Naming Locations

K. Douglas Bassett

Amos 5:24

“By what right do these people rename streams and valleys to suit themselves? No Westerner would tolerate such arrogance. But Lehi is not interested in western taste; he is following a good old Oriental custom… . Any water you may discover, either in your own territory or in the territory of another tribe, is named after you… . One and the same place may have several names, and the wadi running close to the same, or the mountain connected with it, will naturally be called differently by members of different clans… .” (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, pp. 85-86)
“The ancient Hebrew people loved imagery and figures of speech. The most powerful way to illustrate a truth was to find something in human nature or conduct that corresponded to something in nature.” (Kelly Ogden, Studies in Scripture, ed. by K. Jackson, 7:24)

Latter-Day Commentary on the Book of Mormon

References