2 Nephi 16:12–13 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land but yet [in it 1APS| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] there shall be a tenth and they shall return

Isaiah 6:12–13 (King James Bible) and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land but yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return

The 1837 edition removed the words in it, which occur in the King James text as well as in the Hebrew. Literally, the Hebrew reads “in her”, where the pronoun refers to the grammatically feminine noun land at the end of verse 12. Although the 1837 deletion of in it could be accidental (this change was not marked in 𝓟 by Joseph Smith during his editing for the 1837 edition), it is also possible that its omission represents a conscious attempt to make the text flow more smoothly. The critical text will, of course, restore in it.

Summary: Restore in 2 Nephi 16:13 the original prepositional phrase in it, which agrees with the reading of the King James Bible.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 2

References