Mosiah 24:16 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
the voice of the Lord came unto them again saying : be of good comfort for on the morrow I will deliver [thee >js you 1|thee A|you BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] out of bondage

As discussed under 1 Nephi 3:29, the original Book of Mormon text occasionally used the historically singular pronoun thou for plural referents. Here in Mosiah 24:16 is one more example, which Joseph Smith emended to you in his editing for the 1837 edition. The critical text will restore such plural uses of thou whenever they are supported by the earliest textual sources, even in cases where the nearby text uses the historically plural ye, you, and your(s). For instance, with respect to this example of thee in Mosiah 24:16, the preceding verses 13 and 14 consistently have the historically plural forms: “your heads”, “which ye have made”, “your shoulders”, “you cannot feel them”, “your backs”, “you are in bondage”, “ye may stand”, and “ye may know”. For a complete list of cases where the earliest text uses the plural thou, see under thou in volume 3.

Summary: Restore the pronoun form thee in Mosiah 24:16, even though it refers to more than one person; such usage is found fairly often in the original text.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 3

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