In this passage, the present participial saying is repeated in the earliest textual sources (including 𝓞). Elsewhere in the text, saying is never repeated like this. In most cases, a quote (direct or indirect) immediately follows saying, although in nine cases there is an intervening prepositional phrase headed by unto that describes who is being addressed:
The example here in Alma 44:13 is the only one that has an additional prepositional phrase (“with a loud voice”). Perhaps this is the reason why the saying is repeated here.
Another possibility is that the first saying is an error for crying. There are 42 examples in the text where saying is preceded in the sentence by the verb cry, and in ten instances there is a reference to the voice:
Also notice the nearly identical phraseology in Alma 46:19 (“waving the rent of his garment in the air … and crying with a loud voice saying …”). If there is an error in Alma 44:13, the most likely possibility is that early in the transmission of the text an original crying was replaced by saying in anticipation of the actual saying that followed the prepositional phrase “with a loud voice”.
We should note that the difficulty here in Alma 44:13 is not the use of the verb say with the prepositional phrase “with a loud voice”, since that phraseology is found elsewhere in the text:
There is nothing inherently wrong with the phraseology “to say with a loud voice”. Ultimately, it is the repetition of the saying that makes Alma 44:13 a difficult reading.
There are four other Book of Mormon passages where saying is repeated, but in each of these cases the repeated saying is within a quote introduced by the first saying (the last one involves a quote within a quote):
These examples are not instances of a redundant repetition of saying. It is also worth noting that the example in Alma 7:9 shows that we can get repetition of the verb say (“the Spirit hath said this much unto me saying …”). And there is another example in the text of “say ... saying”, although in that case there is an intervening participial phrase, “calling them by name”:
The biblical text (in the King James version) also has instances of “say ... saying”:
But there are no instances of “saying … saying” except as a quote within a quote, as in “and Reuben answered them saying : spake I not unto you saying …” (Genesis 42:22).
Of particular importance here is evidence in the Book of Mormon manuscripts that a verb could be replaced by the verb say, at least momentarily, in anticipation of the present participle saying. In the following example, scribe 3 of 𝓞 initially took down Joseph Smith’s dictation by replacing spake with said, apparently because of the following saying:
As described under 1 Nephi 7:1, “spake … saying” is the expected Book of Mormon expression whenever there is a following direct quote (as in 1 Nephi 11:31). In the original manuscript, the preceding verb spake was momentarily replaced by the simple past-tense form said, but the choice of the verb itself, not its form, was determined by the nearby saying. Similarly, one could argue that in Alma 44:13, the form of the verb cry was replaced by the corresponding form of the verb say (that is, crying was replaced by saying) in anticipation of the following saying; in this case, both verbs happen to take the same form, the present participle.
Since the completely redundant repetition of saying is never found elsewhere in the scriptures, the critical text will assume that there is some primitive error here in Alma 44:13. Based on usage elsewhere in the text, the most plausible emendation is that the first saying read crying in the original text. The critical text will accept this emendation.
Summary: Emend Alma 44:13 to read crying in place of the first saying (thus “crying unto them with a loud voice saying …”); usage elsewhere supports crying, especially one nearby case that reads “and crying with a loud voice saying …” (Alma 46:19).