A deep dive into Helaman 5, part 1 of 2

Helaman 5 is a wonderful chapter, filled with beautiful doctrine and intricate details about the lives of two prominent Nephite missionaries, Nephi-2 and Lehi-2.

In this post, I'll highlight some significant connections between Helaman 5 and other chapters in the Book of Mormon.

Part 2 can be found here.

Verses 1-4 -- Nephi-2 delivers up the judgment seat in order to preach the word of God

In verse 1, Nephi delivers the judgment seat to a man named Cezoram. We learn that Nephi obtained the judgment seat in Helaman 3 when his father died. Cezoram is murdered in Helaman 6.

In verse 2, there is a mention that "their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people" and that "they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good," both of which are referenced by King Mosiah (see Mosiah 29:25-27) at the time he established the reign of the judges.

In verse 4, we learn that Nephi has a brother named Lehi (more about the obvious significance of those names below), a fact we first learned in Helaman 3. Verse 4 also contains a pattern: yielding up the judgment seat to someone else in order to preach the word, which is exactly what Nephi's great-grandfather Alma the Younger does in Alma 4:17-19.

Verses 5-13 -- Nephi-2 and Lehi-2 remember the words of their father Helaman

In this next section, the plot thickens a little, as we find some connections that involve more than two chapters.

For example, in verses 6-8, Nephi and Lehi recall their father's explanation for how they got their names. He tells them:

6 Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.
7 Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them.
8 And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers.

Of course we read about their first parents coming out of the land of Jerusalem in 1 Nephi 2, but we don't read about "how it is written that [their works] were good" until 2 Nephi 33:4

4 And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.

Let's keep going. In verse 9, Helaman invites his sons to remember the words of King Benjamin:

9 O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.

This is a clear reference to Mosiah 3:

17 And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.

In the very next verse, Helaman makes a reference to the words of Amulek:

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.

This is a reference to Alma 11:36-40.

Next, in verse 12, Helaman mentions building a foundation upon the "rock of our redeemer". This is another reference to the words of Nephi in 2 Nephi 28:28. He also mentions the "gulf of misery and endless wo", which is a reference from Lehi's words to Laman and Lemuel in 2 Nephi 1:13.

We'll finish this section off with a tenuous example, but one that has been on my mind a lot lately. In verse 13 we read:

13 And it came to pass that these were the words which Helaman taught to his sons; yea, he did teach them many things which are not written, and also many things which are written.

Compare this with the instructions given by Alma-2 to his son Helaman-1 in Alma 37:

27 And now, my son, I command you that ye retain all their oaths, and their covenants, and their agreements in their secret abominations; yea, and all their signs and their wonders ye shall keep from this people, that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed.

In part 2 of the this deep dive into Helaman 5, we'll take a look at the rest of the chapter, including the miraculous manifestation at the prison and its foreshadowing of Christ's visit to the Nephites.

Arabia Felix and Nephi's Bountiful, part 1

A reader pointed out the following:

Nephi recorded details of his journey from Jerusalem to the southern coast of Saudi Arabia. There, he and his brothers built a ship which carried them to the New World. While scholars don’t agree on the exact location of Nephi’s ship-building enterprise, multiple clues indicate that this event occurred along the coast of the Arabian Sea in what is now Oman and Yemen.

While not part of their Empire, the Romans called this area Arabia Felix. The literal translation is "fertile Arabia"... Nephi described his arrival in this location, “And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish.”

From Wikpedia:

The term "Fertile Arabia" is a translation of the Latin "Arabia felix". Felix means "fecund, fertile" but also "happy, fortunate, blessed." Arabia Felix was one of three regions into which the Romans divided the Arabian peninsula: Arabia Deserta, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Petraea. The Greeks and the Romans called Yemen Arabia Felix.

A little more detail on this topic in part 2, coming soon.

Helaman-2 references the writings of Nephi-1 (Evidence that later Book of Mormon prophets studied the small plates)

I noticed distinct similarities between the words of Helaman-2 to his sons Nephi and Lehi and the writings of Nephi-1 at the end of 2 Nephi.

These comparisons are important, not just as evidence of the intricate internal consistency within the Book of Mormon text.  This also serves to demonstrate that prophets benefitted greatly from studying the words of former prophets.  Likewise, we should treasure up the scriptures and liken them to ourselves.

In Helaman 5:6-8, we read:

6 Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.
7 Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them.
8 And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers.

This is a clear reference to 2 Nephi 33:

4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.

