A Study in Seven

Hebrew Numerology in the Book of Mormon

Corbin Volluz

Behind the wall, the gods play;

They play with numbers, of which the universe is made up.1

T he subject of Hebrew numerology in the Book of Mormon has been

identified as a promising field of study still open to fruitful explora-
tion. Meaning is found in many ways, and one way is in the symbolism of
numbers. Significant uses of the numbers ten, twenty-four, and fifty in the
Book of Mormon have been discussed previously, beginning with expla-
nations of the symbolic importance of such numbers in ancient literatures,
and then pointing out similar usages in the Nephite record.2 This article
adds to those discussions by drawing attention to the number seven and
things that occur seven times in the narratives in the Book of Mormon. As
will be seen, seven is an important number in the Book of Mormon, just
as it was in the biblical world and also among Mesoamerican peoples who
traced their origins to seven tribes.3

1. Le Corbusier, quoted in Annemarie Schimmel, “Numbers: An Overview,”

Encyclopedia of Religion, 2d ed., ed. Lindsay Jones, 15 vols. (Detroit, Mich.: Mac-
millan Reference USA, 2005), 10:6751.
2. John W. Welch, “Counting to Ten,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
12, no. 2 (2003): 42–57; John W. Welch, “Number 24,” in Reexploring the Book
of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah:
FARMS, 1992), 272–74.
3. See Diane E. Wirth, “Revisiting the Seven Lineages of the Book of Mor-
mon and the Seven Tribes of Mesoamerica,” BYU Studies Quarterly 52, no. 4
(2013): 77–88.

BYU Studies Quarterly 53, no. 2 (2014)57

Corbin Volluz

My Bible studies over the years have

brought to my attention the pervasive
influence of ancient Hebrew numerol-
ogy in both the Old and New Testa-
ments and how the use of culturally
significant numbers serves to structure
the text in many instances. This led to
my wondering whether the Book of
Mormon, which claims to derive from
the same Old World influences, would
show similar characteristics. This paper
is the result.
Not only does the Book of Mormon contain numerous exam-
ples of such ancient Hebrew numerology, but viewing the Nephite
record through this lens helps resolve a number of “wrinkles” in
the text. For example, why does the Book of Mormon insist on
numbering the Lehite tribes as seven, when the text itself demon-
strates there were actually eight? Sam’s descendants are combined
with those of Nephi in an apparent effort to modify the historical
number of Lehite tribes to a symbolically significant number of
tribes.
This textual anomaly may be explained by the use of numerol-
ogy or, in other words, the practice of commemorating an impor-
tant event by use of a symbolically significant number. This type
of instance is, to my mind, the most persuasive evidence that the
person or persons who authored and compiled the Book of Mor-
mon used numerology to structure the text; that is, the recasting of
real-world information into a number with symbolic power. The
Book of Mormon provides several such examples.
This study has percolated for many years. I would like to thank
Don Bradley for his encouragement and keen insights from its
inception in 2008. I would also like to thank John Welch for his
enthusiastic reception of early drafts, as well as his numerous impor-
tant contributions to the final product. Last but by no means least,
I wish to acknowledge the unflagging inspiration of my wife, Dee.
 A Study in Seven V 59

Methodological Observations
This study is immediately confronted with a number of methodological
difficulties, which I willingly recognize before proceeding.
This paper will employ a comparative approach to identify and
unpack meaning from occurrences of the number seven, or of series
containing seven elements, in the Book of Mormon. Since the symbolic
use of the number seven was prevalent among the ancient Hebrews, as
reflected in the Old Testament, it will be assumed that the Nephites
brought this religious and cultural predilection with them from the Old
World as part of their scriptural and cultural heritage.
As used in this paper, numerology refers to a literary device common
among ancient Hebrews (as well as later Jewish and other cultures) in
which significant events or textual features were emphasized by present-
ing them a symbolic number of times. Such numerology should not be
confused with attempts to divine by mystical means the influence of
numbers on a person’s character or to suggest optimum future choices
in a manner similar to astrology.
Though imbuing numbers with symbolic significance has little
import in modern society, it will be seen that the Book of Mormon
shows signs of being written by one or more authors familiar with
numerology as practiced by the ancient Hebrews, specifically the
repeated usage of the emblematic number seven and its multiples, and
that such numerology is used to emphasize significant events among
the Nephites. I proceed by taking the English text of the Book of Mor-
mon at face value. While evidence exists that the translation dictated by
Joseph Smith was tightly controlled, we do not have access to the book
in its source language, so the resultant text is what we have to work with.
The more often these numerical repetitions appear in that text, the more
reasonably, I will assume, one may conclude that these patterns may be
in some way significant.
I take encouragement from the fact that the significance of numer-
ology is universally recognized in the pages of the Old and New Testa-
ments, although one must always be careful not to impose numerological
significance to every countable feature of a text. Whereas the usage and
symbolism of Hebrew numerology is well established, there is always
the potential of ascribing too much purposeful meaning or intentional
structure to cases that may be simple coincidence. Any list must contain
a certain number of elements, and any period of time must contain a
certain number of hours, days, weeks, and years. The application of
Hebrew numerology is flexible by its very nature, and it is likely some
60 v BYU Studies Quarterly

tallies will reach a number with symbolic meaning, even if no such

meaning was originally intended by the author. One must always be
careful not to ascribe too much weight to such numbers unless the text
indicates significant usage.
While any such exercise has a high degree of subjectivity built into
it, reasons can often be advanced to explain these occurrences and
increase the plausibility that they were more than incidental. With this
caveat in mind, one should still probably not shy away from at least
mentioning some numerically significant instances simply because they
could be coincidental, especially since an aggregate of solid examples
lends strength to any theory.
Additionally, any such study must necessarily focus on those num-
bers with relevance to the matter being explored, leaving instances of
other numbers for later examination. Thus, the intent of this paper is to
proceed cautiously, setting forth the evidence for invocations of numer-
ical significance in the text of the Book of Mormon, and allowing the
readers to draw their own conclusions and assign whatever weight they
feel appropriate to the evidence adduced.

Significance of the Number Seven

Many numbers are imbued with significance in cultures of the ancient
world, including the Hebrew culture. “The symbolic significance of
numbers (gematria) is important in much Jewish writing.”4 Not least
of these is the highly symbolic number seven. As Gordon McConville
has recognized: “The use of seven (and multiples) in religious texts is a
feature not only of the [Old Testament] . . . but also of the ancient world.
In the literature of Ugarit epic events often occur in seven-day cycles,
with the climax on the seventh day. .  .  . The literary and theological
character of the account means that no firm answer can be given to the
question as to what actually happened. Yet it is by no means impossible
that an actual event, remarkable in some way, might have come to be
memorialized in this particular way.”5
According to Udo Becker, “7 is a particularly important number in
Judaism. In the Bible, 7 often appears, in positive as well as negative

