1 Nephi 14:2 Textual Variants

In a few instances, the scribe spelled blessed as blest. There are two other examples of the phonetic spelling blest in the manuscripts:

• Mosiah 2:41
  • and moreover I would desire that ye should consider on the [blest > blessed 1|blessed ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God
• Mosiah 25:24
  • and they were [blest >js blessed 1|blest A|blessed BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and prospered in the land

All three examples of blest involve the participial or adjectival use of blessed and for this context show a tendency away from the archaic pronunciation /blesßd/.

In current English, blessed is the standard spelling, whether pronounced /blest/ or /blesßd/. The critical text will maintain the standard spelling, which conveniently avoids determining how blessed should be pronounced. Generally, the two-syllable pronunciation is found only in set adjectival constructions. For a complete discussion, see blessed in volume 3.