Mosiah 22:8 Textual Variants

One might wonder here if there is a missing and between “our women and our children” and “our flocks and our herds”. Earlier in this chapter, the same basic pair of conjunctive noun phrases is separated by an and:

• Mosiah 22:2
  • except it were to take their women and children and their flocks and their herds and their tents and depart into the wilderness

Even so, elsewhere in the text there is no and separating “women and children” from “flocks and herds” (in each case below, I identify with an arrow where the and is lacking):

• Alma 7:27
  •   and now may the peace of God rest upon you
      and upon your houses and lands
      and upon your flocks and herds
      and all that you possess
    → your women and your children
      according to your faith and good works
• 3 Nephi 3:13
  •   yea he sent a proclamation among all the people
      that they should gather together
      their women and their children
    → their flocks and their herds
      and all their substance—save it were their land—
      unto one place

Thus the lack of a connecting and in Mosiah 22:8 is supported by usage elsewhere in the text.