Where we are
Ether 13 holds two things in stark tension: the most glorious prophecy in the book of Ether and the beginning of the most total destruction. Moroni records the great prophecies of Ether — visions of the New Jerusalem to be built upon this very land by the remnant of the seed of Joseph, and of the old Jerusalem to be restored as a holy city — and then immediately records that the people esteemed him as naught, and cast him out (v. 13), so that the prophet of the holy city is reduced to hiding in the cavity of a rock, watching by night the destruction of a people who would not hear him. The chapter is built on this terrible contrast: the vision of the city of God descending from heaven, set beside the spectacle of a civilization tearing itself apart for a throne. Ether sees the holy city that shall come; his people see only the kingdom they will kill each other to possess. And the chapter records the Lord's final offer to Coriantumr — repent and be spared, or be destroyed save himself alone — and Coriantumr's refusal, which sets in motion the war that will not cease until the people are gone.
The chapter has two movements. First, Ether's prophecies of the holy cities (vv. 1–12): this is a choice land, the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven (v. 3), to be built unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph (v. 6), with the old Jerusalem also to be built up again... a holy city of the Lord (v. 5); both cities will be inhabited by those whose garments are white through the blood of the Lamb (vv. 10–11). Second, the rejection of Ether and the start of the final war (vv. 13–31): Ether is cast out and hides in a rock, watching the destruction by night (vv. 13–14); the secret combinations rise against Coriantumr (vv. 15–18); the Lord sends Ether with a final offer — repent and be spared, or all be destroyed save Coriantumr, who shall only live to see the fulfilling of the prophecies and receive a burial by another people (vv. 20–21); Coriantumr repents not, and the war spreads, Coriantumr and Shared battling back and forth until all the people upon the face of the land were shedding blood, and there was none to restrain them (vv. 22–31).
The verses that carry the chapter are these. Verse 3 names the great vision — this is the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. Verse 6 names its builders — a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph. Verse 13 names the prophet's fate — they esteemed him as naught, and cast him out; and he hid himself in the cavity of a rock. And verse 21 names the doom — every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr. The chapter exists to set the vision of the holy city against the self-destruction of the people, to show a prophet writing the future glory of the land from a hole in a rock while his civilization bleeds itself to death below, and to record the final rejected offer that seals the Jaredite end — the same choice, repent or be destroyed, that the whole book has pressed, now refused for the last time.
The New Jerusalem upon this land (verses 1–12)
And that it was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. — Ether 13:3
Moroni records the highest of Ether's prophecies, and it lifts the whole book to its widest horizon. This land — the same choice land the Jaredites are destroying themselves to rule — is the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. Ether sees past the immediate ruin to the ultimate destiny of the land: it will hold the New Jerusalem, the holy city of the last days, descending from heaven (Revelation 21:2). This is a staggering juxtaposition. The Jaredites are tearing the land apart for a throne, and the prophet among them sees that this very ground is destined for the city of God. The vision widens further: Ether sees the days of Christ (v. 4), and prophesies of two holy cities — a New Jerusalem built unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph upon this land (v. 6), and the old Jerusalem restored as a holy city of the Lord... built unto the house of Israel (v. 5). The doomed prophet, watching his people die, is shown the two cities of the redeemed at the end of time. The contrast between what Ether sees and what his people are doing is the chapter's whole architecture: the holy city descending, and the civilization destroying itself on the very spot where it will one day stand.
For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph. — Ether 13:7
Ether's prophecy of the New Jerusalem is grounded in a type drawn from the patriarch Joseph, and the typology is rich. As Joseph brought his father down into... Egypt, so the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of... Jerusalem — the Lehites, descendants of Joseph through Manasseh and Ephraim, brought to this land as Joseph's family was brought to Egypt, that the seed of Joseph should perish not. The New Jerusalem will be built by this remnant of the seed of Joseph (v. 6), the descendants of the very people brought across the deep. The chapter thus binds the whole sweep of covenant history together: Joseph in Egypt, the remnant brought to the promised land, and the New Jerusalem to be built by their seed. And it sets the Jaredites' destruction in this larger frame — they are being swept off the land so that the seed of Joseph can inherit it and build upon it the city of God. The decree of the choice land (Ether 2:8–11) is working toward this glorious end: the land cleared of the ripened-wicked, given to the remnant of Joseph, crowned at last with the New Jerusalem. Ether sees the end of the story, and it is not the Jaredite ruin but the holy city.
Ether in the cavity of a rock (verses 13–22)
And I was about to write more, but I am forbidden; but great and marvelous were the prophecies of Ether; but they esteemed him as naught, and cast him out; and he hid himself in the cavity of a rock by day, and by night he went forth viewing the things which should come upon the people. — Ether 13:13
This verse holds one of the most haunting images in all of scripture: the prophet of the New Jerusalem reduced to hiding in the cavity of a rock, creeping out by night to watch his people destroy themselves. Ether saw the holy city descending from heaven; his people esteemed him as naught, and cast him out. The man with the grandest vision in the book is the most despised man in the land. And from his hole in the rock he does the prophet's last work — he watches and records, viewing the things which should come upon the people, making the remainder of this record... viewing the destructions which came upon the people, by night (v. 14). This is the same role Mormon and Moroni played for the Nephites — the witness who survives to record the destruction — and it is the same role, ultimately, that gives us the book. Ether, alone, rejected, hidden in a rock, writes by night the ruin of a people who would not hear him and the glory of a city they will never see. The contrast is the chapter's heart: the vision of the holy city and the cavity of the rock, the grandest hope and the loneliest watching, held together in one prophet. The man who saw the most was given the least, and from the least he wrote the record that carries the most.
