Isa 2:8-9 (KJV):
Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their
own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
And
the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive
them not.
1830
Book of Mormon (p. 87)
Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their
own hands that which their own fingers have made:
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself
not: therefore forgive him not.
1981
Book of Mormon
Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of
their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
And the mean man boweth not down, and the great man humbleth
himself not, therefore, forgive him not.
Skousen
(2009), p. 108
Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their
own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
And the mean man boweth down and the great man humbleth himself;
therefore forgive them not.
Their land also is full of idols they worship the work of their
own hands that which their own fingers have made
And the mean men boweth ^not^ down and the great man humbleth
himself not therefore forgive him not
Commenting
on 2 Nephi 12:8-9, Skousen wrote that:
From the point of view of parallelism and consistency, there are
two possible emendations for the earliest Book of Mormon text: (1) there were
three not ’s, one in each clause (as in the current text); or (2) there was
only one not, in the last clause (as in the King James Bible). The first
reading works if the reader interprets the first two clauses as a refusal to
bow down and humble oneself before God, while the second reading works if the
reader interprets the first two clauses as bowing and humbling oneself before
idols instead of God. The immediately preceding verse (2 Nephi 12:8)
suggests that in the language of the King James Bible the second interpretation
is the intended one since it refers to the worshipping of idols (“their land
also is full of idols / they worship the work of their own hands / that which
their own fingers have made”).
This interpretation suggests that the not in the second
clause is an error, possibly in anticipation of the not at the end of the third
clause. This error could have occurred in the early transmission of the Book of
Mormon text, perhaps while copying the text to the printer’s manuscript or even
while taking down Joseph Smith’s dictation. Of course, it is also possible that
the original manuscript (which is not extant here) had three not’s, one
for each clause, so that the original reading of the
printer’s manuscript represents a simple loss of the
not in the first clause and Joseph Smith’s 1837 emendation represents a
restoration of the original Book of Mormon text.
Elsewhere in the manuscripts, we have examples of not being added
and deleted. The more common change is to drop the not, but there are also a
few examples of not being incorrectly added in the manuscripts [e.g.,
Mosiah 26:9; 3 Nephi 7:11] . . . Oliver Cowdery could
have inserted the not in the second
clause in 2 Nephi 12:9 while copying from
[the Original Manuscript] into [the Printer’s Manuscript], perhaps
in anticipation of the not in the following (third) clause.
According to this analysis, the text here for 2 Nephi 12:9
was originally in agreement with the King James text, with only one not(at
the end of the third clause). And the King James reading also makes sense,
given the reference in the previous verse to worshipping idols.
(Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon
Part Two: 2 Nephi 11 – Mosiah 16, p. 658, comments in square brackets added)
