Moroni 1

 (My highlights in orange, my thoughts in blue; red Nov 2020 orange 8/21 Brown 2022-23)

Moroni writes for the benefit of the Lamanites—The Nephites who will not deny Christ are put to death. About A.D. 401–21.

  1 Now I, Moroni, after having made an end of abridging the account of the people of Jared, I had supposed ^anot to have written more, but I have not as yet perished; and I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me.
  2 For behold, their ^awars are exceedingly fierce among themselves; and because of their ^bhatred they ^cput to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. This is probably coming in our day. Fortunately Christ will gather His people to spare them and protect them in Zion. But before Zion is established, perhaps there will be many martyrs:(
  3 And I, Moroni, will not ^adeny the Christ; thinking of the mark of the beast that requires we deny Christ. We must not! wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life. Noticing that he didn't stand up to them or confront them. He ran and hid from them. Standing for truth and righteousness doesn't mean asking God to protect you from known danger. He could...but He didn't ask Moroni to do that, probably because it would only condemn the Lamanites even more. And maybe God needed a witness to record all that was happening.
  4 Wherefore, I write a few more things, contrary to that which I had supposed; for I had supposed not to have written any more; but I write a few more things, that perhaps they may be of ^aworth unto my brethren, the Lamanites, in some future day, according to the will of the Lord. Even after all Moroni had written and seen and experienced, he still had to live by faith. He didn't know how he was going to die and even with the Holy Ghost, he "supposed" things and they didn't happen that way. He was protected and sustained by the Lord, but still had to hide from his enemies and wonder if they would find him and kill him. It still is such a great example, that even with the extreme hatred the Lamanites had for the Nephites and their killing almost all of them, he still makes the effort to write for their future benefit. I think by now, after all that he had read and written, he was clear that the record would be preserved for them, according to the prayers and faith of all the previous prophets. He doesn't mention the "mixture of his seed" that are Nephites. Perhaps the title "Lamanites" isn't so much about blood as it is about belief. The Nephites had become Lamanites, or were put to death. There were many of his seed, that had escaped by boat long ago...but perhaps he believes they would still have their religion in tact and would pass that along. Mostly, he may be referencing the promise made to the Lamanites that they would be brought back to the knowledge of God and that the Book of Mormon would be an instrument in doing that. There is a new movie out this year called "The Oath" that was 13 years in production that tries to give us a feel for Moroni's 20 years of solitary living and his commitment to preserver the record.