Keith and Joan Skousen (personal communication, 2 April 2001) suggest that there may be some mistake here in Alma 62:15: namely, the first took (set in bold) could be an error for met (thus “they met a large body of men of the Lamanites and slew many of them”). To be sure, there is something strange about the phraseology “they took a large body of men of the Lamanites”. Of course, one army can meet another one, as in Alma 43:41: “Moroni and his army met the army of the Lamanites in the valley on the other side of the river Sidon”. Overall, the verb meet is used 29 times in the text to refer to military forces confronting each other in battle, but never once in the sense of accidentally coming upon each other, as seems to be the meaning here in Alma 62:15. Perhaps this army of Lamanites was being sent to the city of Nephihah as reinforcements and was carrying extra provisions for the city, which would mean that this Lamanite army had no intention, at least at that time, of attacking the Nephites (I owe this suggested interpretation to Alison Coutts). Another possible emendation for took is overtook. A misreading of overtook as took could have readily occurred when Oliver Cowdery was copying the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟. We don’t have 𝓞 for this particular passage, but it could have read as follows:
Alma 62:15–16 (reconstructed 𝓞 as emended)
& it came to pass that as they were marching towards the land they overtook
a large body of men of the Lamanites & slew many of them & took their pro
-visions & their weopons of war & it came to pass after they had took them they caused them to enter into a covenant that they would no more take up
The length of the line here is based on the reconstructed lines for a nearby fragment of 𝓞 for Alma 62:17–18 (on page 361ªof 𝓞). The reconstruction for Alma 62:15–16 shows that for each of the next two lines in 𝓞, underneath the proposed overtook, there would have been an occurrence of took (as indicated above in bold). So when Oliver copied the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟, his eye could have easily glanced down one or two lines, thus prompting him to replace overtook with took. (For discussion of the later grammatical emendation of had took to had taken, see under Alma 47:1.) There are a number of examples in the text of the verb overtake being used to refer to pursuing and then slaying a foe:
In fact, every instance of the verb overtake in the Book of Mormon text refers to catching up with someone who is being pursued. There are 17 occurrences that deal with an actual physical chase, including the four listed above; in addition, there are a couple of passages where the verb overtake metaphorically refers to the impossibility of escaping God’s justice and judgments (3 Nephi 29:4 and Mormon 4:5). For none of these examples is there any sense of a chance meeting out in the open, as seems to be the case in Alma 62:15: Moroni and Parhoron just happened to come upon this large body of Lamanite soldiers; they had not been pursuing them. Thus the restricted use of the verb overtake everywhere else in the text makes the emendation of took to overtook in Alma 62:15 less attractive and has made me reconsider my earlier idea that overtook was the original reading here.
Often the verb take is used in contrast to slay —that is, enemy combatants are either slain or taken as prisoners:
There are two passages where the verb take is used in conjunction with the verb slay, but these cases refer to taking hold of people who are in buildings rather than out in the open:
Since neither met nor overtook works that well as an emendation for took, it is probably best to accept the verb take as appropriate for seizing a large body of men in the open. We can find two similar uses of the verb take with the meaning ‘seize’, although in both these cases the clear intention of the leader is to seek after a group of people:
We should also note that the occurrence of took in Alma 62:16 provides direct support for the original first took in verse 15. Verse 16 states that “after they had took them / they caused them to enter into a covenant”. Both occurrences of the object pronoun them refer to the Lamanites who had been taken prisoners, not to the provisions and weapons that were also taken (“and took their provisions and their weapons of war”). If the original verb in verse 15 had been either met or overtook, then the reader could interpret the them in “after they had took them” as referring to the provisions and weapons, which would seem odd given the following “they caused them to enter into a covenant”.
The Oxford English Dictionary, under definition 8b for the verb take, lists the obsolete meaning ‘to come upon suddenly, overtake, catch’. The OED lists the following example from the 1611 King James Apocrypha where the verb take has a meaning that is similar to the one used in Alma 62:15:
In other words, the verb take can have the meaning ‘overtake’. Nonetheless, it should be pointed out that all the citations listed under definition 8b in the OED, dating from about 1533 through 1890, refer to some act of nature (such as wind, storm, or night) as “taking someone”. There are no citations listed that refer to a person “taking someone”. Even so, the OED refers to certain set expressions that can be used in this way, such as the phrase “to take someone by surprise”.
Thus the original first took in Alma 62:15 seems to be correct, despite the tendency for modern readers to find its use here unexpected. The critical text will accept the earliest extant reading for this passage, namely, the verb take in “they took a large body of men of the Lamanites and slew many of them”.
Summary: Despite its unusualness, the first occurrence of took in Alma 62:15 will be maintained; even though Moroni and Parhoron had not been pursuing this large body of Lamanites soldiers prior to coming upon them, they did seize these soldiers, with the result that the verb take will work; based on usage elsewhere in the text, possible emendations such as met and overtook would create readings that would be even more exceptional in usage.