Here in verse 16 for the 1905 LDS edition, given away was set as given way. This change may have been a typo since the occurrence of given away earlier in verse 15 was not changed to given way. Yet it is possible that the first instance of given away was left because there was no following infinitive clause that would have highlighted the strangeness of given away. The second instance of given away is followed by an infinitive clause, “to the enticing of him who art seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless woe”.
The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that give away is a mistake for give way when the meaning is ‘to yield’, which is the case here in Helaman 7:16. Nonetheless, the expression does exist, despite its secondary development. The more recent citations in the OED (see under definition 54f for the verb give) are American, but the first two quotes are from British authors (here the spelling is regularized and other accidentals are ignored):
There is an example of “give away” in the Book of Mormon that takes the normally expected meaning in English:
Elsewhere the Book of Mormon text has a number of instances of give way with the expected meaning ‘to yield’:
This last example, by the way, shows a tendency for Oliver Cowdery to accidentally write gave away instead of gave way. In 3 Nephi 17:12, Oliver started to write the initial a of away, but he immediately caught his error, erased the half-formed a and overwrote it with a w, and then finished by writing inline the rest of the word way.
Another possibility is that the are in Helaman 7:15 could be a mistake for have. All other instances of “give (a)way” in the Book of Mormon occur in the active voice. Nor is the passive voice found in any of the historical instances cited above. Thus verse 15 may have originally read “ye have given away”:
This emendation is supported by the usage in the next verse:
The use of the be verb as the perfect helping verb is restricted to verbs of motion or change of state in Early Modern English (as in “Christ is come” rather than “Christ has come”). The use of “are given” is probably not the semantic equivalent of the proposed “have given” since the verb give is not a verb of motion or change of state.
Probably the best solution as far as verse 15 is concerned is to leave the earliest reading, especially since “are given away” can be interpreted as meaning ‘being in the state of having given way’. The critical text will restore the original “have given away” in verse 16, thus accepting in both verses the original adverbial away rather than way, especially since there is evidence from Early Modern English up into 20th-century English for “give away” as a substitute for the historically earlier “give way”.
Summary: Restore in Helaman 7:16 the original reading with its use of nonstandard away rather than standard way: “how could ye have given away to the enticing of him”; similarly, the occurrence of away in the previous verse should be maintained: “ye had ought to marvel because ye are given away”; the use in verse 15 of are given instead of have given should also be maintained.