4. J. K. Elliott, “Early Christian Literature,” in The Oxford Bible Commentary,

ed. John Barton and John Muddiman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001),
1312–13.
5. Gordon McConville, “Joshua,” in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 163–64.
 A Study in Seven V 61

portents, yet also as an expression of totality.”6 And Didier Colin observes

that the ancient “Jews and the first authors of the Bible felt [that the
number seven] symbolized a sense of perfection and completeness in
the holy Scriptures.”7
Though the origins of this view are shrouded in the past, it is believed
that one prime reason the number seven gained this particular symbol-
ism of “perfection and completeness” is that it combines the number three
and the number four. The number three symbolized heaven (or the mas-
culine) and the number four represented the earth (or the feminine). As
is commonly explained, “Seven symbolizes wholeness in many cultures,
being the union of the divinity (three) and the material earth (four).”8
Seven was regarded as “a holy number yielded by adding the basic number
of the masculine, 3, and the basic number of the feminine, 4.”9 “Because
the number seven (the septenary) combines the ternary and quaternary—
heaven or divinity and earth or humanity—it unifies the macrocosm and
microcosm and signifies cosmic order.”10
It appears that the association of the number four with the earth in
early Judaism came about because “it was thought that the world rested
on four pillars, four columns, four sacred trees supporting the temple of
the manifest world. It goes without saying that the four so-called bases
of the world can also be compared to the four cardinal points.”11 These
connections of the number four with the earth, together “with the four
seasons” became “a manifestation of Mother Earth.”12
Instances of the emblematic usage of the number seven abound in
the Old Testament, and so firmly engrafted was the practice in ancient
Hebrew culture that it survived into the New Testament. Many of these
instances are well known. To name just a few: God rested and sanctified

6. Udo Becker, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols, trans. Lance W.

Garmer (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1994), 266.
7. Didier Colin, Dictionary of Symbols, Myths and Legends (London:
Hatchette Livre, 2000), 382.
8. Kathryn Wilkinson, ed., Signs & Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Their
Origins and Meanings (New York: DK Publishing, 2008), 295.
9. Becker, Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols, 266.
10. Clare Gibson, Signs and Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Their Meaning
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 2001), 87.
11. Colin, Dictionary of Symbols, Myths and Legends, 372.
12. Becker, Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols, 122. The connection
between the sky as masculine and the earth as feminine may be reflected in the
ancient Greek creation myth. As Hesiod tells it in the Theogony, Uranus (the
sky) came every night to mate with Gaia (the earth).
62 v BYU Studies Quarterly

the seventh day after the Creation (Gen. 2:3). The Sabbatical year is every
seventh year (Lev. 25:4). Jacob served Laban seven years for Leah, his
first wife, whom he thought was Rachel, and then another seven years
for Rachel (Gen. 29:18, 30). Joseph prophesied seven years of plenty
followed by seven years of famine (Gen. 41:26–30). God commanded
Moses to displace the seven nations of the land of Canaan (Deut. 7:1).
The Israelites took Jericho by circling the walls seven times on the sev-
enth day, the ark being led by seven priests bearing seven ram’s horns
(Josh. 6:1–16). Elisha commanded Namaan to wash (or dip) himself
seven times in the Jordan River to be cured of his leprosy (2 Kgs. 5:10–14).
In the New Testament, seven baskets of surplus food were taken up after
Jesus’s miraculous multiplication of the loaves (Matt. 15:32–37); and the
book of Revelation abounds with sevens, including seven churches (Rev.
1:4), seven golden candlesticks (1:12), seven stars (1:20), seven lamps of
fire (4:5), seven seals (5:5), seven angels with seven trumpets (8:6), seven
thunders (10:3), seven last plagues (15:1), and seven vials (17:1).
The significance of the number seven (or any other number) can
be stressed by doubling or multiplying.13 Thus, Passover is held on the
fourteenth day of the first month of each year (Lev. 23:5). In general,
“the higher the number, the more complex its significance, because the
addition or multiplication of primary numbers incorporates and inten-
sifies their original meaning.”14 Reflecting this, “multiples of seven are
common [in the Bible]. Seven is doubled for good measure (Gen. 46:22;
Lev. 12:5; Num. 29:13; 1 Kings 8:65; Tob.15 8:19),” and 14, 49, and 70 take
on cumulative or exponentially increased emphasis. As J. H. Sorenson
has said, “The number 7 is especially significant as indicating a complete
cycle or series, and multiples of 7 emphasize the extent of the series
[Gen. 4:15, 24; Prov. 24:16; Matt. 18:21–22; Mark 16:9]. . . . In general, as a
number of perfection (3 plus 4), seven and its multiples, and even its half
[Luke 4:25] . . . , occur frequently as symbolic numbers.”16 For example,

13. Jay A. Parry and Donald W. Parry, Understanding the Book of Revelation
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998), 46, give the example of doubling the num-
ber 12 to arrive at 24 elders surrounding God’s throne in the book of Revelation.
Multiplying 12 by itself (and then again by 1,000) yields the 144,000 high priests.
14. Gibson, Signs and Symbols, 87.
15. The book of Tobit, or Tobias in the Vulgate, is a book of scripture
included in the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon.
16. J. H. Sorenson, “Numerology (in the Bible),” in New Catholic Encyclopedia,
2d ed., ed. Berard L. Marthaler, 15 vols. (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson-­Gale,
2003), 10:477.
 A Study in Seven V 63

whereas God promised to avenge Cain’s murderer seven times, Lamech

believed he would be avenged “seventy and sevenfold” (Gen. 4:24), and
Jesus instructed Peter to forgive “seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22).
Some scriptural authors go to great lengths to compose textual struc-
tures that accord with the number seven. Famously, Matthew’s geneal-
ogy of Jesus “stresses the numerological significance of Jesus’s ancestry.
From Abraham to David, Israel’s greatest king, there were fourteen gen-
erations; from David to the destruction of Judah by the Babylonians,
Israel’s greatest disaster, there were fourteen generations; and from the
Babylonian disaster to the birth of Jesus, fourteen generations (1:17).
Fourteen, fourteen, and fourteen—it is almost as if God had planned it
this way. In fact, for Matthew, he had. After every fourteen generations,
an enormously significant event occurs. This must mean that Jesus—the
fourteenth generation—is someone of very great importance to God.”17
Likewise, it has fascinated some exegetes that the Gospel of John can be
read as containing “seven miracles, seven discourses, seven similes used
by Jesus, seven titles in chapter I, seven days in chapters I–II,” and so
on, although one must be cautious not to impose too much exegetical
ingenuity onto such texts.18
The neat division of time between Abraham and Christ into three
periods of fourteen generations as stated in Matthew 1:17 has been
described as “clearly artificial,”19 but this artificiality may signal all the
more its intentionality. For, in Matthew’s third set of “fourteen,” there
are actually only thirteen names listed (it is Matthew who insists that
there are fourteen); and additionally, Matthew’s genealogy does not
match the Old Testament. Indeed,
it turns out that Matthew left out some names in the fourteen gen-
erations from David to the Babylonian disaster. In 1:8 he indicates that
Joram is the father of Uzziah. But we know from 1 Chronicles 3:10–12
that Joram was not Uzziah’s father, but his great-­great-­grandfather. In
other words, Matthew has dropped three generations from the gene-
alogy. Why? The answer should be obvious. If he included all the

17. Bart D. Erhman, Jesus, Interrupted (New York: Harper Collins, 2009),
57–58.
18. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, I–XII, 2 vols., Anchor
Bible Series 29 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966), 1:cxlii.
19. M. H. Pope, “Seven, Seventh, Seventy,” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary
of the Bible, ed. George Arthur Buttrick, John Knox, Herbert Gordon May,
Samuel Terrien, and Emory Stevens Bucke, 4 vols. (New York: Abingdon Press,
1962), 4:294.
64 v BYU Studies Quarterly

generations, he would not be able to claim that something significant

happened at every fourteenth generation.
But why does he stress the number fourteen in particular? Why not
seventeen, or eleven? Scholars have given several explanations over the
years. Some have pointed out that in the Bible seven is the perfect num-
ber. If so, then what is fourteen? Twice seven. This could be a “doubly
perfect” genealogy.20

Additionally, some ancients structured their seven-based narratives

in such a way as to break it down into its component parts of four and
three. This may have been a literary flourish reminding the reader that
seven is composed of a four (representing the earth) and a three (rep-
resenting the heavens), thereby emphasizing the fullness and complete-
ness of their total. Examples of this abound in the book of Revelation.
“The first (of the seven) seals are linked together into a unified group of
four (four seals, four horses, four horsemen, four statements from four
beasts), while the final three seals belong to a second group. This pattern
of one group of four and one group of three parallels that pattern set
forth for the seven trumpets (Rev. 8–9) and the seven vials (Rev. 16).”21
Having reviewed the symbolic meaning of the number seven, together
with its component parts of four and three, as well as the strengthening
effect of its symbolic power by doubling it to fourteen, we are prepared
to examine the Book of Mormon through this particular lens of ancient
Judaism. It will be seen that a similar literary and numerological tech-
nique is observable at several locations in the Book of Mormon, and
especially so in the book of Alma.

