Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/57

Amalekites company of Nephite colonists who had returned there, under the leadership of Zeniff, during the reign of the first Mosiah, as near as can be told some 75 or 80 years previously. Amaleki, with two other brothers of Ammon (Helem and Hem), was chosen by Ammon, when they approached the city of Lehi-Nephi, to go with him in advance of the rest of the company and find out how matters stood in that region. They were captured by the guards of King Limhi and cast into prison, but were liberated two days afterwards when it was found that they were Nephites.  AMALEKITES, A sect of Nephite apostates whose origin is not given. Many of them were after the order of Nehor. Very early in the days of the republic they had affiliated with the Lamanites and with them built a large city, not far from the waters of Mormon, which they called Jerusalem. They were exceedingly crafty and hard-hearted, and in all the ministrations of the sons of Mosiah among them only one was converted. They led in the massacres of the Christian Lamanites or people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi; and in later years the Lamanite generals were in the habit of placing them in high command in their armies, because of their greater force of character, their intense hatred to their former brethren, and their more wicked and murderous disposition. In the sacred record they are generally associated with the Zoramites and Amulonites.   AMALEKIAH. A Nephite traitor and apostate in the days of the Republic, and afterwards king of the Lamanites. He was descended from Zoram, the servant of Laban.

We judge from the conspicuous military ability shown by Amalekiah that his early training was that of a soldier, as no one would be more likely to be chosen by the disaffected monarchists as their leader than a brilliant and ambitious officer in the national army. It appears that in 