Mosiah

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There are two individuals named Mosiah in The Book of Mormon (indexed as Mosiah¹ and Mosiah²). They were grandfather and grandson, respectively, and both served as king of the Nephites at Zarahemla. Mosiah¹ was a Nephite prophet who led the Nephites from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla and was later appointed king. He was the father of King Benjamin. Mosiah² was Benjamin's son and was king of the Nephite nation from about 124 BC to 91 BC. The Book of Mosiah is named after Mosiah².

[edit] Mosiah¹

The history of Mosiah¹ is limited to Amaleki's account in the Book of Omni (Omni 1:12-23).

Following a period of "much war and contention between...the Nephites, and the Lamanites" (Omni 1:10), Mosiah¹ was "warned of the Lord that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord should also depart out of the land with him, into the wilderness" (Omni 1:12). The journey led them to the land of Zarahemla, inhabited by a group of people who had come from Jerusalem at the "time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon" (Omni 1:15). The two groups united and appointed Mosiah their king.

Mosiah¹ also translated engravings found on a stone which gave an account of the Jaredites, another people who had previously inhabited the area.

[edit] Mosiah²

Mosiah instituted a new governing system on his deathbed after all of his sons refused to succeed him. After Mosiah's death in approximately 91 BC, a council of elected judges governed the land until Christ appeared (see Mosiah 29).

[edit] Etymology

The meaning attributed to the name "Mosiah" is unknown, but religious LDS linguistic studies suggest these possibilities:

The name could be מֹשִׁעַ Mōšíªʿ, which means "anointed one" (same as the word Messiah). This theory is most favored by LDS scholars.
The name could be a combination of the name Moses (as either Mōšeh or possible dialectual Mōseh or similar form; see similar example in the Sam article), combined with the name Yahweh, perhaps meaning "Moses of Jehovah", indicating a devotion. Possible form could be משיה Mōšiyyāh or Mōsiyyāh or משיהו Mōšiyyāhû or Mōsiyyāhû.
Critics of the Book of Mormon sometimes claim that Joseph Smith simply combined the names Moses and Isaiah into Mosiah.