Seven Rebellions in the Wilderness in 1 Nephi

Heptads, or units of seven, are sometimes latent in the text, spread out
over long stretches of narrative. These depend on the reader to detect
and understand their significance.

20. Pope, “Seven, Seventh, Seventy,” 4:294. It should also be noted that,
whereas the author of Luke departs from Matthew in the ordering of Jesus’s
genealogy, he nevertheless makes Jesus the seventy-seventh generation in a
direct line back to God (Luke 3:23–38).
21. Parry and Parry, Understanding the Book of Revelation, 76. This com-
bination of three and four may lie behind the familiar Old Testament curse
of God upon those that hate him “unto the third and fourth generation” (see
Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deut. 5:9).
 A Study in Seven V 65

Besides the numerous explicit heptads in the OT and the NT, there are
also many latent cases where one may count several items—e.g., the
seven characteristics of the Lord’s spirit in man (Isa. 11:2); the seven
petitions of Solomon’s prayer (1 Kings 8:29–53) and the Lord’s prayer
(Matt 6:9–13); the seven parables of Matt. 13; the seven woes of Matt. 23;
the seven utterances of Christ on the cross; a postresurrection appear-
ance to seven disciples (John 21:2); seven afflictions (Rom. 8:35) and
seven gifts (Rom. 12:6–8); seven qualities of heavenly wisdom (Jas.
3:17); seven virtues that supplement faith (II Peter 1:5–8).22
Instances of “latent heptads” may also be seen in the Book of Mormon.
First Nephi recounts seven episodes of rebellious conflict by Laman
and Lemuel against Nephi. The responses to those murmurings are dif-
ferent each time and seem to grow in severity.
1. Laman and Lemuel will not hearken to Nephi’s words, and Nephi
cries unto the Lord for them (2:18). In response, the Lord speaks consol-
ing words to Nephi (2:19–24).
2. After the first unsuccessful attempt to get the brass plates from
Laban, Laman and Lemuel are about to abandon the mission and turn
back to the Valley of Lemuel (3:14). In response, Nephi speaks encourag-
ing words to them (3:21).
3. After the second unsuccessful attempt to get the brass plates,
Laman and Lemuel beat Nephi with a rod (3:28). In response, an angel
appears, upbraids Laman and Lemuel, and promises them success on
their third attempt (3:29).
4. While returning with Ishmael, Laman and Lemuel (together with
members of Ishmael’s family) rebel against Nephi (7:6). In response,
Nephi speaks to them, reminds them of the angel and so forth, but noth-
ing resolves the rebellion until Ishmael’s daughters and wife plead with
Laman and Lemuel (7:19–20).
5. Ishmael’s death provokes a new rebellion by Laman, Lemuel, and
others (16:35). In response, God himself speaks to them (16:39).
6. When Nephi attempts to build a ship, Laman and Lemuel mur-
mur against Nephi (17:18). In response, after preaching a sermon, Nephi
touches them and “shakes” them by the power of God (17:53–54).
7. On the voyage, Laman and Lemuel exhibit much “rudeness” and
tie up Nephi (18:9). In response, a storm drives them back for four days
and threatens to drown them (18:20).

22. Pope, “Seven, Seventh, Seventy,” 4:294–95.

66 v BYU Studies Quarterly

Seven Tribes throughout the Book of Mormon

Early on in the Book of Mormon, the Lehite tribes are numbered at
seven, consisting of the “Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites,
Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites” (Jacob 1:13), as has been fre-
quently noted.23 The fact that the descendants of Sam are not included
in this list evinces an authorial intent to make the number of tribes
equal seven, presumably because of a preexisting significance in the
mind of the author attached to the number seven.
Lehi’s blessing indicates Sam did, in fact, have descendants.
A Blessed art thou,
B and thy seed;
C for thou shalt inherit the land like unto thy brother Nephi.
D And thy seed
E shall be numbered
D' with his seed
C' and thou shalt be even like unto thy brother,
B' and thy seed like unto his seed;
A' and thou shalt be blessed in all thy days. (2 Ne. 4:11)
The focal point of this chiastic blessing is on the phrase “numbered
with,” meaning that Sam’s seed shall be joined with Nephi’s seed. Hugh
Nibley long ago noted that Sam is an authentic ancient Egyptian name,
likening it to Sam Tawi (or Taui), it being a name title taken by Tehuti-
mos III after his accession, and translated as “Uniter of the two worlds.”24
The name Sam can also be translated as “united,” for “he (Amon)
has united (sam) the countries (taui) of all the gods in this my name,
­T HUTMES SAM-TA.”25 Virtually the only information given us in the
Book of Mormon about Sam is that his seed will be “numbered with” or
“united to” Nephi’s seed. Thus, it is possible to see here an intentional

23. John L. Sorenson, John A. Tvedtnes, and John W. Welch, Seven Tribes:
An Aspect of Lehi’s Legacy, in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed. and comp.
John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992), ch.
24; see also Ross T. Christensen, “The Seven Lineages of Lehi,” New Era 5, no. 5
(1975): 50–51.
24. Hugh W. Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were
Jaredites, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, vol. 5 (Salt Lake City: Desert
Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1988), 42.
25. Heinrich Brugsch-Bey, Egypt under the Pharaohs: History Derived
Entirely from the Monuments, cond. and rev. M. Brodrick (1902; repr., UK:
Bracken Books, 1996), 1:425, emphasis in original.
 A Study in Seven V 67

word play on the Egyptian name Sam, and by numbering or uniting

Sam’s posterity with that of Nephi, Lehi arrived at a desired number of
seven for the tribal total.26
Such a move is not without precedent. Something similar occurs in
the Old Testament with the twelve tribes of Israel. (Whereas the num-
ber seven gained its significance by adding 3 and 4, the number twelve
may have risen to prominence through multiplying 3 and 4). Jacob had
twelve sons, and each son had a tribe, making twelve tribes. But the
numbering became more difficult when Joseph had two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh, both of whom were given tribal land shares in Canaan,
thus effectively raising the total number of tribes from twelve to thirteen
(omitting Joseph from the total and substituting his two sons). In order
to maintain the number of tribes at the symbolically significant tally
of twelve, however, the tribe of Levi was excluded when Ephraim and
Manasseh were mentioned as separate tribes (see Num. 1:32–34; Josh.
17:14–17; 1 Chr. 7:20). This was justified by the fact that Levi’s descen-
dants did not receive a land inheritance because they served at the tem-
ple as the priestly tribe. It appears the Old Testament modifies the figure
of thirteen tribes to twelve in order to maintain this important number,
and the Book of Mormon similarly modifies the figure of eight tribes to
seven, omitting the tribe of Sam, which the Book of Mormon goes out
of its way to draw special attention to by pointing out that Sam’s seed is
being numbered with Nephi’s.
This tribal division seems to have endured (or if ceased, later
resumed) over a period of hundreds of years, inasmuch as the same
seven tribes are listed after the visitation of the resurrected Savior among
the Nephites.27 “Therefore the true believers in Christ, and the true wor-
shipers of Christ, (among whom were the three disciples of Jesus who
should tarry) were called Nephites, and Jacobites, and Josephites, and

