for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites because of their much provision which they had laid up in store [& 1|
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQR|and PS|And T] because of the scantiness of provisions among the robbers for behold they had nothing save it were meat for their subsistence
The printer’s manuscript has an and connecting the two because-of phrases. The 1830 edition is missing this and, but it was restored in the 1908 RLDS edition and in the
1981 LDS edition. Since the greater tendency in the transmission of the text from 𝓞 into 𝓟 was to accidentally omit small words rather than to add them, the original manuscript probably had the
ampersand here. More specifically, there are many more examples of the 1830 typesetter omitting and than of Oliver Cowdery adding and; for some statistics, see under 3 Nephi
3:12.
Elsewhere in the original text there are seven examples where the text reads “because of X and because of Y”; six of these are cases of conjoined because-of
prepositional phrases (the exception is marked below with an asterisk):
- 1 Nephi 15:4
- and now I Nephi was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts and also because of the things which I had seen
- 1 Nephi 16:35
- and it came to pass that the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly because of the loss of their father and because of their afflictions in the
wilderness
- * 2 Nephi 28:11–12
- yea they have all gone out of the way they have become corrupted [ 1|. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] because of pride [ 1|, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and because of
false teachers and false doctrine their churches have become corrupted
- [As discussed under 2 Nephi 28:11–12, the phrase “because of pride” actually belongs to the sentence ending verse 11, while the phrase “because of false teachers and false doctrine”
belongs to the following sentence. So this is not a case of conjoined because-of prepositional phrases.]
- Jacob 5:59
- and this I do that perhaps the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness [ 1|; ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and because of the
change of the branches that the good may overcome the evil
- [As discussed under Jacob 5:59, there should be no punctuation, not even a comma, between the two conjoined because-of prepositional phrases in this passage.]
- 3 Nephi 4:7
- and great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi because of their armor and because of their being dyed in blood
- 3 Nephi 16:7
- behold because of their belief in me / saith the Father and because of the unbelief of you / O house of Israel in the latter day shall the truth come
unto the Gentiles
- 4 Nephi 1:28
- and this church did multiply exceedingly because of iniquity and because of the power of Satan which did get hold upon their hearts
On the other hand, there is one case elsewhere in the text where a conjoined because of lacks a connector:
- Mormon 2:27
- and my heart did sorrow because of this the great calamity of my people because of their wickedness and their abominations but behold we did go forth
against the Lamanites and the robbers of Gaddianton
We should note that there is one other instance of “because of X / because of Y” in the text, but in this case the second because-of prepositional phrase could be interpreted as
modifying the first one (that is, the text may be explaining that the source of the Nephites’ pride was their riches):
- Helaman 4:12
- and it was because of the pride of their hearts [ 1|, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] because of their exceeding riches yea it was because of their oppression to
the poor …
In general, we expect the and before the conjoined because of here in 3 Nephi 4:19, although the asyndetic case is also possible. Since transmission errors favor the loss of
and by the 1830 typesetter, the critical text will maintain the and in this passage.
