“Moroni … became chief captain at the age of twenty-five (see Alma 43:17). Moroni had given up the command of the armies to his son Moronihah (see Alma 62:43), which implies that the position was inherited. Moroni himself became chief captain in the eighteenth year of the reign of the judges (see Alma 43:3) and his son Moronihah in about the thirty-first year (see Alma 62:39). If Moronihah was born when his father was twenty years of age, he would have been only eighteen when he succeeded him” (Tvedtnes, “Book of Mormon Tribal Affiliation and Military Castes,” 318).
What does the name Shiblon mean? (63:1). Shiblon “is a good Arabic name. It means young lion. … He took possession of the sacred things, and he was a just man” (Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, 3:195).
We learn much about Shiblon’s goodness from his father’s words recorded in Alma 38, in which the young man was praised for his faithfulness, diligence, patience, and long-suffering.