26. It has also been suggested that Lehi puts Sam and Nephi together so
that Nephi gets a “double blessing” to balance out Laman, who, as the oldest
son, would have been entitled to the double portion under the Law of Moses
in Deuteronomy. John W. Welch, “Lehi’s Last Will and Testament: A Legal
Approach,” in The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, The Doctrinal Structure, ed.
Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center,
1989), 61–82.
27. Especially during the nearly two hundred years after the Savior’s appear-
ance, there had certainly been much intermarriage among the descendants of
the original tribes, so this later tribal delineation may have divided the people
in more of a symbolic than a literal way.
68 v BYU Studies Quarterly

Zoramites. And it came to pass that they who rejected the gospel were
called Lamanites, and Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites” (4 Ne. 1:37, 38). Here,
the seven tribes are divided into their component parts of four and
three; with four tribes on the side of Christ and three tribes opposed.
The same seven tribes, with the same divisions of four and three, are
mentioned at the end of the Nephite record as well, reflecting a threefold
iteration of the seven Lehite tribes (Morm. 1:8–9).28

Seven Churches and Seven Groups of Converted Lamanites

In addition to tribal numbers, it is widely known that Mosiah 25:23
explicitly notes the existence of “seven churches in the land of Zara-
hemla.” This may call to mind the seven-candlesticked menorah of the
Apocalypse, denoting the seven churches to whom the letters mentioned
at the beginning of this revelation were written (Rev. 1:20).
Less obvious, and unnoticed by most readers, the cities and lands
of the Lamanites converted through the mission of the sons of Mosiah
listed in Alma 23 happen also to total seven:
For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weap-
ons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more,
neither against any of their brethren. Now, these are they who were
converted unto the Lord: The people of the Lamanites who were in
[1] the land of Ishmael; and also of the people of the Lamanites who
were in [2] the land of Middoni; and also of the people of the Lama-
nites who were in [3] the city of Nephi; and also of the people of the
Lamanites who were in [4] the land of Shilom, and who were in [5] the
land of Shemlon, and in [6] the city of Lemuel, and in [7] the city of
Shimnilom. And these are the names of the cities of the Lamanites
which were converted unto the Lord; and these are they that laid down
the weapons of their rebellion, yea, all their weapons of war; and they
were all Lamanites. (Alma 23:7–13)
The fact that Mormon lists Lamanite cities and lands together in order
to arrive at the number seven suggests a numerically based authorial
intent.

28. Attaching significance to the number of tribes calls to mind the seven
nations God commanded Moses to displace from the land of Canaan (Deut.
7:1). The threefold iteration is similar to the three sets of seven plagues in Reve­
lation associated with the seven seals, trumpets, and vials, as well as Matthew’s
genealogy of Jesus, which repeats three times the doubled number of seven, or
fourteen.
 A Study in Seven V 69

As with the seven Lehite tribes, the seven converted Lamanite loca-
tions are divided into a group of four and a group of three, this being
accomplished in more than one way. The first four cities or lands (Ish-
mael, Middoni, Nephi, and Shilom) are introduced with the repeated
clause “the people of the Lamanites who were in . . .” The last three cities
or lands (Shemlon, Lemuel, and Shimnilom) are lumped together as a
group without the introductory clause, thereby setting the final three
apart from the first four. Additionally, four of the geographical loca-
tions of converted Lamanites are denominated “lands” (Ishmael, Mid-
doni, Shilom, and Shemlon), while three others are denominated “cities”
(Nephi, Lemuel, and Shimnilom).
It appears that not only was the total number of seven important to
the author, but also that the reader should understand that the compo-
nent parts of this number were four and three, as in the division of the
seven Lehite tribes into four aligned with Nephi and three with Laman
(see 2 Ne. 5:6; Jacob 1:13–14). This may reflect not only a repeated recog-
nition of the symbolic significance of the number seven, but also of its
component parts of four (representing the earth) and three (represent-
ing the heavens), with the total number seven representing a fullness of
things in heaven and earth.29
The juxtaposition of the seven churches of the Nephites in Zarahemla
with the seven cities or lands of converted Lamanites may be intended
to suggest a parity between the Nephites and Lamanites, and that once
converted, all are equally acceptable with God, the number seven sym-
bolizing perfection and fullness. Additionally, adding the seven Nephite
churches to the seven Lamanite cities or lands totals fourteen such con-
vert clusters, emphasizing and reinforcing their symbolic significance.

The Nephite Monetary System in Alma 11

One of the most intriguing manifestations of the number seven is in
Alma 11, which shows one way in which the number seven was used on
a daily basis in Nephite culture during the days of Alma. The narrative
of Alma and Amulek’s troubles in the city of Ammonihah is inexplicably

29. Making the numeric symbolism more complex is the fact that, after
the seven Lamanite tribes are listed, the author writes “these are the names
of the cities of the Lamanites” (23:13), and shortly thereafter writes again, “we
have named all the cities of the Lamanites in which they . . . were converted”
(23:15). This otherwise needless repetition may be due to the author’s desire to
emphasize this significant number three times—another significant number.
70 v BYU Studies Quarterly

interrupted in Alma 11 to give the reader a rather in-depth introduction

to the Nephite monetary system. This system, based on the number
seven, converted both gold and silver into grain and other measures.30
The Nephite gold standard was based on the senine as the primary
unit. A seon of gold was twice the value of a senine; a shum of gold twice
that of a seon; and a limnah of gold was the value of all three combined.
The first thing to note is that the largest “denomination” in the Nephite
gold system, the limnah, equals seven senines. 
The Nephite silver standard follows the same order as the gold stan-
dard, using different names for the units. In the silver standard, the
basic unit of value is a senum (which is pegged at the same value as
the basic gold unit, the senine). A senum (1) is doubled to arrive at an
amnor (2); the amnor is doubled to arrive at an ezrom (4); and all three
are totaled to arrive at an onti (1 + 2 + 4 = 7). Here, we have the seven-
based gold standard duplicated in silver. The largest value of the gold
standard is the limnah (equaling seven senines), while the largest value
of the silver standard is the onti (equaling seven senums). Once more
we seem to have an intentional tally not only of seven for the largest unit
within each standard, but doubled in the text for a total of fourteen.
Unlike the gold standard, the silver standard sets forth the lesser
units of reckoning, which constitute three subgroups of the one-unit
senum, each of which are half the preceding unit. Half a senum of silver
is a shiblon; half a shiblon is a shiblum; and half a shiblum is the small-
est unit, a leah. The silver standard thus made use of seven measures,
divided into a group of three small measures (the shiblon, shiblum,
and leah) and a group of the four major measures (the senum, amnor,
ezrom, and onti).31 This may once more set forth seven as a number
of fullness and completeness, arrived at by adding the number of the
earth (4) with the number of the heavens (3).