Both passages mention three elements in close proximity:

1. Remembering the fathers.
2. Good works (keep in mind the name Nephi has reference to good/fair in the Egyptian language).
3. Eternal life.

The small plates were studied.

Internal Consistency regarding things to come

The author of the Book of Mormon must have had extensive notes and a lot of time to plan the text. How else can we explain how he knows what is going to come in the later chapters?

Here is an example, from Helaman 2:

12 And more of this Gadianton shall be spoken hereafter. And thus ended the forty and second year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi.
13 And behold, in the end of this book ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi.
14 Behold I do not mean the end of the book of Helaman, but I mean the end of the book of Nephi, from which I have taken all the account which I have written.

These are called editorial promises, and there are many of them throughout the book.  I'll highlight two editorial promises in this post.

Mormon's editorial promise about Gadianton

Notice the wording in verse 13: "this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi."

This is a perfect opportunity for Joseph Smith to accidentally insert a big plot hole into the book.  If he had merely left out the word "almost", we'd have to explain how Mormon, who is killed 96 chapters later (prior to the entire destruction of the Nephites), knew the full extent of the damage Gadianton would do.

By including the word "almost" in the sentence, Mormon reflects an accurate understanding of the effect of Gadianton up to the time of writing, leaving it to Moroni to describe the brutal end of the Nephites.  It's a subtle detail, but a very important one, and the Book of Mormon gets it right.

I believe Mormon had an outline. He reviewed all the records than decided what to include in his record.

In some cases, he included the record word-for-word, such as Alma-2's instructions to his sons found in Alma 36-42 or Moroni's epistle to Pahoran in Alma 60.

Some records he merely summarized, such as the period of wickedness leading up to the massive destruction at the time of Christ's death.

Other events he left out completely. He gives us a long list of what he is leaving out in Helaman 3:

14 But behold, a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work.
15 But behold, there are many books and many records of every kind, and they have been kept chiefly by the Nephites.

A detail like this one would be really hard to keep track of by a person who is attempting to dictate the book in a single draft without notes.

An editorial promise made by Mormon and fulfilled by Moroni

Mormon's outline seems to include a list of what he had promised to include. When he died in battle prior to completing the work, his son Moroni took over.

I believe Moroni was able to complete the record by reviewing the outline and list his father had kept. This brings us to the second editorial promise I'd like to discuss in this post--an example of Moroni fulfilling an editorial promise made by his father. (Many thanks to Stisa for pointing this one out to me.) 

In 3 Nephi 18:36-37, we read about Jesus Christ touching the disciples to give them the power to give the Holy Ghost:

36 And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of these sayings, he touched with his hand the disciples whom he had chosen, one by one, even until he had touched them all, and spake unto them as he touched them.
37 And the multitude heard not the words which he spake, therefore they did not bear record; but the disciples bare record that he gave them power to give the Holy Ghost. And I will show unto you hereafter that this record is true.

The bold words above explain what happened.  The italics tell us that the multitude did not hear what Christ spoke to them.  The underlined words contain the editorial promise.

In Moroni 2 (39 chapters later), we read the fulfillment of this promise:

1 The words of Christ, which he spake unto his disciples, the twelve whom he had chosen, as he laid his hands upon them—
2 And he called them by name, saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, ye shall give the Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it, for thus do mine apostles.
3 Now Christ spake these words unto them at the time of his first appearing; and the multitude heard it not, but the disciples heard it; and on as many as they laid their hands, fell the Holy Ghost.

In my opinion this example is powerful evidence that the author had notes and time. In my opinion, a good theory for how we got the Book of Mormon text will account for this type of detail.  The theory espoused by believers accounts for this in a pretty simple way--Mormon was the author and he had a lot of notes and a lot of time. Naturalistic theories fall short.

Gideon, another example of internal consistency (and possibly Hebrew wordplay) in the Book of Mormon

If we simply compare all the mentions of the name Gideon in the Book of Mormon, we quickly discover that the name can either refer to a place or a person.  In this post, we'll compare these references to see if they are internally consistent. We'll also explore the meaning of the name, since it seems that Mormon enjoyed inserting Hebrew wordplay into the text of the Book of Mormon, particularly when first mentioning a new figure.

Gideon the Man

We first notice this name in the context of the wicked king Noah in the land of Nephi, in Mosiah 19:

4 And now there was a man among them whose name was Gideon, and he being a strong man and an enemy to the king, therefore he drew his sword, and swore in his wrath that he would slay the king.

