A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Ether
ETHER. The last great prophet of the Jaredites, to whom we are indebted for the history of that race, for it is an abridgment of Ether's writings, made by Moroni, that we have in the Book of Mormon, under the title of the Book of Ether. Ether was of the royal race, his father being Coriantor, one of those unfortunate monarchs who lived in captivity all his days. In the reign of Coriantumr, the last king of the Jaredites, Ether came forth and proclaimed the near destruction of the entire people, a prophecy which many of his predecessors had also uttered; but he also promised that the king should survive all his subjects, and live to see another race occupy the land. Great and marvelous were the prophecies of Ether. He saw the days of Christ, and the great work of the last dispensation, even to the coming of the New Jerusalem. Indeed, he appears to have had revealed to him a complete history of the dealings of the Lord with the inhabitants of this earth, from his own day to the end of time. But the people heeded not his words, and ultimately grew weary of his threatenings and drove him from their midst. He hid himself in a cavity of a rock, coming forth in the night time to view the course of events, and occasionally appearing and repeating his warnings. While thus hidden, he wrote the history of contemporaneous events, and, year by year, watched the fulfilment of the word of the Lord, as the people gradually destroyed each other in unrelenting warfare. He lived to record the utter destruction of his people at Ramah, (Cumorah,) with the sole exception of Coriantumr, who survived as a witness to the unfailing word of God. We are not told whether Ether died or was translated. We incline, from his own words (Ether, 15:33), to the latter opinion. When he had finished his record, he hid the twenty-four golden plates on which it was engraven, in the place in which they were afterwards found by the people of king Limhi. (B. C. 123).