30. See Robert F. Smith, “Weights and Measure in the Time of Mosiah II”
(Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1983), 1–14, available in L. Tom Perry Special Collections,
Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; for a useful
diagram of this monetary system, see John W. Welch and J.  Gregory Welch,
“50 Questions of Alma 5,” Charting the Book of Mormon (Provo, Utah: FARMS,
1999), chart 110.
31. The gold standard includes one additional unit, the antion (Alma 11:19),
which is equal to three shiblons of silver, or one and one-half senines or senums,
bringing the total of gold pieces to five.
 A Study in Seven V 71

Seven Killed by Ammon at the Waters of Sebus in Alma 17

Other than two symbolic uses of seven in Isaiah, speaking of “seven
women taking hold of one man” (2 Ne. 14:1, quoting Isa. 4:1) and the
Lord smiting the sea into “seven streams” (2 Ne. 21:15), the number
seven appears only three other places in the Book of Mormon. One of
these comes in the account of the fourteen-year32 mission of Mosiah’s
four sons among the Lamanites, when one of those sons, Ammon,
defends the Lamanite king’s flocks at the waters of Sebus. According to
the text he slew seven marauders: “Now six of them had fallen by the
sling, but he slew none save it were their leader with his sword; and he
smote off as many of their arms as were lifted against him, and they
were not a few” (Alma 17:38). Going out of its way to be specific on this
detail, the narrative first points out that he had killed “a certain number
of them” with the sling, which caused them to “be astonished” (Alma
17:36). Two verses later, the reader learns that the certain number was
six, the number of bad luck or wickedness; added to this was one more,
their leader, who was killed by the sword, for a phenomenal total of
seven. Ammon himself, when approached by the king, numbers those
whom he slew: “I defended thy servants and thy flocks, and slew seven
of their brethren with the sling and with the sword” (Alma 18:16).

Seven Prophetic Witnesses of Christ

Elsewhere in the Book of Mormom, lists of seven occur, and this number
seems to be intentional. For example, in Helaman 8:13–20, Nephi, the son
of Helaman, identifies seven witnesses who spoke “concerning the com-
ing of the Messiah”: Moses, Abraham, Zenos, Zenock, Ezias, Isaiah, and
Jeremiah. These seven witnesses are drawn from the brass plates, a closed
record to the Nephites, and constitute a discrete set. It should be noted,
however, that many other prophets might have been mentioned, including
Joseph in Egypt, David in the Psalms, and several others, suggesting that
the list of seven was designed to represent symbolically what the Nephite
records elsewhere stated clearly, namely that “all the holy p
­ rophets which
were before us” had known of Christ (Jacob 4:4) and that “so many have
spoken concerning him” (Jacob 6:8).

32. Alma 17:4, “they had been teaching the word of God for the space of
fourteen years.” This is the only place in the Book of Mormon where the num-
ber fourteen is used, except when counting “the fourteenth year” in Alma 16
and 3 Nephi 2.
72 v BYU Studies Quarterly

Moreover, a few verses later, Lehi and Nephi are also mentioned as
witnesses (Hel. 8:22). These additional two named witnesses are sepa-
rated from the previous seven not only by a couple of verses, but also
by the fact that the words of Nephi and Lehi are not found on the brass
plates brought with the Nephites from the Old World, are in the sepa-
rate record of the Nephites, and may also be seen as having special
personal meaning for Helaman’s son Nephi, who, along with his brother
Lehi, had been named after the original founders of the Lehite colony in
the promised land (Hel. 5:6–7).

The Seven-Year Food Supply in 3 Nephi

Another explicit mention of the number seven is found in the early
chapters of 3 Nephi when the Gadianton robbers became so dire a threat
that the Nephites and Lamanites joined forces and gathered them-
selves together in one location in order to protect themselves, “having
reserved for themselves provisions, and horses and cattle, and flocks of
every kind, that they might subsist for the space of seven years” (3 Ne.
4:4). This plan may have been adopted consciously to follow the pattern
of the grain stored by the Egyptians at Joseph’s direction during seven
years of plenty in preparation for the coming seven years of famine
(Gen. 41:36).
Of special interest is the fact that, though the text informs us the pro-
visions were to last for seven years, they lasted longer. In 3 Nephi 3:22, we
read that the gathering together in one body occurred in the “latter end”
of the “seventeenth year,” but 3 Nephi 6:1 informs us that the Nephites
did not return to their own lands until “the twenty and sixth year.” This
means they were gathered together, living off their provisions, for eight
to nine years, and even then they still “had not eaten up all their provi-
sions” (3 Ne. 6:2).
Numerous possibilities could account for this anomaly, such as a
miscalculation on the Nephites’ part of how much they would need by
way of provisions, or perhaps a higher death rate among them than they
imagined, requiring less food for the remaining Nephites; or possibly
the reproductive rate of the animals they gathered for food was greater
than expected.
One possibility, however, that should not be overlooked is a clash in
the text between the symbolic number of seven, which would denote a
fullness of provisions to sustain the Nephites during the time of their
self-imposed siege, and the literal chronological number of years they
 A Study in Seven V 73

were actually sustained by the provisions, being between eight and nine
years according to the historical record, with provisions to spare.
In other words, both accounts may be seen as correct, but the former
is accurate symbolically in the context of a command to gather a fullness
of provisions, and the latter is accurate chronologically. It is just such a
contradiction in the text that may indicate the intentional symbolic
usage of the number seven. This and other possible examples33 of infor-
mation being adjusted to arrive at a number of symbolic significance
evince authorial intent to manipulate real-world information to portray
incidents of importance in terms of numerological consequence.

Seven-Year Time Gaps in 4 Nephi

Brant Gardner has noted a three-fold repetition of a seven-year gap of
time in 4 Nephi, verses 6 and 14. “This repeating pattern occurs 3 times
in 4 Nephi and never anywhere else in the Book of Mormon. The triple
repetition confirms that it is not random information and not associ-
ated with Mormon’s source. Mormon is telling us something. . . . He has
moved from ‘real time’ into ‘symbolic time,’ or from history into story.
The repetition of seven-year gaps (42–49, 52–59, 72–79) suggests that he
is deliberately using the spacing symbolically, likely to mark a ‘week of
years.’ ”34 Applying the tools of ancient Jewish numerology, and remem-
bering the adage that no news is good news, it is also possible to see
this as a heavenly (3) dispensation of a fullness (7) of peace among the
Nephites, the single theme for which 4 Nephi is most famous.

Sevens in the Macrostructure of the Book of Alma

Perhaps most interestingly, the book of Alma appears to be structured
around the number seven and, more specifically, around double the num-
ber of seven. This may be particularly appropriate in the book named for

33. A similar adjustment of the total number of years in Nephite history may
be at work behind the naming of the six hundred years from the time of Lehi
until the birth of Christ and then the four hundred years from the coming of
Christ until the dwindling of the people in unbelief, rounding to multiples of 4
and 6 to obtain the desired overall number of 1,000, or 10 x 10 x 10, the dimen-
sions of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon.
34. Brant Gardner, “Mormon’s Editorial Message and Meta-Message,” FAIR
Conference Address, 2008, http://www.fairlds.org/fair-conferences/2008-fair-
conference/2008-mormons-editorial-method-and-meta-message.
74 v BYU Studies Quarterly

Alma, the high priest in the land of Zarahemla, for seven is featured
prominently in aspects of the law of Moses with which Alma would have
been intimately acquainted (see Alma 30:3). The priestly manual con-
tained in the book of Leviticus is replete with instances of the number
seven and its multiples, calling for seven sprinklings or anointings (Lev.
4:6, 17; 8:11; 14:51) and marking off heptadic periods of times of impu-
rity (Lev. 12:2; 13:5, 31), of purification or consecration (Lev. 8:33; 15:19;
16:14, 19), or of sacred time. The spring grain harvest began on the Wave
Sheaf Day and continued for seven weeks until the Feast of Weeks (Lev.
23:15–21). The first day of the seventh month (Tishri) commenced the
ancient Jewish New Year and was a holy day celebrated by the blowing
of trumpets. The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated for seven days (Lev.
23:34). Leviticus 25 describes two yearlong observances: the seventh or
sabbatical year in verses 2–7, and the jubilee year in verses 8–25. The later
Jewish book of Jubilees reconstructs world history based on a recurring
cycle of jubilees of forty-nine years, showing that the “fiftieth year” might
have been counted inclusively (including both the starting and finishing
years in the calculation).35 Elsewhere, the Jubilee year is described as
the “final year in a cycle of fifty years, consisting of seven sabbatical year
periods, or forty-nine years, plus this fiftieth year.” The number seven has
a “manifestly basic role . . . in this reckoning of years.”36
Here it may be worthy of note that Alma gave his first high priestly
sermon and call to repentance (Alma 5) after stepping down from his
joint position as chief judge in the commencement of the ninth year of
the reign of judges (Alma 4:20), which was the beginning of the forty-
second year, or sixth sabbatical year, after King Benjamin’s speech,37
Mosiah having reigned for thirty-three full years (Mosiah 29:46) and

