2 Nephi 27:4 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for behold all ye that [do 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPS|doeth QRT] iniquity stay yourselves and wonder

Isaiah 29:9 (King James Bible) stay yourselves and wonder

The initial line of text here (“for behold all ye that do iniquity”) is not found in the corresponding King James text. The 1911 edition accidentally changed do to the more biblical-sounding doeth, although the tendency in the editorial history of the text has been to restrict the -(e)th verbal ending to the third person singular. Here the 1911 edition incorrectly extended it to the second person plural, even though in “standard” Early Modern English the plural ye should take do rather than doeth.

Summary: Restore the do in 2 Nephi 27:4, the reading of the earliest text; the subject is second person plural, not third person singular, so the use of do is grammatically correct.

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

References