For the longest time, I thought King Zeniff handed off the kingdom to his son Noah because he had no choice. A week or so ago, I came across Mosiah 10:22, in which Zeniff refers to Noah as one of his sons, which raises a question in my mind.<\/p>\n
If he had other sons to choose as heir, why choose Noah?<\/p>\n
One might argue Zeniff had no idea what Noah really was like. Perhaps Noah hid his debauchery from his father.<\/p>\n
Another reason might be that Noah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brothers didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want the throne. Sort of like in Mosiah 29:3, When Mosiah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sons didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to inherit his throne. That is certainly possible.<\/p>\n
Sort of related to that is the idea that Noah may have been the firstborn. In many monarchal societies, inheritance of the kingdom goes according to birth order. That is possible, as well.<\/p>\n
Either way, at the end of Mosiah 10:22, Zeniff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last word were: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I . . . did confer the kingdom upon one of my sons. . . . And may the Lord\u00c2\u00a0bless my people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I wonder if he did know after all. Maybe, for whatever reason, he felt he had no choice, and he desperately hoped the Lord would bless his people despite Noah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"