“Ether the Prophet,” Book of Mormon Stories (2023)
Ether the Prophet
The Lord’s warning to a nation
The Lord brought the brother of Jared and his family to the promised land. They were humble and kept the commandments of God. Their group grew for many years, and they wanted a king to lead them. The brother of Jared warned them that having a king could lead to trouble, but he let them choose a king.
For hundreds of years, the Jaredites lived in the promised land. Sometimes their kings led them to do good, but other times they did not. The prophets of God would warn the people to repent. When they listened and kept the commandments of God, He blessed them. The last Jaredite prophet was named Ether.
Ether 7:23–27; 9:26–30; 10:16–17, 28; 11:1–8, 12–13, 20–22; 12:2
The people were not obeying God. But the Spirit of the Lord was with Ether. He taught them from morning until night. He said to believe in God and repent or they would be destroyed. If they had faith, they could hope to live with God again and have strength to do good things. The people did not believe.
Ether watched what the people did. He hid in a cave during the day and wrote down what he saw. The people did not repent and started fighting each other.
Ether saw that the Jaredite king, Coriantumr, had to fight many people who wanted to be king. Coriantumr used his army to protect himself.
One day, the Lord told Ether to warn Coriantumr and his people to repent. If they did, the Lord would help the people and would let Coriantumr keep his kingdom. If not, the people would destroy each other. Coriantumr would live long enough to see the Lord’s words were true. Then he would die too.
Coriantumr and his people did not repent. The people tried to kill Ether, but Ether escaped to his cave. A man named Shiz fought against Coriantumr. The people chose to join either Shiz’s army or Coriantumr’s army. The two armies had many battles. A lot of people died.
Ether 13:22–25; 14:17–20; 15:2
Coriantumr remembered what Ether had said. He was sad that so many of his people had died. He remembered that all the prophets warned this would happen. He began to repent and sent a letter to Shiz. He said he would give up the kingdom if his people could be saved. But Shiz wanted to fight.
Coriantumr’s people were angry and wanted to fight. Shiz’s people were also angry and wanted to fight. No one wanted to repent. Ether saw that every single person went to battle. Many more people died.
Coriantumr wanted to stop the war. He asked Shiz to take the kingdom and not hurt his people. But everyone was angry. They did not have the Lord’s Spirit. Ether saw that everyone kept fighting until Coriantumr was the only other Jaredite alive. Then Coriantumr fainted.
Ether saw that everything the Lord had said came true. Ether finished writing down what had happened. Then he made sure people would be able to find his writings after he was gone. Ether trusted God and looked forward to being with Him one day.