Here verse 12 has the phrase “the bands of iniquity”, but verse 13 has two uses of bonds referring to iniquity (“these bonds” and “the bonds of iniquity”). The two occurrences of bonds implies that the bands in verse 12 could have read as bonds in the original text. The visual similarity of the scribal a’s and o’s could have readily led here in Mosiah 23:12–13 to a mix-up between bands and bonds. In fact, there is one case of variation in the text between band and bond:
Evidence elsewhere in the Book of Mormon argues that for Mormon 9:13 the original text probably read “from this eternal band of death” (for discussion, see that passage). The important point from this example is that scribe 2 of 𝓟 and the 1830 typesetter read the original manuscript differently, thus confirming that mix-ups between band and bond are possible.
In support of emending “the bands of iniquity” in Mosiah 23:12 to “the bonds of iniquity”, we observe that all other specific occurrences of “bands/bonds of iniquity” read bonds, not bands:
Note, in particular, that three of these cases read exactly alike: “in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity”, which parallels the King James usage in Acts 8:23: “for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity”—except that the King James version and the original Greek have the singular bond rather than the plural bonds.
On the other hand, for these five cases of “bonds of iniquity”, the associated verb is not bind. When the verb is bind, we get bands in the Book of Mormon rather than bonds (I include here the case in Mosiah 23:12):
The three other examples involving the verb bind argue that the use of bands in Mosiah 23:12 may be correct, despite the fact that the following verse reads “these bonds” and “the bonds of iniquity”. The critical text will therefore maintain the unique occurrence of “the bands of iniquity” in Mosiah 23:12.
The possibility of a choice between bonds and bands is found elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text. For instance, when referring to physical bonds, there are 11 cases of bands and 3 of bonds (the instances of bonds are all in the second half of the book of Alma and are each marked below with an asterisk):
Thus competition between bands and bonds seems to be inherent within the text. Although Mosiah 23:12–13 deals with spiritual bonds, the variation regarding physical bonds suggests that we should in each case allow the earliest textual sources to determine whether the word is band(s) or bond(s). The critical text will thus allow for variation with respect to physical and spiritual bonds.
Variation between band(s) and bond(s) was much more prevalent in earlier English. Under the noun band, the Oxford English Dictionary explains that “band and bond were at first merely phonetic variants … but are now [by the 1880s] largely differentiated in use”. We find that the King James Bible, like the Book of Mormon, shows some variation with respect to band and bond, as in the following expression that occurs four times in the Old Testament:
The first of the four occurrences has bands, the rest bonds. This example supports the variation with respect to “bands/bonds of iniquity” in the Book of Mormon text, which has one occurrence of bands (here in Mosiah 23:12) but five of bonds.
Summary: Maintain in Mosiah 23:12 the unique occurrence of “the bands of iniquity”, the reading of all the (extant) textual sources; this use of bands rather than bonds is consistent with usage elsewhere in the text (namely, whenever the associated verb is bind, we have bands rather than bonds).