Usage in the larger passage and elsewhere in the Book of Mormon suggests that here in 2 Nephi 10:19 only “saith God” should be surrounded by commas. Nearby we have references to “saith God” but
not to “saith God unto me” (that is, throughout this chapter Jacob refers to God’s saying in general, not God’s specific saying to Jacob):
- 2 Nephi 10:7
- but behold thus saith the Lord God : when the day cometh that they shall believe in me / that I am Christ then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be
restored in the flesh upon the earth unto the lands of their inheritance
- 2 Nephi 10:8
- and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me / saith God / in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance
- 2 Nephi 10:10
- but behold this land / saith God / shall be a land of thine inheritance
- 2 Nephi 10:13–14
- and he that fighteth against Zion shall perish / saith God / for he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish
- 2 Nephi 10:16–17
- for they which are not for me are against me / saith our God / for I will fulfill my promises which I have made unto the children of men
- 2 Nephi 10:18
- wherefore my beloved brethren thus saith our God : I will afflict thy seed by the hand of the Gentiles
- 2 Nephi 10:19–20
- wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me / saith God / and now my beloved brethren …
Later in his own book, Jacob quotes from Zenos’s parable that refers to the promised land as being choice unto the Lord:
- Jacob 5:43
- and behold this last whose branch hath withered away I did plant in a good spot of ground yea even that which was choice unto me
above all other parts of the
land of my vineyard
Thus the more reasonable interpretation here in 2 Nephi 10:19 is to punctuate the sentence to read “it is a choice land, saith God, unto me”.
