Alma Ch11

We are about to see what the payment/ money system of the Nephites looked like because all the people cared about was gaining money. Amulek continues to contend with Zeezrom and teaches about Christ. His main points include how all men will be immortal but only the righteous will be in heaven. I will try to make the system as easy as possible by what I've learned.

The judges and lawyers received pay for each day they worked that is a senine of gold or a senum of silver (v1-3). We find out that those equal a measure of barley or any grain (I don't know how much specifically), and their whole system was set up when Mosiah was king and established judges (v4, 7). In the 'table' below I set up the simplest way I could think of for v5-19 by starting from the cheapest and finding out how much the biggest is worth.

1       leah

2       shiblum

4       shiblon

8       senine(gold)/senum(silver)

12     antion(gold)

16     seon(gold)/amnor(silver)

32     shum(gold)/ezrom(silver)

56     limnah(gold)/onti(silver)

So according to my makeshift reckoning, the lawyers got paid 8 which is how much a certain unknown amount of grain. Not very specific but we do know that the Nephites had a system for their trading, business, and jobs. Now the lawyers got paid on the days they worked, they wanted to work constantly, so they tried to cause the people to have problems for them to solve so they could get paid more (v20).

So now we are going to see some questions Zeezrom asks Amulek trying to disrupt the good (v21-22). He starts by trying to bribe Amulek to reject the Supreme Being he has testified about. His bribe is 6 onti of silver, according to our chart, that is 42 days of pay of the judges (v23). I don't know how much other people made, or Amulek, but that seems like a good amount to bribe with, and Amulek refuses and discredits the morality of Zeezrom and display his corrupt ways (v24-25). Amulek says that the righteous cannot be bribed because they know what evil is rewarded with in the end.

Zeezrom asks a series of questions about God and Christ in v26-33, and Amulek answers simply with truth. Then comes the tricks, Zeezorm asks if Christ will save his people in their sins, and Amulek answers it's not possible (v34). Then Zeezrom tries to twist his words to say Amulek is commanding God when really Amulek is stating the fact that Christ cannot save anyone in their sins because unclean things are not welcome in heaven (v35-37). 

Now we get to the powerful testimony that Amulek bares when asked about his belief of the Son of God being the Eternal Father (v38-39). Christ will come (has come) to the earth to redeem His people from temporal death by taking upon himself the transgressions to be able to judge us (v40-42). We all will be rejoined spirit and body in the resurrection, never to be separated, and we will stand before God in perfect knowledge of our guilt to be judged according to our works (v43-45). After this strong testimony, Zeezrom trembled because he was caught in his lyings and the people were astonished (v46).