Otherwise they should be destroyed, and all his household save it were himself. And he should only live to see the fulfilling of the prophecies which had been spoken concerning another people receiving the land for their inheritance; and Coriantumr should receive a burial by them; and every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr. — Ether 13:20–21
The Lord sends Ether out of his rock with one final offer to king Coriantumr, and it is mercy extended even at the brink: if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people (v. 20). To the very end, repentance would have saved them — the destruction is never inevitable from God's side. But the offer carries its terrible alternative: refuse, and every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr, who shall only live to see the fulfilling of the prophecies... concerning another people receiving the land, and shall receive a burial by them. This is a specific and astonishing prophecy — Coriantumr will be the last Jaredite alive, will see the next people (the Mulekites/Lehites) come to the land, and will be buried by them. It is fulfilled exactly: Coriantumr is later found by the people of Zarahemla and dwells with them nine months before he dies (Omni 1:20–22). The precision of the prophecy is a testimony to Ether's prophetic gift even as it pronounces his people's doom. And the offer's structure is the whole book's choice made final: repent and be spared, or be destroyed. Coriantumr, given the choice plainly, repented not (v. 22), and the war that will empty the land begins in earnest.
The war that would not end (verses 23–31)
Now there began to be a war upon all the face of the land, every man with his band fighting for that which he desired. And there were robbers, and in fine, all manner of wickedness upon all the face of the land. — Ether 13:25–26
The chapter ends in the spreading of total war, and the description is of a society dissolving into anarchy: every man with his band fighting for that which he desired. This is the end-stage of the secret combinations — not organized conspiracy anymore but universal, atomized violence, every man and his band against every other, all manner of wickedness upon all the face of the land. The war between Coriantumr and Shared swings back and forth — Gilgal, Heshlon, Gilgal again — neither able to end it, until all the people upon the face of the land were shedding blood, and there was none to restrain them (v. 31). That final phrase — none to restrain them — is the chapter's darkest. The prophets are gone, cast out or hidden; the Spirit is withdrawn; the combinations have corrupted everyone; and there is no one left to stop the bloodshed. A people that drove out every restraint — every prophet, every word of God, every check on its own violence — is left with nothing to hold it back from self-destruction. This is what the rejection of Ether produced: a land where the holy city was prophesied and a people with none to restrain them from killing each other on the very ground where it will descend. The chapter that opened with the New Jerusalem closes with universal slaughter, and the gap between them is the measure of what the Jaredites threw away.
How the chapter is built
Ether 13 is built on the most extreme contrast in the book of Ether: the vision of the holy city and the spectacle of total self-destruction, set side by side in a single chapter. The first movement (vv. 1–12) reaches the highest point the book attains — the New Jerusalem descending from heaven, the seed of Joseph building the city of God, the old Jerusalem restored, the redeemed in white garments. The second movement (vv. 13–31) descends into the lowest — the prophet hiding in a rock, the rejected final offer, the war that spreads until none to restrain them. The architecture is a deliberate collision of the sublime and the horrific, and the collision is the chapter's sermon. The same land holds both destinies: it is the place of the New Jerusalem and the place of the Jaredite slaughter, the ground of the city of God and the ground soaked with the blood of a people who would not have it. By placing the vision and the destruction in one chapter, Moroni forces the reader to see the gap between what the land was destined for and what the Jaredites made of it — and to feel that the destruction is so terrible precisely because the glory was so near.
The chapter is also built around the figure of the prophet in the rock, and that image is its structural and emotional center. Ether is introduced as the seer of the New Jerusalem (vv. 1–12) and then immediately shown cast out, hiding in the cavity of a rock, watching the destruction by night (vv. 13–14). The architecture binds the highest vision to the lowest circumstance in the same person: the man who saw the city of God writes its prophecy from a hole in the ground while his people bleed. This is the recurring Book of Mormon image of the rejected witness — Mormon the idle witness, Moroni alone — but it is at its starkest here, the prophet literally underground, emerging only in darkness to record a ruin he cannot stop. The structure makes Ether's rock the vantage point of the whole chapter: from it he sees both the holy city (in vision) and the destruction (in fact), and from it he writes the record that holds them both. The cavity of the rock is where the grandest hope and the deepest tragedy of the book are written down together.
And the chapter is built to keep the choice — repent or be destroyed — open until the very last moment, so that the destruction is unmistakably chosen, not fated. Even after the war has begun, even with the prophet in the rock, the Lord sends Ether to Coriantumr with a genuine offer: if he would repent... the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people (v. 20). The architecture places this final offer late, after the bloodshed has started, to make absolutely clear that mercy was available to the end and that the destruction followed only from Coriantumr's refusal — Coriantumr repented not (v. 22). This is consistent with the whole Book of Mormon's insistence that God's judgments are never arbitrary; the door of repentance stands open until it is finally, freely shut from the human side. The chapter that opened with the city of God descending closes with the door of mercy refused and the war spreading with none to restrain them — the holy city offered and the holy city forfeited, in the same land, by the same people, in the same chapter.