In his review of David Charles Gore, The Voice of the People: Political Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2019), Alan Goff wrote the following which adds further light on the use of "Mosiah" in the Book of Mormon, in terms of it denoting a saviour/deliverer in Hebrew:
King
Mosiah and the Mosiahim of the Book of Judges
The biblical Gideon and the Book of Mormon Gideon do have some allusive connections that indicate an intertextual association we ought to catch. The book of Judges details the rise of ad hoc deliverers who save the Israelites from Midianites, Philistines, or other neighboring threats. The word often used for this “deliverer” is mosiah, which can be translated “savior.” The “‘deliverer’ and ‘judge’ are identical” to the Deuteronomist more generally and in Judges 2:16 in particular (A. D. H. Mayes, “The Period of the Judges and the Rise of the Monarchy,” Israelite and Judaean History, eds. John H. Hayes and J. Maxwell Miller (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), 289, (Judges 2:16 uses yasha, which is the same root as mosiah). Both are deliverers who “save” their people from bondage (to King Noah and to the Midianites) (Judges 6:14). Both are mosiahs from the tribe of Manasseh (if we assume the Gideon in the book of Mosiah is a Nephite [as opposed to, say, a Mulekite] (see also Judges 6:15). All the Zeniffites desired to return to possess the land of the Nephites’ first inheritance (if we generalize from Zeniff’s heritage to the larger group of Zeniffites, which ought to be a reliable generalization, for “Zeniff … was made king over this people, he being over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers” (Mosiah 7:21)). Mosiah 12:1–2 presents to the people under Limhi’s kingship a dilemma. In bondage to the Lamanites, Limhi consults how they might “deliver” themselves. Gideon comes forward to suggest a strategy by which “I will be thy servant and deliver this people out of bondage” (Mosiah 22:4), much as the biblical Gideon serves as a deliverer, the Israelites from Midianite bondage; and the angel declares to Gideon, “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save [yasha’] Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” (Judges 6:14). Later, when the Book of Mormon Gideon is reintroduced in his confrontation with Nehor, the reader is reminded that “it was he who was an instrument in the hands of God in delivering the people of Limhi out of bondage” (Alma 1:8). Remember also that the biblical Gideon was a charismatic judge and savior of the Northern tribe of Manasseh (Judges 6:15; see also Alma 10:3, where Nephi’s genealogy notes his descent from Manasseh).
These stories of deliverer/saviors in the book of Judges likely concerned judges and events occurring in the northern tribal territories and collected by “prophetic groups in the northern kingdom." (Ibid., 310) Gideon, like all the savior/judges in the book of Judges, is God’s answer to the people’s cries for deliverance; then he leads the Israelite army to victory against their oppressors. (S. Talmon, “Kingship and the Ideology of the State,” World History of the Jewish People, ed. Abraham Malamat, vol. 5 (Jerusalem, ISR: Masada, 1979), 8) Unlike the biblical Gideon, the Book of Mormon Gideon demonstrates no ambivalent ambition for dynastic glory. And Gore is right that the reader ought to see in the biblical Gideon a conflation of kingship and idol worship as related-but-different forms of idolatry (p. 147). And, as Gore notes, much biblical criticism of Judges sees in Gideon a proto-king. “Gideon’s act of refusing the monarchy for himself and his posterity harkens back to the moment just following his sacred calling. His first public act, done under cover of darkness, is to destroy the grove and altar to Baal that belonged to his father, Joash” (p. 148). Gideon is often seen as a good Yahwist because he overthrows the pagan altars (Judges 6:25–32). But his role as anti-idolatry leader is more ambiguous.
Gideon
serves as a narrative bridge between the period of kingship and judgeship
in the Book of Mormon. The biblical Gideon serves a similar
narrative function. Gore usefully notes the essential allusive connection
between the two Gideons: the Book of Mormon Gideon “was likewise not
one to submit to authority or idolatry. He appears to have accepted only the
rule of just men. His refusal of Nehor links the latter with King Noah,
who was also prone to flattery and dependent on the support of those whom he
regarded as existing primarily for that purpose” (p. 150). Gore devotes much of
his discussion of the Book of Mormon Gideon to his role in
confronting Nehor. But more emphasis should be placed on his earlier function
in confronting King Noah and delivering the people of Limhi from Lamanite
bondage. This Gideon is also a narrative bridge from kingship to
judgeship. (Alan
Goff, "Vox
Populi and Vox Dei: Allusive Explorations of Biblical and Book of Mormon
Politeias," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and
Scholarship 47 [2021]: 42-44)
