The whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead, and so swift and speedy was the war that there was none left to bury the dead,

leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children, strewed upon the face of the land, to become a prey to the worms of the flesh.

Wherefore the people became troubled by day and by night because of the scent thereof,

ether 14, 21 through 23.

Hey listeners, this is Xander from Book of Mormon Central and today's podcast addresses the question

why were the unburied dead so troubling to the Jaredites?

In the Old Testament, people were often warned that if they did not repent, they would die

and their bodies, instead of being properly buried, would be devoured by wild animals.

Such a fate was seen by many ancient peoples not only as a tragedy as it would be today,

but a disgrace and an indication

of divine judgment. That judgment would carry over into the afterlife where a person's

role and identity was thought to be determined and facilitated by where and how their body

was buried. As one scholar explained, the ideal afterlife in the Hebrew Bible was bound to the tomb.

Death was relational, and the tomb was a critical component in defining relationships and

establishing the identity of the dead.

Lack of burial could thus result in being dislodged and displaced in the afterlife,

leaving one to wander aimlessly without a role or identity, and without any connection to the

world of the living.

As John Walton explained, in Mesopotamia, the importance of the burial of the body was connected with a belief that, without burial, the ghost of the deceased would not find its natural place among the community of the dead and would therefore have no rest.

Furthermore, the living were expected to care for their dead through ongoing

mortuary rights and communal meals. Lack of proper burial prevented these things from happening

and thus dissolved community between the living and the dead. If a body were to be devoured

...