Zarahemla led the people called after him, whom the people of Mosiah discovered after Mosiah fled the land of Nephi into the wilderness (Omni 1:14). He was a descendant of Mulek, a son of King Zedekiah of Judah, and his people had come out from Jerusalem at the time Zedekiah was carried captive into Babylon, crossing the great waters to the land where Mosiah found them (Omni 1:15–16). His people outnumbered the descendants of Nephi (Mosiah 25:2).
At the meeting there was great rejoicing, and Zarahemla rejoiced because Mosiah’s people had brought the plates of brass containing the record of the Jews (Omni 1:14). By that time his people had become numerous but had fought many wars, their language had become corrupted, they had brought no records, and they denied the being of their Creator, so that Mosiah’s people could not understand them (Omni 1:17). After they were taught Mosiah’s language, Zarahemla gave a genealogy of his fathers from memory, which was written but not in these plates (Omni 1:18). The people of Zarahemla and of Mosiah then united, and Mosiah was appointed their king (Omni 1:19).
His descendants continued among the Nephites: Ammon, who led the party that found the people of Limhi (Mosiah 7:13), and Coriantumr, a Nephite dissenter who later led a Lamanite army against the Nephites (Helaman 1:15).