2 Nephi 7:2 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
wherefore when I [came 0BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|come >js came 1|come A] there was no man when I called / yea there was none to answer

Isaiah 50:2 (King James Bible) wherefore when I came / was there no man when I called / was there none to answer

Here we see signs of Oliver Cowdery tiring as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟. For the next few verses, Oliver created at least four accidental changes as he copied the text. Here in verse 2, it is obvious that the past-tense came is expected, especially given the following past-tense forms was, called, and was. Nonetheless, Oliver accidentally wrote come, and even the 1830 compositor set come. In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith restored the came, but without reference to a King James Bible or the original manuscript since all the other accidental changes in 2 Nephi 7 (see verses 2, 4, and 5 below) were left uncorrected in the 1837 edition.

Summary: Maintain the past-tense came in 2 Nephi 7:2, which is the reading of the original manuscript as well as the King James text for Isaiah 50:2.

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

References