1 Nephi 17:2 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
our women did give plenty of suck [ for 01ABCDEFGHIJLMNOPQRST|to K] their children

The 1892 RLDS edition changed the preposition here in 1 Nephi 17:2 from for to to, probably accidentally. The phraseology “to give suck to children” seems more expected in biblical language, although it occurs only once in the King James Bible:

The more common phraseology is “to give children suck” (as in Genesis 21:7, 1 Samuel 1:23, and 1 Kings 3:21).

The only other example of the phrase “to give suck” in the Book of Mormon text is in Helaman 15:2: “your women shall have great cause to mourn in the day that they shall give suck”. Thus there is no other evidence to suggest that the for in 1 Nephi 17:2 is wrong, so we accept for, the reading of the earliest textual sources.

Summary: Maintain the preposition for in 1 Nephi 17:2 (“our women did give plenty of suck for their children”) rather than the more expected to.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 1

References