The negative aspect of the promise of the land is that the people would lose God’s protection if they did not keep their part of the covenant. Thus, Mormon declares that God “doth chasten his people with many afflictions.” The saddest part of the declaration is that even though the Nephites might suffer all kinds of afflictions, “they will not remember him.” Wars have caused them to repent, but only for a time, and often not for a very long time. Famine caused them to repent, but not for very many years. The Nephites, at least as Mormon writes about them, seldom repent for longer than a handful of years before the temptations of prosperity overtake them again.
In verses 4 and 5, Mormon notes that very fact, that the Nephites are “quick to be lifted up in pride.”