It is remarkable to me that the first mention of the name Gideon introduces him in a way that fits the meaning of his name so well--Gideon means "hewer, feller, he that cuts down."

Gideon is instrumental in helping the Nephites who follow King Limhi escape from bondage. That plan is introduced by Gideon in Mosiah 22:3-9. They trick their guards into getting drunk and then sneak away in the night.

We don't encounter the name again for awhile, after that group has escaped bondage and returned to the land of Zarahemla. This time, he is older and is a teacher for the newly established church of God, but still bold and aggressive (from Alma 1):

7 And it came to pass as he was going, to preach to those who believed on his word, he met a man who belonged to the church of God, yea, even one of their teachers; and he began to contend with him sharply, that he might lead away the people of the church; but the man withstood him, admonishing him with the words of God.
8 Now the name of the man was Gideon; and it was he who was an instrument in the hands of God in delivering the people of Limhi out of bondage.
9 Now, because Gideon withstood him with the words of God he was wroth with Gideon, and drew his sword and began to smite him. Now Gideon being stricken with many years, therefore he was not able to withstand his blows, therefore he was slain by the sword.

Live by the sword die by the sword, I guess.  Gideon as hewer and hewee?

Gideon the Place

In Alma 2:20, we first encounter Gideon as a place-name:

20 And it came to pass that when Alma could pursue the Amlicites no longer he caused that his people should pitch their tents in the valley of Gideon, the valley being called after that Gideon who was slain by the hand of Nehor with the sword; and in this valley the Nephites did pitch their tents for the night.

We learn in verse 17 that these battles are taking place on a hill east of the river Sidon. Keep that in mind.

Alma-2's highly successful mission to Gideon

Four chapters (and four years) later, Alma-2 has given up the judgment seat and devoted his time to the ministry.  He gives a masterful sermon (found in Alma chapter 5) to the people of Zarahemla, and then (in Alma 6) he continues his travels:

7 And now it came to pass that when Alma had made these regulations he departed from them, yea, from the church which was in the city of Zarahemla, and went over upon the east of the river Sidon, into the valley of Gideon, there having been a city built, which was called the city of Gideon, which was in the valley that was called Gideon, being called after the man who was slain by the hand of Nehor with the sword.

So by this time there is a city called Gideon in the valley called Gideon, and it is still east of the river Sidon. Of note, Alma establishes an "order of the church" for the people there (see Alma 8:1) and blesses them for their righteous choices (see Alma 7).

Korihor's highly unsuccessful mission to Gideon

The next significant mention of Gideon comes about 6 years later when we read about the anti-Christ preacher named Korihor (Alma 30).  He gets expelled out of the land of the people of Ammon and decides to try his luck in Gideon (from verse 21):

And he came over into the land of Gideon, and began to preach unto them also; and here he did not have much success, for he was taken and bound and carried before the high priest, and also the chief judge over the land.

He blasphemes in front of Giddonah, who delivers him to Zarahemla to meet with Alma.  It is worth noting that Zarahemla and Gideon are like twin cities, frequently mentioned in close proximity to each other.

Gideon in the war chapters

More than a decade (and 30 chapters) later, in the midst of a brutal war with the Lamanites, the chief judge Pahoran is ousted from Zarahemla by those Nephites who have allied with the Lamanites and re-established a king. (See this post for more details about that.) Where did Pahoran manage to flee?  Gideon. (See Alma 61:5.)

Moroni comes to the rescue in Alma 62. It is interesting to note that he is coming from the battle zones in the east and unites his armies with those of Pahoran in the valley of Gideon. Then the powerful combined army marches to Zarahemla and reclaims it. This fits the geography previously described--Gideon lies to the east of the river Sidon.

So what can we learn from all of this?  I see a few points worth mentioning.

1. The text of the Book of Mormon is complicated, intricate, and internally consistent. 
2. The author must have had notes. I do not believe the author of this text could have tracked all of these details across thousands of words and hundreds of unrelated names and details without notes.  There is no claim by witness to the translation process (friend or foe) that Joseph dictated from notes, made revisions to the text, or even had details read back to him.
3. Mormon was a fan of Hebrew wordplay.
4. Gideon was a real man and is presented in the text as faithful but aggressive/hot-tempered.
5. The valley named after him became an important city in the Nephite lands, and the text describes it consistently.

Internally Consistent Politics in Alma 51 and Alma 61

The Book of Mormon is packed with intricate, internally consistent details.  For a long list of blog posts on this topic, click here. Many of these are subtle enough to elude the casual reader and even serious students of the book, but when you start to look for them, they are all over the place. Furthermore, the extent of this internal consistency forms a strong line of evidence for the divine authenticity of the book. Someone had a lot of time and a lot of notes, and Joseph Smith had neither.

