There are
instances in the Book of Mormon where plural nouns are coupled with a verb, not
in the plural, but the singular, including some texts that describe the
persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit as being “is” not “are” one God. This is
called “Deflected Agreement.” As Andrew Smith noted in his excellent article on
this topic:
Deflected agreement is a technical term
borrowed from the Arabic linguistics community that is also descriptive of a
particular phenomenon in classical Hebrew. This term describes a grammatical
principle generally referred to by Arab linguists as “feminine singular agreement
with nonhuman plurals.” The basis of grammatical agreement in Semitic languages
is that words from different categories or parts of speech (nouns, verbs,
adjectives, etc.), when grammatically juxtaposed to one another, must agree in
a number of details: number, gender, and, to a certain degree, definiteness. A
type of DA, wherein parts of speech are grammatically juxtaposed but do not
agree in number or gender, is also seen in biblical Hebrew, albeit more rarely.
According to Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar,
“Plurals of names of animals or things, and of abstracts, whether they be
masculine or feminine, are frequently construed with the feminine singular of
the verbal predicate.” Similarly, the grammar also notes that “the suffix of
the 3rd person singular feminine (as also the separate pronoun [hîʾ] . . .) sometimes refers
in a general sense to the verbal idea contained in a preceding sentence (corresponding
to our it). . . . Elsewhere the suffix of the 3rd singular feminine refers to
the plurals of things . . . and to the plurals of names of animals.”
These grammatical principles will be illustrated by the following from the
Hebrew Bible:
Joel 1:20
Transliteration (Hebrew):
bahămôt
śādeh taʿărôg
Parsing of individual words: bahămôt (fem pl noun construct state) śādeh (masc sing noun) taʿărôg (3rd fem sing imperfect verb)
Translation: the beasts of the field desire
Psalm 37:31
Transliteration (Hebrew):
lōʾ timʿad
ʾăšūrāyw
Parsing: lōʾ
(negative particle) timʿad (3rd fem
sing imperfect verb) ʾăšūrāyw (masc
pl noun + 3rd person masc sing possessive)
Translation: his steps do not slide
Jeremiah
12:4
Transliteration (Hebrew): sāptâ bĕhēmôt wāʿôp
Parsing: sāptâ
(3rd fem sing perfect verb) bĕhēmôt
(fem pl noun) wā (conjunctive
particle) -ʿôp (masc sing collective
noun)
Translation: the beasts and birds are
consumed
Jeremiah
36:23
Transliteration (Hebrew): kiqrôʾ yĕhûdî šālōš dĕlātôt wĕʾabāʿâ yiqrāʿehā
bĕtaʿar hassōpēr
Parsing: kiqrôʾ
(qal infinitive verb, construct) yĕhûdî
šālōš dĕlātôt (fem pl noun) wĕʾabāʿâ
yiqrāʿehā (3rd masc sing imperfect verb + 3rd fem sing suffix) bĕtaʿar hassōpēr
Translation: when Yehudi had read three or
four leaves, he cut it (the leaves) with the penknife. (Andrew C. Smith,
"Deflected Agreement in the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of
Mormon Studies, 21/2 [2012]:40-57, here, pp. 42-43)
