“Historical records attest that both Hebrew and Egyptian were known in Israel during Lehi’s day, and Lehi himself was a descendant of Joseph, who centuries before lived out most of his life using the Egyptian language, so perhaps this ‘stick of Joseph’ was meant to be continued in that language. In addition, there were strong commercial and cultural ties between Judah and Egypt in the late seventh century B.C., when Egypt was growing in strength. The Book of Mormon itself reveals that Mormon and Moroni were writing in what they called ‘reformed Egyptian’ (Mormon 9:32)” (Ogden and Skinner, Book of Mormon, 1:304).