27)

Can this be compared to a scientific experiment? Yes and no. Faith, diligence and patience is also necessary in the process of developing scientific proof, just like Alma describes the planting and growing of the tree. I mentioned that faith must come first. Actually, it is the same in science. First you postulate a theory or hypothesis before you do the experiment and get proof. That is also an expression of belief. The major difference is this: Whereas a person or group of scientists do the work, once the proof is there it's available to everybody else not requiring their individual effort. The tree in Alma 32, however, is personal. I can't eat of anybody else's fruit. Each one of us need to put in the effort to grow the tree. Just as importantly, each one of us can.  

And even all this can you do if you will (Alma 33:23)

That is the final point I would like to make: If logic and reason is God's way of approaching Him, that means he favors people with the highest cognitive abilities and deductive reasoning skills. That does not sound fair to me. "The way" is prepared for every single one of his children and he favors noone. Some might say that the faith/revelation approach favors people with the highest capacity of faith. But Alma assures us that we don't need anything more than a desire for a start. It is not about our skills or capabilities, it is simply about our will. This is the true meaning of "heart and mind".

The word of God -- Part 3

Part 1 and part 2 were written long ago. But I just had some further thoughts sparked by this week's Come Follow Me lesson. A more recent post also makes a case for Alma 32 being a personal creation account, and "word" is a keyword to make the connection. Alma talks a lot about the word and what to do with it, but he doesn't say much about what it is. The poor Zoramites eventually have to ask (Alma 33:1) and Alma spends Chapter 33 explaining what the word is.

22 If so, wo shall come upon you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.

23 And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life.

In essence, the word that Alma told them to plant was the Son of God who would redeem his people through the atonement and bring to pass the resurrection and final judgement. Next, Amulek starts speaking and confirms that "the word is in Christ unto salvation." (Alma 34:6). This is much in line with the example in part 1 demonstrating that the word is power and part 2, where the word is Christ. That is, the word is the power of God to save, manifest in His Son.

In Biblical Hebrew, the triliteral root 'dbr' (dābār) can be the verb, "speak" but also the noun, "word". As a noun, 'dbr' carries a dual nuance, meaning both “word” and “thing” (It is translated into "thing" or "things" from the Hebrew Bible more than 100 times). The reformed Egyptian script that the Nephites used would also likely skip the vowels and only spell the consonants. This duality of 'dbr' is interesting, considering the Zoramite mission. In part 1 of this series, Lord Wilmore quoted Alma 31:5 at the beginning of that mission.

And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

Thinking of the word as a thing, like a seed or a sword (just more powerful!), the description of the word in this verse gives me an image of something that Alma has and brings with him on a mission, offers to the poor among the Zoramites (the word, "word", is repeated 22 times in Alma 32) and asks them to plant in their hearts. The previously referenced article about the creation and Alma 32 also discusses the possible use of wordplay with Hebrew origins in Alma 32:21

And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things [words]; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things [words] which are not seen, which are true.

The Zoramites cannot yet see the word/thing that Alma brings to them. They don't quite understand what it is so they have to ask. Then Alma explains what this word really is: It is the power of salvation found in Jesus Christ. If we plant it and nourish it, it will grow inside of us and ultimately become a very tangible thing, a tree whose fruit we can pluck and eat "springing up in [us] unto everlasting life".

I like the idea of "the word" related to something more specific and powerful than the abstract meaning it has in English. Something that is specific to those who have done the "experiment" (Alma 32:27) and eventually plucked the fruit of the tree of life. Alma had done this and could therefore "try the virtue of the word of God" and share it with others, just like Lehi shared with his family as soon as he had tasted of the fruit. But it was not specific for the Zoramites at that stage. They didn't quite know what it was. That is why Alma admonished them to have faith. Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things (words). But the experiment will lead to increased knowledge and the word becoming something more discernible.

35 O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good (Alma 32)

"Redeem his people" as another example of internal consistency and "doctrinal mentors" in the Book of Mormon

Stisa's recent post about the concepts of "redeemer" and "kinsman" mentions that Abinadi is responsible for 5 of the 12 uses of the phrase "redeem his people" in the Book of Mormon.

When I read that, I remembered a post I made way back about the concept of Abinadi playing the role of doctrinal mentor to Alma-1, and Alma-1 playing the role of doctrinal mentor to Alma-2.  That was after I noticed that these three men were the only ones in the entire Book of Mormon to specifically teach about the "first resurrection."

