Isaiah 6:10 (King James Bible) lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed
The original meaning of convert as used here in 2 Nephi 9:10 is given in the Oxford English Dictionary (under definition 8b for the verb) as ‘to turn from a course of conduct, purpose, disposition’. This intransitive use has been obsolete since Early Modern English but appears (as we would expect) in this Book of Mormon quotation from the King James Bible. In his editing for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith altered convert so that it would read be converted (parallel to the following be healed ). In our current language, this passive phraseology tends to imply a more externally caused conversion. The original (now archaic) convert forces the interpretation of an internally motivated conversion.
This editing of convert to be converted makes the text consistent with usage elsewhere in the text. The Book of Mormon text has 26 examples of the passive form “be converted”. In some cases, the past participle converted is used adjectivally, as in the expression “become converted” (3 Nephi 1:25 and 3 Nephi 2:12). There are also two examples of the transitive verb convert in the active voice (Jacob 7:7 and Helaman 9:16). All 30 of these examples are consistent with current English usage; there are no other examples in the Book of Mormon of the Early Modern English verb convert being used intransitively (as it was originally used here in 2 Nephi 16:10). In this regard, consider the following passage that is based in part on the King James language of Isaiah 6:10:
Both passages end with references to being converted and healed, yet 3 Nephi 9:13 uses the modern “be converted” rather than the original intransitive convert of Isaiah 6:10. In fact, the King James Bible itself prefers “be converted”. For instance, this Isaiah passage (Isaiah 6:10) is quoted four times in the New Testament (Matthew 13:15, Mark 4:12, John 12:40, and Acts 28:27). Yet each time the King James translation has be converted rather than the convert found in Isaiah 6:10. In fact, the language of 3 Nephi 9:13 parallels three of these New Testament passages:
Summary: Restore the original convert in 2 Nephi 16:10 since this is how the earliest Book of Mormon sources read; the intransitive convert is also in agreement with the corresponding King James reading in Isaiah 6:10.