Alma 2:18 Textual Variants

Here the 1905 LDS edition accidentally dropped the indefinite article a in the phrase “with a great slaughter”. This omission has been maintained up through the present LDS edition (1981). Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, phrases involving great and slaughter all have an article, either the indefinite a /an (six times) or the definite the (four times):

• Mosiah 10:20 with a great slaughter
• Alma 59:7 with an exceeding great slaughter
• Alma 60:5 great has been the slaughter among our people
• Alma 62:38 with a great slaughter
• Helaman 1:27 with a great slaughter
• Helaman 4:11 the great slaughter which was among them
• 3 Nephi 4:11 great and terrible was the slaughter thereof
• 3 Nephi 4:11 so great a slaughter among all the people of Lehi
• 3 Nephi 4:24 the great slaughter which had been made among them
• Mormon 4:21 with an exceeding great slaughter

In none of these cases do we find slaughter without a determiner. The critical text will restore the indefinite article a here in Alma 2:18 (“with a great slaughter”).