Wednesday, September 7, 2022

The Text of Isaiah 3:10 in 2 Nephi 13:10

  

Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. (Isa 3:10)

 

Say unto the righteous that it is well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. (2 Nephi 13:10)

 

Commenting on the difference between KJV and Book of Mormon Isaiah, John Tvedntes notes that the

 

KJV reads "to the righteous", even though the preposition is not found in MT (ṣdyq). BM emphasizes the existence of the preposition by using the longer form "unto". Indeed, IQIsa has the preposition in a superscript (lṣdyq). (John A. Tvedtnes, The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon [Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1981], 30)

 

The MT reads:

 

‎אִמְר֥וּ צַדִּ֖יק כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּֽי־פְרִ֥י מַעַלְלֵיהֶ֖ם יֹאכֵֽלוּ

 

The Dead Sea Scrolls text reads (with the preposition l- highlighted):

 

אמורו לצדיק כיא טוב כיא פרי מעלליהמה יאכלו

 

Tvedtnes (ibid., 30) also notes that the preposition is also found in the Peshitta (lṣdyqy') and that the Peshitta also "has the noun in plural, confirming BM 'them' instead of 'him.'"

 

Showing that he is unable to give Joseph Smith (who he presumes to be the author of the Book of Mormon) any credit, David P. Wright, attempting to downplay this, notes that the prepositions in the Peshitta

 

do not mean their underlying Hebrew texts had prepositions; these texts may be construing according to sense. Though the MT does not have a preposition, it must be construed with one. (David P. Wright, "Appendix: Supposed Evidence from Ancient Manuscripts and Hebrew Language and Style," note 139)

 

Commenting on Isa 3:10 in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Donald W. Parry wrote:

 

צַדִּ֖יק MT LXX σθ’ | לצדיק 1QIsaa

 

צַדִּ֖יק -1QIsaa deviates from MT with a superscripted lamed that is attached to צדיק (i.e., לצדיק), designed by a scribe to correspond to לרשע in v. 11, thus facilitating the text. (Donald W. Parry, Exploring the Isaiah Scrolls and Their Textual Variants [Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible 3; Leiden: Brill, 2020], 55)