Here's one:

In Alma 61, Pahoran (the chief judge) responds to Moroni's chastisement and threats with a remarkably calm request for help.  He explains the problem:

3 But behold, there are those who do joy in your afflictions, yea, insomuch that they have risen up in rebellion against me, and also those of my people who are freemen, yea, and those who have risen up are exceedingly numerous.
4 And it is those who have sought to take away the judgment-seat from me that have been the cause of this great iniquity; for they have used great flattery, and they have led away the hearts of many people, which will be the cause of sore affliction among us; they have withheld our provisions, and have daunted our freemen that they have not come unto you.

...

8 They have got possession of the land, or the city, of Zarahemla; they have appointed a king over them, and he hath written unto the king of the Lamanites, in the which he hath joined an alliance with him; in the which alliance he hath agreed to maintain the city of Zarahemla, which maintenance he supposeth will enable the Lamanites to conquer the remainder of the land, and he shall be placed king over this people when they shall be conquered under the Lamanites.

This is consistent with a problem encountered about 4 years earlier, as described in Alma 51:

2 Nevertheless, they did not long maintain an entire peace in the land, for there began to be a contention among the people concerning the chief judge Pahoran; for behold, there were a part of the people who desired that a few particular points of the law should be altered.
3 But behold, Pahoran would not alter nor suffer the law to be altered; therefore, he did not hearken to those who had sent in their voices with their petitions concerning the altering of the law.
4 Therefore, those who were desirous that the law should be altered were angry with him, and desired that he should no longer be chief judge over the land; therefore there arose a warm dispute concerning the matter, but not unto bloodshed.
5 And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment-seat were called king-men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land.

This contention had been settled by the voice of the people.

Like many instances of internal consistency in the Book of Mormon, this detail draws no attention to itself. The ten chapters in between Alma 51 and 61 are filled with intricate details about a totally separate crisis -- the war with the Lamanites.

Internal Consistency -- Remember the captivity of our fathers.

When Alma-2 was younger, his father was literally a captive of Amulon in the land of Helam. (See Mosiah 24:8-10.) After enduring their burden with patience, they were miraculously delivered and escaped from bondage to the land of Zarahemla, where Alma-2's father become the high priest of the newly established church.

Prior to that, the Nephites who returned to the land of Nephi, led by Zeniff, were ultimately subjected to captivity by the surrounding Lamanites.  Also, the wicked King Noah had persecuted Alma-1 and the followers of the church he established in those lands.

When Alma-2 had his miraculous conversion experience, one of the things the angel told him was to "remember the captivity of [his] fathers in the land of Helam and in the land of Nephi" (see Mosiah 27:16.)

Alma-2 kept this charge.

In Alma 5, he begins his great sermon to the people of with these words:

3 I, Alma, having been consecrated by my father, Alma, to be a high priest over the church of God, he having power and authority from God to do these things, behold, I say unto you that he began to establish a church in the land which was in the borders of Nephi; yea, the land which was called the land of Mormon; yea, and he did baptize his brethren in the waters of Mormon.
4 And behold, I say unto you, they were delivered out of the hands of the people of king Noah, by the mercy and power of God.
5 And behold, after that, they were brought into bondage by the hands of the Lamanites in the wilderness; yea, I say unto you, they were in captivity, and again the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by the power of his word; and we were brought into this land, and here we began to establish the church of God throughout this land also.
6 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?

In Alma 36, Alma-2 admonishes his son Helaman-1 to remember the captivity of their fathers:

2 I would that ye should do as I have done, in remembering the captivity of our fathers; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions.

Years later, Helaman-1 is leading the stripling warriors into battle.  These young men have volunteered for combat as a result of their fathers having covenanted never to pick up arms again. Helaman-1 takes to calling them his "sons" (see Alma 56:46). In the very next verse, we learn that:

they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives;

Hebrew wordplay in Alma 18:10

The Hebrew root 'mn' is the basis for words like, "true", "sure", "faithful", "steadfast". For instance, when we say "amen" after a prayer, it's from that Hebrew root and we really say "truly". Ammon is a name in the Book of Mormon as well as in the Bible. The meaning is a bit unclear. It could be linked to this same root, but because there are two 'm's, there is some uncertainty. But in any case, we seem to be dealing with a Hebrew wordplay in Alma 18:10. This is where king Lamoni expresses admiration for Ammon.

he was more astonished, because of the faithfulness [mn] of Ammon, saying: Surely [mn] there has not been any servant among all my servants that has been so faithful [mn] as this man [whose name is Ammon(=faithful?)]

