4 Therefore, there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites; and the Nephites being in one body, and having so great a number, and having reserved for themselves provisions, and ^ahorses and cattle, and flocks of every kind, that they might subsist for the space of ^bseven years, in the which time they did hope to destroy the robbers from off the face of the land; and thus the eighteenth year did pass away.