This passage refers to the appearance of Christ among the Nephites and briefly states that he will heal them. The language here agrees with the language in Malachi:
Both passages are clearly connected, yet Malachi refers to “the Sun of righteousness” and the Book of Mormon text reads “the Son of righteousness”. Interestingly, the King James Bible capitalizes Sun because the reference is to the Lord, not to the star in our solar system. It is as if the biblical passage is using the phrase “the Sun of righteousness” as a name or title for the Lord.
In 3 Nephi 24–25, Jesus quotes Malachi 3–4 to the Nephites, yet there the Book of Mormon text again reads “the Son of righteousness”, just like in 2 Nephi 26:9:
Except for the one word Sun/Son, Malachi 4:2 and 3 Nephi 25:2 read precisely the same. (See 3 Nephi 25:2 for discussion of some minor textual variation in this direct quotation from Malachi.) And finally, there is one more place in the Book of Mormon where the text refers to “the Son of righteousness”:
Since sun and son are homophones in English, their phonetic identity suggests that there may be an error here in the Book of Mormon text, at least for the direct Malachi quote in 3 Nephi 25:2. In the Hebrew original for Malachi 4:2, there is virtually no chance that the words for ‘sun’ and ‘son’ could be mixed up since phonetically they are so different (¸seme¸s ‘sun’ versus ben ‘son’). This possible emendation to Sun in the Book of Mormon text was first proposed by Sidney B. Sperry in “The Book of Mormon and Textual Criticism”, Book of Mormon Institute, 5 December 1959 (Provo, Utah: Extension Publications, Brigham Young University), pages 5–6.
We should first note that for all three Book of Mormon passages the earliest textual sources consistently read Son (the printer’s manuscript in all three cases and, in addition, the 1830 edition for 3 Nephi 25:2). The original manuscript is not extant for any of these three passages. However, if Son is an error for Sun, it probably would have occurred as Joseph Smith dictated the text to his scribe (probably Oliver Cowdery in each case). For 3 Nephi 25:2, both the 1830 edition and the printer’s manuscript have the spelling Son, from which we can deduce that the original manuscript probably did so too since for this part of the text both the 1830 edition and 𝓟 are firsthand copies of 𝓞.
One can also argue that misinterpreting Sun as Son in 3 Nephi 25:2 may have been facilitated by the possessive pronoun his that occurs at the end of the clause (“with healing in his wings”). In earlier English, however, his was the possessive pronoun for it as well as he. In other words, the his in Malachi 4:2 could mean ‘its’, as in the King James reading for Matthew 5:13: “if the salt have lost his savor”. In Malachi 4:2 we cannot be sure whether the King James translators meant ‘his’ or ‘its’ when they translated this passage as “with healing in his wings”, although the fact that they capitalized the word Sun suggests that they interpreted the passage as dealing with deity and therefore ‘his’, not ‘its’, was what they intended. In the Hebrew original, the pronominal suffix literally reads ‘her’ since in this verse the noun ¸seme¸s ‘sun’ is grammatically feminine. In the Hebrew Bible, ¸seme¸s is sometimes grammatically masculine, other times grammatically feminine. In Malachi 4:2 it is grammatically feminine. But grammatical gender should not be confused with natural gender. Literally translating Malachi 4:2 into English as “with healing in her wings” would be misleading. Modern translations (such as the Revised Standard Version and the New International Version) translate this phrase as “with healing in its wings”.
Normally, the scribes did not mix up son and sun. But in one place in the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote son in place of the correct sun:
The error here, although immediately corrected, is facilitated by the context. Just hearing “for he maketh his son/sun”, Oliver may have first thought that text was referring to the Father making his Son do something. In the same way, the reference in 3 Nephi 25:2 to “the Sun/Son of righteousness arising with healing in his wings” could readily have led Oliver to write down Son rather than Sun in 𝓞.
The two other Book of Mormon passages with “the Son of righteousness” (2 Nephi 26:9 and Ether 9:22), although not directly quoting Malachi 4:2, clearly refer to the Messiah, the Son of God; thus the use of Son in those two cases seems expected or maybe even intended. But if we interpret “the Sun of righteousness” as a name or title for Christ, even 2 Nephi 26:9 and Ether 9:22 could read as “the Sun of righteousness”. A similar example of metaphorical naming is found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible:
Here “the Branch of righteousness”, given its capitalization as Branch in the King James Bible, is being interpreted as a reference to Christ (although it should be pointed out that the original 1611 King James Bible did not capitalize branch). Both phrases, “the Sun of righteousness” and “the Branch of righteousness”, use physical objects (the sun and a branch) to refer to the Messiah. The postmodifying phrase “of righteousness” further supports the metaphorical interpretation of these phrases as names or titles for the Messiah.
And the Book of Mormon text itself introduces another possible name or title for Christ that has the same basic form, namely, “the fountain of all righteousness”. This characterization of Christ occurs twice in the book of Ether:
This reference to Christ could also be behind Lehi’s language to Laman:
Once more, this kind of name or title metaphorically refers to a physical object (here a fountain), and it is postmodified by “of all righteousness”, very much as in the case of “the Sun of righteousness” and “the Branch of righteousness”.
This internal evidence suggests that the phrase “the Sun of righteousness” should be taken as a special name or title for Christ in the Book of Mormon text, just as it is in Malachi 4:2. Thus not only 3 Nephi 25:2 (which cites Malachi 4:2) but also 2 Nephi 26:9 and Ether 9:22 should be emended to read “the Sun of righteousness”. It was very easy for Oliver Cowdery, the probable scribe in 𝓞 for all three of these passages, to misinterpret “the Sun of righteousness” as “the Son of righteousness”, especially since each passage does refer to the Son of God.
Summary: Emend 2 Nephi 26:9, 3 Nephi 25:2, and Ether 9:22 to read “the Sun of righteousness” rather than the homophonous “the Son of righteousness”; the phrase “the Sun of righteousness” acts as a name or title for Christ and is similar in form to “the Branch of righteousness” (in Jeremiah 33:15) and “the fountain of all righteousness” (in 1 Nephi 2:9, Ether 8:26, and Ether 12:28).