I think that's pretty cool

"thus it is. Amen"

This phrase just caught my attention. We find 6 of them in the Book of Mormon in total (also counting "thus it is written. Amen" in Alma 6. They are very unique (we don't find them in the Bible for instance) and they always mark the end of a chapter, i.e. the original chapters/sections which seem to have been on the plates, not the modern BoM chapters.

I learned from Hugh Nibley that the "iw-f-pw" in Egyptian, which typically marks the end of ancient Egyptian literature, can be translated to "thus it is". Perhaps this was common on the brass plates which were written with Egyptian script (Mosiah 1:4)?

According to a Jewish Rabbi, the "Amen" afterwards means "truly" or "verily" but is also acrostic for the phrase, "El Melech Ne'eman", which means "God is a faithful king". The phrase fits very well in these passages when reading the context. For instance in Alma 13:9, the righteous people become high priests but God is the king. Also, the last word before this phrase is "truth", which is related to the word, "amen" in Hebrew.

"...and thus it is. Amen" seems to be a formal way for the Nephite record keepers to end a section, combining the Egyptian and the Hebrew phrases.

A list of these end-note phrases:

• 1st Nephi 9. Nephi ending his comments of the plates and possibly the abbreviation of Lehi's record
• 1st Nephi 14. Nephi ending the description of his vision
• 1st Nephi 22. End of 1st Nephi
• Alma 6. Conclusion of Alma's preaching in Zarahemla and introduction to his preaching in Gideon.
• Alma 13. This one is interesting. Mormon seems to copy directly from Alma's record. "I" in verse 1 would be Alma. So Alma is making this section break in the middle of his sermon to the people in Ammonihah. I don't know why...
• Helaman 12. The whole chapter is a "thus we see..." commentary by Mormon. He uses this phrase to conclude his remarks before he continues the narrative. 

Book of Ether generations and timeline

This post reminded me of another interesting thing I found in the Book of Ether which exemplifies its consistency. I read about criticism of the Book of Ether a while back where someone had calculated that there must have been an average age of 55-60 years between these generations in the royal line. According to them, this was "absurd".

If we assume that Jared lived around 2200 B.C. and the people of Zarahemla discovered Coriantumr around 590-440 B.C. the calculation is correct. I remember having read in the Book of Ether sometimes that they begat such and such at an old age. So I looked further into it. You could say that this is another case of an apparent "weakness" in the Book of Mormon turning into a strength.

We know it's common in most ancient cultures that the firstborn son becomes the next king. In Ether 6:25-27 when the first king is chosen, this is not the case. The next kings after that are born when their father was "in his old age". See Ether 7:3, 7:7, 7:26, 8:1, 9:14 and so forth. For half of the kings, it is specifically stated that they were born when the father was old. For the rest, nothing is said about age. It seems very reasonable to conclude that the Jaredites had a tradition where the youngest son became the next king. Perhaps that started with Jared's son.

Considering the fact that kings could marry much younger women and have children with them, 55-60 years seems a very realistic average age for having their lastborn. There were probably several who were younger, but we know from the text that there were also several who were older.

For instance, in Ether 9:23-25

23 And it came to pass that Coriantum did walk in the steps of his father, and did build many mighty cities, and did administer that which was good unto his people in all his days. And it came to pass that he had no children even until he was exceedingly old.24 And it came to pass that his wife died, being an hundred and two years old. And it came to pass that Coriantum took to wife, in his old age, a young maid, and begat sons and daughters; wherefore he lived until he was an hundred and forty and two years old.
25 And it came to pass that he begat Com, and Com reigned in his stead; and he reigned forty and nine years, and he begat Heth; and he also begat other sons and daughters.

Anyway, I find it interesting how you often can study something in some detail and it doesn't make sense or seems wrong. Then you study it in more detail and see how it makes sense after all when you have carefully considered all the available information. If anyone believes that Joseph Smith was making this up, at least give him credit for doing the math and making sense of it by leaving these hints of an unusual practice of lastborn kings without explicitly stating it.

I also have to say, at the time I studied this, I didn't realize that there were others who have studied and concluded the same, but apparently there is. So perhaps you have heard about this theory of lastborn kings before. I was made aware of the fact that there is a general term for this: ultimogeniture.