35. Lester L. Grabbe, Leviticus, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 92, 105–7.
36. J. Morgenstern, “Jubilee, Year of,” in Buttrick and others, Interpreter’s
Dictionary of the Bible, 3:1001–2.
37. A relatable structural case has been made that King Benjamin’s speech
divides into seven segments, the beginnings of which are “demarcated either by
intervening ceremony or by abrupt shifts in subject matter.” Those sections are
structurally configured as seven chiastically related sections. John W. Welch,
“Parallelism and Chiasmus in Benjamin’s Speech,” in King Benjamin’s Speech:
That Ye May Learn Wisdom, ed. John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks (Provo,
Utah: FARMS, 1998), 325. Such seven-part chiastic structures have been spoken
of as following a “menorah pattern,” echoing the seven-lamped menorah in the
Temple of Solomon. See Duane L. Christensen, The Unity of the Bible: Exploring
the Beauty and Structure of the Bible (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist, 2003), identifying
numerous menorah patterns throughout the Bible.
 A Study in Seven V 75

Alma eight more. It may be more than happenstance that Alma then
used about fifty questions—a perfect sabbatical number—in this call
for rebirth and renewal,38 given the fact that with this speech he first
turned his public attention exclusively to his role as high priest (Alma
5:18), drawing perhaps on his familiarity with the numerical rhythms of
the priestly law.39 Carrying on with this high priestly orientation, the
entire book of Alma, covering the times of Alma and Helaman (Alma’s
oldest son, Helaman, successor as high priest), often features seven-part
lists or structures.
Sevenfold Structure of the Whole Book of Alma. It has been observed
by Grant Hardy that the book of Alma “divides fairly neatly into seven
sections: the Amlicite Rebellion (Alma 2:1–3:19), the Nephite Reforma-
tion (4:6–16:21), the Missionary Journeys of the Sons of Mosiah (17:5–
27:15), the Mission to the Zoramites (31:1–35:14), Alma’s Testimony to
His Sons (35:15–42:31), the Zoramite War (43:1–44:24), and the Ama-
lickiahite Wars (46:1–62:41).”40 Within this sevenfold architecture, addi-
tional seven-based structures may be seen.
Alma the Younger’s Fourteen-Year Nephite Reformation. The book of
Alma begins with the first year of the reign of the judges. Alma has just
assumed the offices of both chief judge and high priest (Mosiah 29:42),
while the four sons of Mosiah have headed off to preach the gospel to the
Lamanites (Mosiah 28:9). The first part of the book of Alma (Alma 1–16)
is devoted to the fourteen-year ministry of Alma the Younger (with a
brief interruption for the Amlicite rebellion).
The Concurrent Fourteen-Year Mission of the Sons of Mosiah. At the
end of Alma’s fourteen-year ministry, he happens to encounter the sons
of Mosiah, at which point the text specifically notes the fourteen-year
duration of their mission: “And [the sons of Mosiah] had been teaching
the word of God for the space of fourteen years among the Lamanites”
(Alma 17:4). Immediately after their meeting, the narrative backtracks to

38. Welch and Welch, “50 Questions of Alma 5,” Charting the Book of Mor-
mon, charts 61–65.
39. In a similar vein, Duane L. Christensen has proposed numerous “meno-
rah patterns” in the pages of the Old and New Testaments, consisting primar-
ily of various stories told in structured, chiastic segments of seven with the
emphasis on the middle (or fourth) element. Although Christensen sees these
throughout the Bible, a number of them deal with the Levitical law, as well. See
generally, Christensen, Unity of the Bible.
40. Grant Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon (Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford
University Press, 2010), 106.
76 v BYU Studies Quarterly

the point when the sons of Mosiah left Zarahemla to preach to the Lama-
nites and recounts their exploits during the same fourteen-year period,
concluding with the same meeting with Alma (Alma 17:5–27:16).41 In
this way, the text portrays these two concurrent fourteen-year periods
of significance—the first being Alma’s ministry and reformation and
the second being this same period of fourteen years spent by the sons of
Mosiah among the Lamanites.
The War Chapters in the Second Part of Alma. The book of Alma
concludes with an account of a protracted period of war between the
Nephites and the Lamanites. This period begins in “the commence-
ment of the eighteenth year” of the reign of the judges (Alma 43:4) and
continues through to the end of “the thirty and first year of the reign of
the judges” (Alma 62:39), making a total of fourteen years. Although
several battles are described, Hugh Nibley saw this period as a unit,
“fourteen years of gory war.”42 John Welch divided the conflicts during
this fourteen-year period into three campaigns: (1)  the Zoramite War
(Alma 43–44), (2) the First Amalickiahite War (Alma 46:1–50:11), and
(3) the Second Amalickiahite War (Alma 51–62), referring to this last as
a “Seven Years’ War,” running from the twenty-fifth through the thirty-
first year of the reign of judges.43
And so it appears that the book of Alma is structured around three
sets of fourteen years: (1)  Alma’s fourteen-year ministry among the
Nephites (Alma 1–17:4), (2)  the concurrent fourteen-year ministry of
the sons of Mosiah among the Lamanites (Alma 17:5–27:16), and (3) the
fourteen years of war between the Nephites and the Lamanites (Alma
43:4–62:39). These main blocks of text are separated only by a brief but
crucial three-year interval, from the fifteenth (Alma 28:9) to the eigh-
teenth year (Alma 43:4), explaining how the Ammonites were given the
land of Jershon, how the Zoramites dissented to the land of A ­ ntionum,
and how Alma tried to prevent the Zoramites from forming an alliance
with the Lamanites, which would eventually happen, with the Zoramite

41. The seven cities or lands of converted Lamanites mentioned above

(Alma 23:7–13) are the direct result of the fourteen-year mission of the sons of
Mosiah.
42. Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon (Provo, Utah: FARMS,
1993), 2:453.
43. John W. Welch, “Why Study Warfare in the Book of Mormon?” in War-
fare in the Book of Mormon, ed. William J. Hamblin (Provo, Utah : FARMS,
1989), 9–11.
 A Study in Seven V 77

