I will state from the get-go I do not believe that the Isaiah text in the Book of Mormon is free from any blemish. I do believe that there are mistakes therein, but many of these can be explained by the types of mistakes ancient scribes would make, in the case of the brass plates, a scribe rendering Hebrew Isaiah into a form of Egyptian. With this in mind, let us examine two purported KJV errors in the Book of Mormon.
Isa 50:2 in the KJV reads:
Wherefore, when I
came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand
shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold,
at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish
stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
When this verse is quoted in 2 Nephi 7:2,
we read:
Wherefore when I
came, there was no man; when I called, yea, there was none to answer. O house
of Israel, is my hand shortened at all that it cannot be redeemed? or have I no
power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a
wilderness and their fish to stink because the waters are dried up and their
dieth because of thirst.
According to David P. Wright in his “Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, or, Joseph Smith in Isaiah” essay, this is an example of Joseph Smith being dependent upon the KJV and (errantly) interacting with the italicised words thereof. The argument goes that, as the Book of Mormon inverts the italicized words and reads as a statement rather than a question—this reading depends on the ambiguity/polysemy of the English “wherefore” where this word can be an interrogative (“why?”) or a conjunction, which is not possible for Hebrew מַדּוּעַ. This reveals the Book of Mormon’s dependence on the KJV.
The LXX reads:
τί ὅτι ἦλθον καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἄνθρωπος ἐκάλεσα
καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ὑπακούων μὴ οὐκ ἰσχύει ἡ χείρ μου τοῦ ῥύσασθαι ἢ οὐκ ἰσχύω τοῦ ἐξελέσθαι
ἰδοὺ τῇ ἀπειλῇ μου ἐξερημώσω τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ θήσω ποταμοὺς ἐρήμους καὶ ξηρανθήσονται
οἱ ἰχθύες αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ μὴ εἶναι ὕδωρ καὶ ἀποθανοῦνται ἐν δίψει
The NETS renders the verse thusly:
Why was it that I came and no man
was there? I called, and there was none to answer? Is not my hand strong to
deliver? Or am I not strong to rescue? Look, by my threat I will make the sea
desolate, and the rivers I will make deserts, and their fish shall be dried up
because there is no water, and they will die by thirst.
That the Book of Mormon’s rendition of this text is an error and
reflective of Commenting on Isa 50:2 in the Book of Mormon, Carol Ellertson
noted:
B of M changes the question of
M[asoretic], Q[umran] and LXX to a statement.
The Hebrew מַדּוּעַ and the Greek τι indicates a question.
The archaic English "Wherefore"
means "what" or "why." the modern meaning is "for that
cause or reason." The LXX English translation structures the phrase like
the Book of Mormon, but inflects it as a question. B of M's "their
rivers" antecedent is "House of Israel" which is
added. He can dry up their "rivers" and their waters so the fish die.
"And" before "fish" in B of M is supported by
LXX. (Carol F. Ellertson, The
Isaiah Passages in the Book of Mormon: A Non-Aligned Text [M.A. Thesis,
BYU, 2001], 160)
In Isa 5:9, the KJV and the Book of Mormon renders the verse as follows:
In mine ears said the Lord
of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair,
without inhabitant. (KJV)
In mine ears saith the
Lord of Hosts: Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities
without inhabitant. (2 Nephi 15:9)
According
to some critics, this variant is another error made by Joseph Smith, not an
ancient scribe. The reasoning goes that the KJV reads “many houses shall be
desolate, even great and fair,
without inhabitant.” The adjectives “fair and great” (Hebrew: גְּדֹלִים וְטוֹבִים) agree with the masculine plural noun “houses” (בָּתִּים) in the first clause. The noun “cities” (ערִים) is feminine and requires adjectives with different readings.
Again, there is a possibility that this is reflective
of the type of variant/error an ancient scribe would make:
B
of M replaces even with and. Also "great and
fair refers to cities" instead of houses. LXX has "many and
fair houses." Perhaps houses is being used in parallel position with
cities. This verse in B of M is in synonymous parallel poetic construction.
(See Parry p. iii, 82). M is missing this poetic element which is pervasive in
Hebrew Scripture:
a)
many houses b) desolate
a)
cities b) without inhabitant.
(Ibid., 104)
