Alma 20:24 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
if thou wilt grant that my brethren may be cast out of prison and also that Lamoni may retain his kingdom and that ye be not displeased with him but grant that he may do according to his own desires in whatsoever thing he thinketh [& >js NULL 1|and A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] then will I spare thee

The original text here had an and after the long initial subordinate if-clause and before the main clause (“then will I spare thee”). Joseph Smith removed this Hebrew-like use of and in his editing for the 1837 edition. The critical text will restore such instances. See the discussion under 1 Nephi 17:50 as well as more generally under hebraisms in volume 3.

Summary: Restore in Alma 20:24 the Hebraistic and that originally occurred after the if-clause and before the main clause (thus “if thou wilt grant that my brethren may be cast out of prison … and then will I spare thee”).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

References