2 Nephi 18:22 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness dimness [of 1ABCDEFGHIJLMNOPQRST|and K] anguish

Isaiah 8:22 (King James Bible) and they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness dimness of anguish

The 1892 RLDS edition replaced the of here with and, probably accidentally. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the original of, the reading in 𝓟 as well as in the King James Bible.

The original phrase “dimness of anguish” seems odd: how can anguish be dim? The use of and turns this clause into a chiasmus (trouble is paired with anguish and darkness with dimness). Of course, the of is the way the King James text reads. In the Hebrew, there is no and between dimness and anguish. Instead, there is a construct relationship between the two nouns, so of is a correct translation. A more modern translation such as the Revised Standard Version renders this phrase as “the gloom of anguish”, which seems more reasonable than the King James reading, “dimness of anguish”.

Summary: Maintain the of in the phrase “dimness of anguish” in 2 Nephi 18:22.

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

References