In the Book of Mormon, we have some placenames that are translated, not transliterated, such as Desolation and Bountiful. This phenomenon in a translated text is not out of the ordinary. Commenting on Bethel (“house of God/El”) being translated, at times, as Οἶκος θεοῦ (Gen 28:19 LXX) and sometimes transliterated (Βαιθηλ (Gen 35:7 LXX]), Jože Krašovec noted that:
The designation of the place
Bethel “the House of God” as El-Bethel “the God of Bethel” means that the place
has been equated with the God venerated in Bethel by Jacob and his family. The
name Allon-bacuth, on the other hand, presumably memorializes the mourning
rites that accompanied the death of the old nurse who became part of the family
of Jacob.
The LXX and Vg ignore renaming the
place by adding a word ‘ēl before the name Bethel; the LXX transcribes
the name as Baithél, even though the same name is translated as Oîkos
Theoû at Gen 28:19, LXXO has filled the lacuna with the word ischyós
“strong, powerful” under the asterisk. However, in the Vg the name is transliterated
as Bethel as Gen 28:19, translated Domus Dei at Gen 35:7. The
Targums show variations: while TgO retains the complete Hebrew form of the name
of the name, T[ar]g[um]N[eofiti] omits the antecedent word ‘ēl, and TgPsJ uses the
paraphrase “EL who caused his Shekinah to dwell in Bethel.” Most later
translations transliterate the complete name, some without considering ‘ēl.
(Jože Krašovec, The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names [Library of
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 418; London: T&T Clark, 2010, 2019], 27)
