The Zoramites were Nephite dissenters who, under a leader named Zoram, separated from the Nephites and adopted their own worship. Around 74 B.C. Alma received word that they were perverting the ways of the Lord, that Zoram was leading the people to bow down to dumb idols, and that they had stopped keeping the law of Moses and the daily prayers of the church (Alma 31:1).
In their land of Antionum they built synagogues and gathered one day a week. At the center of each synagogue stood a high stand admitting one person, called the Rameumptom, or “holy stand.” From it each worshipper offered the same set prayer, thanking God that he had chosen and elected them above their brethren, that they were a holy people, and that there would be no Christ. Notably, the prayer framed Nephite covenant faith itself as the deviation, thanking God that they had not been “led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth bind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee” (Alma 31:17); afterward they spoke nothing of God until the next gathering (Alma 31:13-23).
When Alma saw their worship, his heart was grieved not only over false doctrine but over the materialism underlying it: he saw that their hearts were set upon gold, silver, and all manner of fine goods, and that their pride was lifted up in great boasting (Alma 31:24-25). Their society divided the wealthy from the poor, who were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their clothing and had no place to worship. Their poverty had humbled them, and they were ready to hear Alma and his companions, who taught them on faith, on Christ, and on prayer and the scriptures (Alma 32-34; Alma 32:2-6). The wealthier Zoramites grew angry because the preaching destroyed their craft, found out privately who favored Alma’s words, and cast those people out of the land into Jershon (Alma 35:3-7).
The Zoramites who rejected the teaching joined the Lamanites; by the eighteenth year of the judges they were numbered among the Lamanites making war on the Nephites, with Zoramites serving among Zerahemnah’s chief captains (Alma 43:4 ff.). Later, Zoramites led away Lamanite children by their lies and flattering words to join the Gadianton robbers (3 Nephi 1:29).