Isaiah 48:8 (= 1 Nephi 20:8) in the Book of Mormon

Isa 48:8 reads:

 

Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

 

1 Nephi 20:8, a quotation of this verse, reads slightly differently:

 

Yea, and thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time thine ear was not opened; for I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

 

In his study of Isaiah variants in the Book of Mormon, John A. Tvedtnes noted that:

 

KJV’s "yea" reflects MT gm, while BM’s "yea and" is the same as IQIsa w-gm. (John A. Tvedtnes, The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon [Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1981], 67)

 

 

Tvedtnes is correct that 1QIsa^a reads וגם, not גם per the MT. The following is from Col. XL, line 13 of 1QIsa^a taken from The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa^a): A New Edition, ed. Donald W. Parry and Elisha Qimron (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 32; Leiden: Brill, 1998), 80:

 

The conjunction “and” also appears in the beginning of Isa 48:8 in Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English (New York: HarperOne, 1999):

 

And neither had you heard, nor did you know, nor was your ear uncovered long ago. Indeed, I knew that you would act very deceitfully, and they would call you a rebel from the womb. (Logos Bible Software edition)