Coriantumr
The last king of the Jaredites, who survived to witness the complete destruction of his civilization
The Last King
Coriantumr was the last king of the Jaredite civilization, which had inhabited the Americas for many centuries since the time of the Tower of Babel. By the time of his reign, the Jaredites had degenerated through generations of wickedness, civil war, and secret combinations into a people bent on total mutual annihilation. Coriantumr was a man of great physical power—“he was a large and mighty man”—who had received sufficient instruction to know the prophecies, yet chose to fight rather than repent.
The Prophet Ether’s Warning
The prophet Ether came out of hiding and prophesied to Coriantumr with extraordinary directness: if the king and his people would repent, God would preserve them. But if they refused, every soul of the Jaredite nation would be destroyed—except Coriantumr himself, who would live to see the fulfillment of all prophecy:
Ether 13:20–21
“And in the second year the word of the Lord came to Ether, that he should go and prophesy unto Coriantumr that, if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people—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.”
Coriantumr rejected the prophecy. He cast Ether out and the wars continued for years, with alternating campaigns of conquest, retreat, siege, and slaughter. Millions died. The text of Ether narrates battle after battle as the populations of both sides bled out across the land.
The Final Battle
In the final phase, Coriantumr’s armies and those of his rival Shiz fought for days at a plain called Ramah—the same hill the Nephites would later call Cumorah. When only a handful of people remained on each side, Coriantumr struck Shiz on the neck with his sword. Shiz raised himself on his hands, struggled, and then fell dead. Coriantumr fell to the earth, exhausted, and fainted from loss of blood.
Ether, watching from hiding, completed his record and hid it. The Jaredite nation was gone. Every prophecy had been fulfilled exactly as spoken.
Among the Mulekites
A brief reference in the book of Omni confirms that Coriantumr was eventually found by the people of Zarahemla (the Mulekites), lived with them for nine months, and then died (Omni 1:21). He had survived to see a new people receiving the land for their inheritance, exactly as Ether had prophesied. He saw the fulfillment with his own eyes and then was gone.
What Coriantumr Represents
Coriantumr is the tragic culmination of the Jaredite narrative—a story of what becomes of a civilization that repeatedly chooses secret combinations, self-interest, and vengeance over repentance and covenant. Mormon and Moroni included this record as a specific warning to the latter-day readers of the Book of Mormon: the pattern of the Jaredites mirrors what awaits any people who follow the same course.
Coriantumr himself received the clearest possible prophetic warning, with the most generous offer God could make: repent and all is saved. He refused. He lived to see every word fulfilled—not in triumph but in the ashes of everything he had fought for. His survival, lonely and alien among a people he did not know, was its own kind of judgment.
Key Scriptures
- Ether 13–15 — Ether’s warning, the final wars, and Coriantumr’s survival
- Omni 1:21 — Coriantumr found by the Mulekites, lives nine months, then dies