So when I read Stisa's post, I decided to look up where the other 7 uses of "redeem his people" occur in the Book of Mormon.  The results surprised me, even though they confirm my hypothesis. Below you'll find an index of every occurrence of "redeem/redeemed his people, followed by the name of the person who is speaking:

Twelve Examples by Speaker

1. Mosiah 13:33, Abinadi 
2. Mosiah 15:1, Abinadi
3. Mosiah 15:11, Abinadi
4. Mosiah 15:18, Abinadi
5. Mosiah 16:4, Abinadi
6. Mosiah 18:20, Alma-1
7. Alma 5:21, Alma-2
8. Alma 5:27, Alma-2
9. Alma 6:8, Mormon (about Alma-2...see below)
10. Alma 11:40, Amulek
11. Alma 33:22, Alma-2
12. Helaman 5:10, Helaman-2 (quoting Amulek's words to Zeezrom...see below)

More about the Example from Alma 6

Mormon wrote these words, clearly documenting what Alma-2 was teaching:

8 And Alma went and began to declare the word of God unto the church which was established in the valley of Gideon, according to the revelation of the truth of the word which had been spoken by his fathers, and according to the spirit of prophecy which was in him, according to the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who should come to redeem his people from their sins, and the holy order by which he was called. And thus it is written. Amen. (Alma 6)

More about the Example from Helaman 5

It is true that Helaman wrote these words, but he is very specifically referencing Amulek in Alma 11:

10 And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. (Helaman 5)

Conclusions

Once again, we see a high degree of internal consistency.  If you had asked me prior to reading Stisa's post referenced above how many times the words "redeem/redeemed his people" showed up in the Book of Mormon, I would have guessed a few dozen or maybe more.  I would have guessed that many authors used this phrase.  Not so.  It seems that there is a chain of possession, so to speak, of the use of this phrase.

What to make about the "outlier" in Alma 11, when Amulek uses the phrase?  I don't consider it an outlier at all. Rather, it seems natural from the narrative of the Book of Alma that Amulek would have considered Alma-2 his doctrinal mentor.

In a similar vein, it seems that Helaman-2 was a careful student of the words of many figures on the large and small plates of Nephi, including Amulek. This makes sense, since he was a keeper of those records. See Helaman 5 for additional examples.

Sometimes I find a pattern in the Book of Mormon and the underlying deeper meaning is immediately apparent to me. (See this series of posts, for example.) Other times, including this example, I notice a pattern but I don't really understand what the deeper meaning is.  I clearly have much more to learn.  One thing I can definitely say is that the text of the Book of Mormon has been carefully prepared by someone with a lot of time and a lot of notes, and it deserves our careful attention.

"Cast..." and "hard heart"

I'm looking at symbols of the covenant between God and man.  They come in two basic forms, which I call "positive" and "negative."  For example, singing praises unto God is a positive symbol. (See Ether 6:9 or 3 Nephi 20:32, 34.)

I've found great joy as I search for these symbols, come to understand their context, then find additional examples of the same symbol in other passages of scripture. In fact, it was over one year ago that I decided to follow a prompting to study the Book of Mormon with a specific goal of understanding my covenants better.  At the time, I'm a bit embarrassed to say, I was under the false assumption that the temple covenant was rarely, if ever, mentioned in the Book of Mormon.  Many hours of study have demonstrated to me how incorrect this assumption was.  The temple covenant can be found all over the Book of Mormon, but only if one knows what symbols to look for.

Over time, one by one, many of these symbols have become familiar to me, and these days it is rare for me to study the Book of Mormon without recognizing numerous instances where covenants are discussed, just a little bit hidden from plain view, which seems entirely appropriate.

This post will discuss a connection between two negative covenant symbols: "cast off" and "hard heart." My main goal here is to illustrate how a passage that doesn't necessarily seem to be discussing covenants at first glance can actually be filled with symbolic covenant language (positive and negative).  Here are verses 1-8 of Jacob 6, in which Jacob discusses Zenos' allegory.  I'll highlight positive covenant symbols in green and negative symbols in red. "Cast" and "hard heart" will be placed in bright red with white text to help them stand out.

