2 Nephi 25:11 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
they shall return again and possess the land of Jerusalem wherefore they shall be restored again to the [lands 1APS|land BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] of their inheritance

In the discussion for 2 Nephi 9:2, I noted that for the phrase “the land(s) of their inheritance”, the plural lands is actually the more frequent form in the original Book of Mormon text, although the singular land also occurs quite often. Since most cases of the plural “the lands of their inheritance” have been retained in the text, this particular change in the 1837 edition may be a typo rather than due to editing by Joseph Smith (he did not mark the change in the printer’s manuscript). The preceding clause has the singular land (“they shall return again and possess the land of Jerusalem”), which may be the reason why the 1837 edition replaced (perhaps accidentally) lands with land later on in the verse. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the original plural lands, probably by reference to the printer’s manuscript.

Summary: According to the reading of the earliest textual sources, restore in 2 Nephi 25:11 the plural lands in “the lands of their inheritance”.

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

References