2 Nephi 23:7 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
therefore shall all hands be faint every man’s heart shall melt

Isaiah 13:7 (King James Bible) therefore shall all hands be faint and every man’s heart shall melt

Under 1 Nephi 21:26, there is some discussion on the frequency with which a clause-initial and in the Isaiah passages is missing from the Book of Mormon text. Here in 2 Nephi 23:7, we have one more example of a missing and. In fact, one additional example is found a few verses later:

As discussed under 1 Nephi 21:26, the critical text will accept such minor variation. Without any specific evidence that these omissions are due to scribal mistakes, we should assume that the missing and ’s are intended.

Summary: As elsewhere in the text, we accept the earliest reading for 2 Nephi 23:7 and 2 Nephi 23:11 without the clause-initial and ’s found in the corresponding King James text.

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

References