2 Nephi 10:22 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for behold the Lord God hath led away from time to time from the house of Israel according to his will and pleasure

Robert Baer (personal communication, 5 July 1989) suggests that there is a missing direct object here, namely, the righteous after led away (thus “the Lord God hath led away the righteous from time to time from the house of Israel”). This appears to be a rather long noun phrase to have been accidentally omitted. To be sure, other passages do refer to the righteous as being led away:

In fact, for the 39 instances in the Book of Mormon of the expression “to lead away”, the direct object is expressly stated every time except here in 2 Nephi 10:22. On the other hand, one could argue that people is simply understood in 2 Nephi 10:22 and does not need to be stated. There are, for instance, other cases in the Book of Mormon where the direct object is left unexpressed; see, in particular, the discussion under Ether 12:28 regarding the ellipsis of people in the phrase “to bring unto me”. Since the reading of all the (extant) textual sources will work here in 2 Nephi 10:22, the critical text will maintain it.

Summary: Retain in 2 Nephi 10:22 the reading of all the (extant) textual sources: “the Lord God hath led away from time to time from the house of Israel”; here the direct object is left unstated since the notion of people being led away is semantically recoverable.

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

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