2 Nephi 17:21 Textual Variants

Isaiah 7:21 (King James Bible) and it shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep

Here in 2 Nephi 17:21, the earliest reading is missing the italicized that of the King James text. For other examples of the omitted italicized that, see the discussion under 2 Nephi 17:1. Here in verse 21, however, we also have an extra that between “come to pass” and “in that day”. The 1830 typesetter removed this extra that, perhaps because he didn’t like the repetition of the that in “it shall come to pass that in that day”. Or perhaps the oddity of the phraseology led him to check his King James Bible.

Nonetheless, there are examples of “come to pass” followed by that and then a prepositional phrase of the form “in that ”. In these instances, the time period is the year:

• Helaman 11:29
  • but behold it came to pass that in that same year they were driven back even into their own lands
• Mormon 3:7
  • and it came to pass that in that year we did beat them
• Ether 13:15
  • and it came to pass that in that same year which he was cast out from among the people there began to be a great war among the people

Since such phraseology (“that in that < time period>”) is possible, the critical text will maintain the earliest reading for 2 Nephi 17:21 (“and it shall come to pass that in that day a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep”). For another example of this same difficulty in the earliest extant text, see the Isaiah quotation in 2 Nephi 24:3–4. Also see the discussion under that in volume 3.