1 And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive tree, must surely come to pass.
2 And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh.
3 And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the world shall be burned with fire.
4 And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God.
5 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.
6 Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die?
7 For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire?
8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you? (Jacob 6)

"Hard hearts" and "cast" are two symbols that center on the subject of unbelief. Unbelief is toxic to spirituality. Connecting these two symbols to the covenant help we appreciate deeper meaning in some passages where either or both of these terms are used:

• In Alma 33:20-21, Alma teaches why the people at the time of Moses would not "cast their eyes" and be healed. "Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them." He asks, "would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?"
• In Alma 20:29-30, Ammon and Lamoni (a recent convert) go to the rescue of Ammon's brethren. They find them naked, bound with strong cords, hungry, and thirsty. This happened because "it was their lot to have fallen into the hands of a more hardened and a more stiffnecked people; therefore they would not hearken unto their words, and they had cast them out, and had smitten them, and had driven them from house to house, and from place to place, even until they had arrived in the land of Middoni;"
• "And it came to pass that when Nephi had declared unto them the word, behold, they did still harden their hearts and would not hearken unto his words; therefore they did revile against him, and did seek to lay their hands upon him that they might cast him into prison." (Helaman 10:15)
• Nephi laments his weakness in writing in 2 Nephi 33:1-2: "And now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men. But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught."

These symbols help us see that unbelief causes us to underestimate, disregard, and discard sacred and precious truths and cast them away.  A hard heart causes us to cast out prophets from among us (or cast their words out of our lives and routines).  In doing so, we reject the covenant and we will end up cast out from the presence of the Father at the day of judgment.

Zenos and Enos

While I was studying Alma 33, I came across an interesting similarity between the life of Enos (son of Jacob) and the Zenos passage Alma-2 quotes to the poor Zoramites, regarding prayer:

4 For he said: Thou art merciful, O God, for thou hast heard my prayer, even when I was in the wilderness; yea, thou wast merciful when I prayed concerning those who were mine enemies, and thou didst turn them to me.
5 Yea, O God, and thou wast merciful unto me when I did cry unto thee in my field; when I did cry unto thee in my prayer, and thou didst hear me. (Alma 33)

Compare the highlighted parts of that passage with these details from the story of Enos:

3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; ...

11 And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites.
12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.
13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation— ...
16 And I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time.
17 And I, Enos, knew it would be according to the covenant which he had made; wherefore my soul did rest. (Enos 1) 

Not sure exactly what to make of this similarity. Is it possible that Enos, as a record-keeper, knew of this passage from Zenos and tailored his writing to mirror these words?  Perhaps.

An interesting note about Alma's use of Psalms in the Book of Mormon (internal consistency alert)

Occasionally, I discover something about the text of the Book of Mormon that blows my mind.  This happened again recently as I was studying the use of Psalm-language in the Book of Mormon.  The dozens of examples I've studied are not randomly distributed.  Certain authors use a lot of it (Nephi, Jacob, Alma-2), other authors use little or none of it (Mormon, Moroni). That alone is an interesting detail.

Then I noticed something even more specific.  Alma-2 (commonly known as Alma the Younger) uses Psalm-language a total of 15 times (according to these two relatively comprehensive sources -- source 1 from John Hilton III and source 2 from Book of Mormon Central). In all but two or three of the examples, the Psalm-language Alma-2 uses matches Psalm-language found on the small plates.  This fits very well with another theory I have about Alma-2 having diligently studying the small plates and incorporating their message into his ministry, much more so than other Book of Mormon figures. I'll provide specifics to back up my assertion below.

One caveat before moving on to the specifics -- I personally don't know the Psalms by heart, and so finding additional examples has been difficult for me even with the aid of modern computers. This goes to show how hard it would have been for Joseph Smith to devise this on his own.

Usage of Psalm-language in the first two thirds of the Book of Alma provides us with a very distinct opportunity to test out a theory, because the 21 examples come from just two individuals. Alma-2 is responsible for 15.  Ammon gives us 6.

Let's consider Alma-2 and Ammon as individuals. They are contemporaries who were miraculously converted at the same time. Ammon's father was the Nephite King. Alma-2's father was the leader of the Nephite religion.  Both were incredible missionaries -- Ammon served among the Lamanites for 14 years, and Alma-2 gave up his position as the chief judge and preached among the Nephites for many years.

Despite all of these similarities, they have one very distinct difference: Alma-2 was a keeper of the records.  Ammon was not.  Alma-2 had significantly greater access to the small plates than Ammon. My theory is that for this reason, Alma-2 incorporates more of the small plate themes into his literary work than Ammon. He knew the small plates better.

Apparently, this extends to the use of Psalms, too.

Below you'll find two tables. The first table shows the 15 examples of Alma-2's use of Psalm-language.  The second table shows Ammon's 6 examples.  If the row is colored green, it has a clear match to Psalm-language in the small plate writings.  If it is yellow, it has a questionable match.  If it is red, it doesn't have a clear match on the small plates.