warriors, Amalickiah and Ammoron, leading the attack. In the middle

of the book of Alma, two years of peace are briefly but notably men-
tioned: “the people did have no disturbance in all the sixteenth year,”
and in the seventeenth year “there was continual peace” (Alma 30:4–5).
In these years “they were strict in observing the ordinances of God,
according to the law of Moses” (Alma 30:3), and those seventeenth and
eighteenth years of the reign of the judges were the forty-ninth and fif-
tieth years from the year of King Benjamin’s speech, perhaps marking
some jubilee significance.
Alma’s Seven Companions to the Zoramites. The accounts of ministry
and warfare in the book of Alma are further laden with instances of the
number seven. When Alma goes to preach the word of the Lord to the
Zoramites in Alma 31, he takes with him seven companions:
Therefore he took [1] Ammon, and [2] Aaron, and [3] Omner; and
Himni he did leave in the church in Zarahemla; but the former three
he took with him, and also [4] Amulek and [5] Zeezrom, who were at
Melek; and he also took two of his sons. Now the eldest of his sons he
took not with him, and his name was Helaman; but the names of those
whom he took with him were [6] Shiblon and [7] Corianton; and these
are the names of those who went with him among the Zoramites, to
preach unto them the word. (Alma 31:6–7)
Individuals the reader might expect to be taken along but whose addi-
tion would surpass the number of seven (Himni and Helaman) are duly
noted and their absence from the company explained.
Realignment of Tribal Affiliations. At the beginning of the fourteen
years of war, the book of Alma designates the tribal affiliation of the
opposing armies and does so by once again listing seven tribes, though
not the same listing of seven tribes of the Lehites discussed above: “And
the people of Ammon did give unto the Nephites a large portion of
their substance to support their armies; and thus [1] the Nephites were
compelled, alone, to withstand against the Lamanites, who were a com-
pound of [2] Laman and [3] Lemuel, and the [4] sons of Ishmael, and
all those who had dissented from the Nephites, who were [5]  Amale-
kites and [6] Zoramites, and the [7] descendants of the priests of Noah”
(Alma 43:13).
Once more the text manipulates the tribes in order to come up
with the number seven. We know the Nephites originally consisted of
Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites, and by this time there
were “Mulekites” as well; those who supported and identified themselves
as Nephites were all lumped together as one, with the apparent intent
78 v BYU Studies Quarterly

of arriving at the number seven.44 The result emphasizes the contrast

between the original ideal of Nephite unity and the ensuing disunity
among the Lamanites, six being numerologically associated with evil,
incompleteness, and deficiency. The author breaks down the Lamanites
into two halves of three each: three of their traditional tribes (Laman-
ites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites), with the dissenters also configured
into three groups (Amalekites, Zoramites,45 and priests of Noah), further
making this schematic seem to have been deliberate.
Seven Nephite Cities Taken by the Lamanites. During the course of
the fourteen-year war, the Amalickiah-led Lamanite army takes a series
of seven Nephite cities along the east coast—Moroni, Nephihah, Lehi,
Morianton, Omner, Gid, and Mulek.
And it came to pass that the Nephites were not sufficiently strong in
the city of Moroni; therefore Amalickiah did drive them, slaying many.
And it came to pass that Amalickiah took possession of [1] the city [of
Moroni], yea, possession of all their fortifications. And those who fled
out of the city of Moroni came to the city of Nephihah; and also the
people of the city of Lehi gathered themselves together, and made prep-
arations and were ready to receive the Lamanites to battle. But it came
to pass that Amalickiah would not suffer the Lamanites to go against the
city of Nephihah to battle, but kept them down by the seashore, leaving
men in every city to maintain and defend it. And thus he went on, tak-
ing possession of many cities, [2] the city of Nephihah, and [3] the city
of Lehi, and [4] the city of Morianton, and [5] the city of Omner, and
[6] the city of Gid, and [7] the city of Mulek, all of which were on the
east borders by the seashore. (Alma 51:23–26)

It is possible the author’s desire to arrive at the number of seven

cities in this passage accounts for the anomalous textual feature that
Amalickiah will not allow his Lamanites to go against the city of Nephi-
hah in verse 25 but nevertheless does so in the very next verse without

44. Never are the “Mulekites” added into this mix. In fact, the Book of Mor-
mon makes a point of never referring to the people of Zarahemla as “Mulekites,”
a designation so obvious that generations of Latter-day Saints have supplied it
by tradition.
45. The original Zoramites, descendants of Laban’s servant Zoram, a group
Jacob identified as part of the broader classification Nephites (Jacob 1:13–14),
should not be confused with these later Zoramites who separated themselves
from the Nephites at the time of Alma. This group consisted of followers of a
man named Zoram (Alma 30:59) and became dissenters who joined with the
Lamanites (Alma 43:4).
 A Study in Seven V 79

any explanation as to why he changed his mind. Indeed, the city of

Nephihah was not actually captured by the Lamanites until five years
later when Ammoron, brother of Amalickiah, sent his armies against
the city (Alma 59:5–12).46 We might ask why the author would include
in this list of conquered cities a seventh that was not taken for a number
of years unless there was some overriding authorial intent to make the
total number seven.
Seven Costly Sins. Mormon, the abridger of the Nephite record, ulti-
mately lays the reason for the wars at the feet of the Nephites, and does
so by blaming their troubles on seven specific sins: “And we see that
these promises have been verified to the people of Nephi; for it has been
[1] their quarrelings and [2] their contentions, yea, [3] their murderings,
and [4] their plunderings, [5] their idolatry, [6] their whoredoms, and
[7] their abominations, which were among themselves, which brought
upon them their wars and their destructions” (Alma 50:21).47

Sevens at the Verbal Level in Embedded Book of Mormon Texts

Not only may certain things (such as tribes, years, and rebellions, as seen
above) be repeated in ancient Hebrew texts a symbolically significant
number of times, but this type of ancient authorial practice is also some-
times extended into the number of words or phrases used in a particular
passage. For instance, “In the creation story of Gen. 1 the clauses ‘and
God said,’ ‘and God saw,’ ‘and God blessed,’ occur ten, seven, and three
times respectively, and it seems unlikely that this is pure accident.”48
Although one cannot be sure in all such cases, it is possible a similar
type of symbolic word counting is at play in the Book of Mormon as
well. Sensitized readers may notice the repetition of certain key words
appearing in various documents embedded in the Book of Mormon and
wonder if the number of these occurrences might have been intended to
signal some meaning often associated with that number.
Lehi’s Blessing to Joseph in 2 Nephi 3. Perhaps setting a precedent for
subsequent Nephite speech, Lehi’s blessing in 2 Nephi 3 to his young-
est son, Joseph, repeats the word “loins” twenty-one times, three times

46. As noted in Grant Hardy, The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition

(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005), 399 n. 26.
47. See John W. Welch, The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo, Utah:
BYU Press, 2008), 149 n. 15.
48. M. H. Pope, “Number, Numbering, Numbers,” in Buttrick and others,
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 3:566.
80 v BYU Studies Quarterly

seven. Lehi found the phrase “fruit of [my, thy, the, his] loins” nine-
teen times in the prophecies of Joseph of old, a phrase used only one
other time in the Book of Mormon or Bible.49 To those nineteen, Lehi
added two more instances (“fruit of my/his loins,” 2 Ne. 3:4, 5) to total
twenty-one: 2 Nephi 3:4, 5, 6, 7 (3 times), 11 (2 times), 12 (5 times), 14,
18 (4 times), 19 (2 times), and 21. The number seven representing the
number of a complete cycle, its appearance here might signify the com-
plete fulfillment of the promise of the Lord given to Joseph of old that
the Lord’s promises would be fulfilled and his covenant remembered
(2 Ne. 3:5). The multiplier three in the schema of Lehi’s blessing could
accommodate the three Josephs involved here: Joseph the son of Jacob,
Joseph the son of Lehi, and Joseph the Seer in the latter days.
Uses of Wo and O by Jacob and Nephi in 2 Nephi. A sermon by Nephi’s
brother Jacob is recorded in chapter 9 of 2 Nephi. As has been previously
noted, Jacob emphatically lists ten uses of the word wo in 2 Nephi 9:27–
38, a perfect number, mirroring the Ten Commandments and reflecting
the “broad preexilic and general Israelite sense of tenfold testing,” as
well as consecration and supplication to God.50 To this observation may
be added the fact that Jacob also uses the word O fourteen times in this
chapter (2 Ne. 9:8, 10, 13, 17, 19, 20, 28 [2 times], 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, and
46). Six of these exclamations come before the ten woes, and six of them
come after, with two being found in verse 28 in the midst of those woes,
which associate these curses with “the cunning plan of the evil one” and
“the vainness and frailties, and the foolishness of men,” the root causes
of those woes. Jacob thereby increases the textual complexity of his ser-
mon by framing and overlaying his ten instances of wo with these four-
teen cries of O, which deal at first with the completeness of the wisdom,
goodness, plan, justice, mercy, and holiness of God (2 Ne. 9:8, 10, 13, 17,

