Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/213

Laish. foot. When these corrupt rulers were called to account by the supreme authority at the capital, they set the laws at defiance, refused to answer, broke out in open rebellion, endeavored to establish a monarchy, and assassinated the chief judge.  LAISH. A place in Palestine, probably the small village, Laishah, lying between Gallim and Anathoth. It is only mentioned once in the Book of Mormon (II Nephi, 20:30), in a quotation from the prophecies of Isaiah.   LAMAH. A Nephite general who commanded a corps of ten thousand men in the last great struggle between the Nephites and the Lamanites. He, with all his command, was slain in the final series of battles in the land Cumorah, (A. C. 385), when the Nephite nation was annihilated.   LAMAN. The eldest son of Lehi and Sariah. From the fact that his father dwelt in Jerusalem all his days, it is presumable that Laman was born in that famed city and during the reign of king Josiah. Laman was a stubborn, wilful, unbelieving and desperate man. He had no faith in the revelations given to his father, and was the leader in all the troubles and contentions in the wilderness, going so far as to propose the murder of his brother Nephi, and also of his father. Placing no credence in the prophecies that Jerusalem would be destroyed, he unwillingly left that city, and as unwillingly journeyed in the wilderness, every difficulty, every hardship encountered by the party being a fresh pretext for murmurs against God and his father, and for renewed assaults upon Nephi. Giving way to this spirit of rebellion and cruelty, he grew more hardened as he advanced in years. One of his great complaints was that Nephi had usurped the position properly belonging to his elder brothers, as the active leader of the company, though Lehi was recognized as their 