Redaction: Mormon gives a direct introduction to the text he is copying. It is very clearly a copy from the plates and very clearly the text that Benjamin “spake and caused to be written.” Since official copies of the speech were created, it seems reasonable that Mormon copied it without editing, its language subject only to Joseph Smith’s translation. We may also presume that, because this is an official written text, Benjamin took pains in its construction and that we might here find evidence of literary techniques not normally seen in spontaneous oral discourse. Indeed “a stunning array of literary structures appears in Benjamin’s speech, purposefully and skillfully organized. Benjamin’s use of chiasmus, all types of parallelisms, and many other forms of repeating patterns add focus and emphasis to the main messages and the persuasive qualities of this text.” The structured art of the text applies to the first part of Benjamin’s sermon. I read the second phase as a spontaneous discourse. (See commentary accompanying Mosiah 4:4.)
Rhetoric: Benjamin begins his speech by declaring that the people will be hearing divine words, for the “mysteries of God will be unfolded.” This statement tells his audience that he is speaking Yahweh’s behalf and that, through Benjamin, Yahweh’s will is to be proclaimed.
Scripture: Benjamin unfolds “mysteries of God” in the sense that this is information that is either new to the people or which is being reinforced afresh. Because God is different from us, we realize that we do not understand all that God does or intends (Isa. 55:8–9). Whenever a prophet explains the will of the Lord, the “mysteries” are being unfolded. They are “mysteries” by definition because they come from a God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8).
Vocabulary: John W. Welch, Donald W. Parry, and Stephen D. Ricks provide the following insight about the phrase “this day.”
The phrase “this day” may be very significant in the scriptures. This solemn and emphatic concept appears, for example, in the famous covenantal text at the end of the book of Joshua: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day (Josh. 24:15–25). It seems that words of this nature were especially used in antiquity in reference to religious or ceremonial holy days.
The words “this day” appear eighteen times in the Book of Mormon. Six occurrences are regular expressions meaning “at this time,” and one in Alma 30:8 quotes Joshua 24:15. But the remaining eleven all appear in conjunction with holy Nephite gatherings at their temples.
King Benjamin uses the phrase “this day” five times in his monumental speech, and each time it occurs at ritual and covenantal highpoints in the text: He enjoins the people to give heed to “my words which I shall speak unto you this day” (Mosiah 2:9). He calls the people as “witnesses this day” that he has discharged his duties as king according to the law and has a pure conscience before God “this day” (Mosiah 2:14–15; compare Deut. 17:14–20). He declares “this day” that his son Mosiah is their new king (Mosiah 2:30). He affirms that “this day [Christ] hath spiritually begotten you” (Mosiah 5:7). These usages are important covenantal markers. It seems likely that Benjamin is using this phrase not as a mere literary embellishment, but as a term with legal and religious import.
… Further corroboration for these pointed uses of “this day” in the Book of Mormon can be found in Hebrew literature. In Hebrew the word etzem is significant. It appears, for example, in Exodus 12:17, “Ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day [b’etzem hayom hazeh] have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.” Abraham Bloch has recently concluded that “this descriptive word was not a mere literary flourish” but a technical term of art with some unknown special significance.
For further insight, Bloch turns to the medieval Jewish jurist Nahmanides, who “noted with great amazement that etzem [‘self-same’] was used only in connection with the observance of Yom Kippur [the Israelite festival of the Day of Atonement] and Shavuot [the biblical festival of the Firstfruits, or Pentecost].” The implication is that this term was used to indicate that these high holy days in and of themselves produced a binding legal effect or holy religious status.
Evidently, in Nephite language and rhetoric, the phrase “this day” often indicated the covenantal and legal status of a holy day, much as “this day,” “today,” or “this selfsame day” did in Hebrew.”