And the Lord said
unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also
in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole
and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye
shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood. (Ether 2:20)
Bryan Linton
Baggaley, a licensed contractor and licensed professional engineer, offered the
following solution to a question many readers of this verse often have:
It is commonly asked why the Lord waited until
the barges were constructed before directing the Jaredites to cut a hole in the
top and a hole in the bottom. Why not install the hole during construction? The
Lord wanted to test and build the Jaredites’ faith. However, there may be
engineering answers as well. The hull of the barges were likely constructed
using timbers laminated and sealed together. Allowing the timbers to bind and
seal together creating a more uniform material prior to cutting a round hole
would provide for optimal stress distribution around the hole. This assumes the
barges were made of wood—which the record does not specify except to say they
were the “length of a tree” (Ether 2:17). (Bryan L. Baggaley, Building Faith Like the Brother of Jared [Springville,
Utah: CFI, 2020], 77 n. 1)
Whenever I discuss the barges of the Jaredites, I always try to share this video on youtube, too:
Brother of Jared, Barges, Ether, Book of Mormon, LDS