49. Jacob 2:25 is the only other Book of Mormon reference to “fruit of
loins.” The only appearance of this phrase in the King James Bible is Acts 2:30,
“karpou tēs osphuos,” quoting Psalms 132:11 “the fruit of thy body will I set upon
my throne”(KJV, following the Hebrew for body). However, LXX reads koilias,
belly or reproductive organs; in Acts 2:30, Luke used the synonym osphuos
(loins, used frequently elsewhere in the LXX referring to the place of one’s seed).
50. Welch, “Counting to Ten,” 42–57. Beyond the scope of this paper are the
numerous instances of significant words and phrases being used ten times in
discrete Book of Mormon passages, but one such would include the tenfold use
of the word “faith” in the book of Enos, a short and compact narrative struc-
tured around Enos’s increasing development of faith (Enos 1:8 [2 times], 11, 12,
14, 15, 16, 18 [2 times], and 20).
 A Study in Seven V 81

19, 20) and with his five merciful pleadings (“O, my beloved brethren,”
9:39, 40, 41, 44, 45), punctuated by his finishing exclamation, “Holy, holy
are thy judgments, O Lord God Almighty” (9:46).
Additionally, when Nephi in 2 Nephi 28 echoes Jacob’s ten impreca-
tions of woe, he does so with seven uses of the word wo instead of Jacob’s
ten (2 Ne. 28:24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 32). These reappearing patterns
seem to be something more than accident.51
Swords and Stains in King Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s Covenant Text in
Alma 24. King Anti-Nephi-Lehi gave a brief but poignant address to his
people (Alma 24:7–16), in which he dwelt upon the theme of burying
their swords in order to take away the staining blood-guilt that came
from having committed so many murders. In so doing, this new king
uses the word stain or its variants seven times and the term our swords
seven times (stain—24:11, 12, 13; stained—24:13, 15; stains—24:12, 15;
our swords—24:12 [2 times], 13 [2 times], 15 [2 times], 16). Because this
speech led directly to the people being assembled, their making a cove­
nant with God to retain their purity, and as a testimony burying their
swords deep in the earth (24:17), this text must be understood in a cer-
emonial context. The sevenfold repetition of these words in these five
verses invokes the memory of the sevenfold blood sacrifices, dippings,
and sprinklings that accompanied purification and cleansing rituals and
covenants under the law of Moses, which these Ammonites were espe-
cially careful to keep as they looked forward to the coming of Christ
(Alma 25:15).
The Sevenfold Joy of Alma in Alma 29. The devotion of these Ammo-
nites, who had covenanted by oath never to take up the sword again,
became the cause of the death of many thousands of Nephites who
defended them as they deserted the land of Nephi and took refuge in the
land of Zarahemla (Alma 28:1–11). Paralleling the great sorrow that Alma
felt over this death and destruction, he also found equally great cause to
rejoice “because of the light of Christ unto life” (Alma 28:12). His famous
psalm of atoning jubilation, which begins with “O that I were an angel,”
mentions several words twice (namely wish, angel, speak, ­allotted, called,
wisdom), or four times (repent or repentance, good from evil, brethren,
soul, grant or granteth, remember, deliver or delivered, success), or six

51. See also Nephi’s use of the words Lord and O ten times each in his
“exquisitely phrased psalm” in 2 Nephi 4, and the ten-fold “O Lord” petition
by Nephi, the son of Helaman, in Helaman 11:4, 10–16, discussed in Welch,
“Counting to Ten,” 50–51, 54–55.
82 v BYU Studies Quarterly

times (I know, desire or desires), but only one word appears seven times.
That word emphatically is joy (Alma 29:5, 9, 10, 13, 14  [2  times], and
16). At this time of deepest sorrow caused by this Ammonite conver-
sion and migration, Alma’s sevenfold rejoicing answers their sevenfold
covenant to overcoming their blood stains. He rejoices in God’s gift of
joy or remorse depending on our desires (29:5), in the joy of bringing
souls to repentance (29:9–10), of God working through him to establish
the church (29:13–14), but even more so in the success of his brethren in
bringing these Ammonite converts to Zarahemla (29:14–16).
Amulek’s Injunction to “Cry” unto the Lord in Alma 34. As a final exam-
ple—and there may be many more—Amulek enjoins the Zoramites to
“cry” unto the Lord with seven consecutive imperatives: “Cry unto him
for mercy, . . . cry unto him when ye are in your fields, . . . cry unto him in
your houses, . . . cry unto him against the power of your enemies, . . . cry
unto him against the devil, . . . cry unto him over the crops of your fields,
. . . cry over the flocks of your fields” (Alma 34:18–25). The use of the
word cry in describing prayer to the Lord is a significant and persistent
theme throughout the Book of Mormon,52 constituting one of the main
parts of the priestly and religious practices of the Nephites, making the
number seven once again appropriate and significant here. With these
seven injunctions, Amulek wants the Zoramite poor to know especially
that they have the complete right to pray unto God over their salvation
and well-being, without needing to pray on the Rameumptom in Antio-
num. This overriding point would have been conveyed by the commonly
understood sense of completion that was symbolically associated with
the number seven.

Conclusion
The number seven held religious symbolic meaning in many ancient
cultures, not least among Israelites and Jews, and was frequently incor-
porated into the text of the Hebrew Bible, adding emphasis, structure,
and meaning for those in their culture who understood the symbol-
ism. Deriving from this same culture, the ancient Nephites appear to
have taken this numerical symbolism with them on their journey to the
promised land and incorporated the number seven and its multiples
over the years into the warp and woof of their own set of scriptures.

52. Corbin T. Volluz, “Cry Redemption: The Plan of Redemption as Taught

in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3, no. 1 (1994),
148–69.
 A Study in Seven V 83

Applying the tools of ancient Hebrew numerology to the Book of

Mormon in general and the book of Alma in particular reveals fre-
quently occurring but rarely noticed seven-based architectural elements
in the text that shape and mold many parts of this narrative. In various
ways, Nephite writers, including Nephi, Jacob, Benjamin, Alma, King
Anti-Lehi-Nephi, Amulek, Nephi the son of Helaman, Mormon, and
probably others, made effectively meaningful use of the symbolism of
the number seven. Seeing this increases modern readers’ appreciation
for the beauty and complexity of the Nephite record and allows them to
identify passages and words of special importance and symbolic signifi-
cance to its authors.
Four hundred years ago, Edmund Spencer wrote of “wise words taught
in numbers,”53 an appellation that more and more may be seen as appli-
cable to the Book of Mormon.

 
Corbin Volluz received his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in
1989. He worked at the Skagit County Prosecutor’s Office in Washington State
from 1990 to 1998 and currently is in private practice. His publications include
“Lehi’s Dream of the Tree of Life: Springboard to Prophecy,” Journal of Book of
Mormon Studies 2, no. 2 (Fall 1993); “Cry Redemption: The Plan of Redemption
as Taught in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3, no. 1
(Spring 1994); and “Jesus Christ as Elder Brother,” BYU Studies 45, no. 2 (2006).

53. Justin Kaplan, ed., Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown,
1992), 154, citing The Ruines of Time by Edmund Spencer (1591).