Table 1. Alma as a Student of the Small Plates

Alma Reference	Psalm-Language	Small Plates Reference
Alma 7:27	From this time forth and forever (Psalm 113:2; 115:8; 121:8)	1 Nephi 12:18; 2 Nephi 29:9
Alma 7:19	In the paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:3)	1 Nephi 16:5
Alma 36:28	I will praise thee forever Psalm 52:9)	2 Nephi 4:30
Alma 7:22	That I may walk (Psalm 56:13)	2 Nephi 4:32
Alma 33:11*	I will cry unto (Psalm 57:2)	2 Nephi 4:35
Alma 36:1	Give ear to my words (Psalm 5:1)	2 Nephi 9:40
Alma 38:1	Give ear to my words (Psalm 5:1)	2 Nephi 9:40
Alma 5:19	Clean hands . . . pure heart (Psalm 24:4)	2 Nephi 25:16
Alma 14:6	The pains of hell (Psalm 116:3)	Jacob 3:11
Alma 36:13	The pains of hell (Psalm 116:3)	Jacob 3:11
Alma 12:35	Swear in my wrath (Psalm 95:11)	Jacob 1:7
Alma 37:12	Over all his works (Psalm 145:9)	Jacob 4:10
Alma 36:27	Put my trust . . . deliver (Psalm 7:1; 25:20; 31:1)	2 Nephi 4:31,34?
Alma 5:50	The king of all the earth (Psalm 47:7)	not found
Alma 37:15	As chaff before the wind (Psalm 35:5)	not found
*	Quoting Zenos, a prophet also quoted on the small plates

It is also worth noting that similar examples of the Psalm-language in the two red examples can be found in other Old Testament passages, so perhaps Alma-2 is referencing the brass plates or some other lost source rather than the Psalms in those cases.  Even so, 12-13 out of the 15 examples fit this pattern very neatly.

Ammon, on the other hand, did not seem to limit his Psalm-language to examples also found on the small plates.  In his well-known praise to God in celebration of the astounding missionary success he and his brothers enjoyed among the Lamanites, we find 6 examples of Psalm-language. In Table 2 below, we see that only one of these examples has a clear correlation on the small plates, and there is a plausible explanation for this -- that one instance is also used by Alma-2 twice, once in connection with his conversion story. (In other words, it is possible Ammon is actually quoting something he first heard Alma-2 say in reference to the miraculous conversion event for which Ammon was present.)

Table 2. Ammon as a Control

Alma Reference	Psalm-Language	Small Plates Reference
Alma 26:8	Praise ... his holy name ... forever (Psalm 145:21)	not found
Alma 26:12	Will praise . . . name forever (Psalm 145:2)	not found
Alma 26:13	The pains of hell (Psalm 116:3)	Jacob 3:11*
Alma 26:23	laugh...to scorn (Psalm 22:7)	not found
Alma 26:36	Hath been mindful of us (Psalm 115:12)	not found
Alma 26:37	I will give thanks unto [God] forever (Psalm 30:12)	not found
*	This phrase is also used by Alma-2, twice, once in reference to his conversion, during which Ammon was present.

Conclusion

A few comments:

1. It is amazing to me that of all the speakers and writers in the Book of Alma, only three of them use Psalm-language at all.  >95% of that is produced by two of them.  
2. Of those two, we have a clear distinction.  12-13/15 times that Alma-2 uses Psalm-language, he is simultaneously referencing the small plates. Ammon appears to do this once out of six examples, however, the single exception could result from Ammon quoting Alma-2, who in turn is borrowing from Jacob.
3. It is really hard for me to believe that Joseph Smith would have been able to keep track of all of this without notes, especially in light of the fact that he dictated the Book of Alma long before he dictated 1 Nephi - Jacob.  
4. Accomplishing this through naturalistic means without notes would require an exceptional memory and an exquisite knowledge of the Psalms. 
• During the dictation of the Book of Alma, Joseph would have needed to remember the "Alma Psalms" (which would later need to be included in the writings of Nephi and Jacob) and the "Ammon Psalms" (which would later need to be excluded from the writings of Nephi and Jacob). All of this information would have to be held in Joseph's mind for at least a few weeks. (In addition to all other internally consistent details.)
• Joseph would also have needed to avoid Psalm-language at all other times while dictating Alma 1-40.
5. This is a lot of information to keep track of even for me using a computer. As I stated above, I doubt my own ability to spot additional examples of Psalm-language in the Book of Mormon.  Thus, it is reasonable to maintain some degree of caution that additional examples could change these numbers and lead me to a different conclusion. 
6. Here we have yet another subtle, consistent example of internal consistency. If you believe the Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith, you'd have to believe that he went to these great lengths, and then once the book was published, he never mentioned it or pointed it out to anyone.