2 Nephi 1:17 Textual Variants

In his editing of this passage for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith removed the redundant use of the subordinate conjunction lest by deleting its second occurrence. There are no other examples of this kind of redundancy in the text. Even so, this repetition reminds one of the repeated subordinate conjunction that, which is found quite often in the original text of the Book of Mormon and which has not always been edited out. (For further discussion, see 1 Nephi 10:2–3 as well as that in volume 3.) In fact, there are examples of the repeated that where the intervening text is a prepositional phrase (just like the intervening prepositional phrase “for the hardness of your hearts” here in 2 Nephi 1:17):

• Alma 12:22
  • and thus we see that by his fall [that >js NULL 1|that A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] all mankind became a lost and a fallen people
• Alma 30:49
  • and I say [that 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|that >js NULL 1] in the name of God [that 01A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] ye shall be struck dumb
• Alma 50:3
  • and he caused that upon those works of timbers [that >js NULL 1|that A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] there should be a frame of pickets built upon the timbers round about

Joseph Smith, in his editing for the 1837 edition, removed these three examples of the repeated that, just as he removed the single example of the repeated lest. These parallels suggest that the repeated lest in 2 Nephi 1:17 is intended and should be accepted in the critical text.