Helaman³, son of Helaman², was a Nephite record keeper and chief judge. Before his death, his uncle Shiblon conferred the sacred records on him, and he was named after his father (Alma 63:11). He kept the records that became the book bearing his name.
Helaman³ was appointed to the judgment-seat by the voice of the people around 50 B.C., after a vacancy left by the deaths of two prior chief judges: Pahoran², murdered by Kishkumen, and Pacumeni, killed in war (Helaman 1:9; 1:21; 2:1-2). Kishkumen then lay in wait to kill Helaman³ as well, backed by a band whose leader was Gadianton. A servant of Helaman³ learned the plot, met Kishkumen on the way to the judgment-seat, and stabbed him dead (Helaman 2:3-9).
Helaman³ filled the judgment-seat “with justice and equity,” kept the commandments of God, and prospered in the land (Helaman 3:20). Under his administration the people fasted and prayed often, growing in humility and faith, with joy and consolation (Helaman 3:35). He had two sons, Nephi and Lehi, whom he named after their first parents who came out of Jerusalem, so that remembering the names they would remember to do good (Helaman 5:5-13). He taught them to build their foundation “upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ” (Helaman 5:12).
Helaman³ died in the fifty-third year of the reign of the judges (about 39 B.C.), and his eldest son Nephi succeeded him in the judgment-seat (Helaman 3:37).