The Archaic Vocabulary of the Book of Mormon (OPEN)

Maxwell Institute ^ | Royal Skousen

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The Archaic Vocabulary of the Book of Mormon

Royal Skousen

Insights Volume - 25, Issue - 5Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In my work as editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project (which began in 1988), I was initially interested in discovering the original English-language text of the book. But I soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to fully recover the original text by scholarly means, in large part because only 28 percent of the original manuscript is extant. In addition, there are obvious errors in the original manuscript itself that require conjectural emendation. As I have worked on the text of the Book of Mormon, I have come to some surprising conclusions regarding the nature of the original text itself, conclusions that I had not at all expected when I started my work transcribing the original and printer's manuscripts of the Book of Mormon:

1. The original manuscript supports the hypothesis that the text was given to Joseph Smith word for word and that he could see the spelling of at least the Book of Mormon names (in support of what witnesses of the translation process claimed about Joseph's translation).

2. The original text is much more consistent and systematic in expression than has ever been realized.

3. The original text includes unique kinds of expression that appear to be uncharacteristic of English in any time and place; some of these expressions are Hebraistic in nature.

For some discussion of these findings, see the following two articles of mine: "Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript," in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds, pages 61—93 (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1997); and "The Systematic Text of the Book of Mormon," in Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts, pages 45—66 (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002).

Over the past two years, I have discovered evidence for a fourth significant conclusion about the original text:

4. The original vocabulary of the Book of Mormon appears to derive from the 1500s and 1600s, not from the 1800s.

This last finding is quite remarkable. Lexical evidence suggests that the original text contained a number of expressions and words with meanings that were lost from the English language by 1700. On the other hand, I have not been able thus far to find word meanings and expressions in the text that are known to have entered the English language after the early 1700s.

In the following sampling, I list some of the clearest examples in the Book of Mormon of this archaic vocabulary from the 1500s and 1600s. (In this discussion, I exclude, of course, archaic words such as besom 'broom' that are found in direct quotations from the King James Bible.) For each word and its meaning, I provide citations from the original text of the Book of Mormon, corresponding citations from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and a range of dates for citations in the OED with that same meaning (except for citations from the King James Bible, original spellings are provided). In some instances, the word can be found with that meaning in the 1611 King James Bible. But some of these words predate 1611 by a few decades at least. The difficulty of these archaic words has sometimes resulted in accidental changes during the early transmission of the Book of Mormon text. At other times, editors and typesetters have replaced such words with more recognizable alternatives.

Some Examples Found in the King James Bible

To require, meaning 'to request'

Enos 1:18 reads "and the Lord said unto me: thy fathers have also required of me this thing." It may seem unusual that Enos's ancestral fathers (Lehi, Nephi, and Jacob) required the Lord to preserve their records. Notice that the word also in verse 18 implies that Enos too is "requiring" the Lord to preserve these records, yet previously (in verses 15—17) Enos simply asks the Lord to do so. But the passage makes perfectly good sense when we observe that earlier in English the verb require had the meaning 'to ask, request, or desire someone to do something' (see definition 3 for this verb in the OED). The OED provides citations of require with the meaning of 'to request' dating from 1375 to 1665, including this example from William Shakespeare's Henry VIII (1613): "In humblest manner I require your Highnes, That it shall please you." We have a similar example in the King James Bible: "For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way" (Ezra 8:22).

To cast arrows, meaning 'to shoot arrows'

Alma 49:4 reads "the Lamanites could not cast their stones and their arrows at them." Similarly, verse 19 reads "and thus were the Nephites prepared to destroy all such as should attempt to climb up to enter the fort by any other way by casting over stones and arrows at them." For us today, it seems strange to cast arrows. Yet the OED gives the following comment for definition 2 under the verb cast: "Formerly said also of military engines, bows, and the like, which throw or shoot projectiles." OED citations date from about 1300 to 1609, including the following biblical one in John Wycliffe's 1382 translation of 2 Kings 13:17: "Helise seyde, kast an arowe; and he kest." The King James Bible uses the verb shoot in translating this same passage: "Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot." But there is one place in the King James Bible where the verb cast does occur with arrows: "As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death" (Proverbs 26:18).

For examples like these, one could claim that Joseph Smith picked up such vocabulary usage from intensive Bible reading. But there are words and expressions in the original Book of Mormon text that never appear, at least with their archaic meanings, in the King James Bible yet were common in Early Modern English.

Some Examples Not Found in the King James Bible

To counsel, meaning 'to counsel with'

In the original text of the Book of Mormon we have two cases where the verb counsel is used without the expected preposition with: "counsel the Lord in all thy doings" (Alma 37:37) and "take it upon you to counsel your elder brothers in your undertakings" (Alma 39:10). In the first case, Alma is speaking to Helaman; in the second, to Corianton, the wayward missionary son. In no way is Alma advocating that Helaman counsel the Lord or that Corianton counsel his two righteous brothers. The editors for the 1920 LDS edition recognized that the preposition with was necessary in those two passages so that readers would not misinterpret the language; thus in both cases counsel was emended to counsel with. One could assume that somehow the preposition with was accidentally lost during the early transmission of these two passages. Yet the OED, under definition 4, lists the now obsolete meaning 'to ask counsel of; to consult' for the verb counsel. Citations date from 1382 to 1547, the last one coming from John Hooper: "Moses . . . counselled the Lord and thereupon advised his subjects what was to be done." Clearly, Moses is counseling with the Lord, not giving counsel to the Lord.

But if, meaning 'unless'

In the original text, Mosiah 3:19 reads "for the natural man is an enemy to God and has been from the fall of Adam and will be forever and ever but if he yieldeth to the enticings of the Holy Spirit." This strange use of but if was replaced in the 1920 LDS edition with unless since the latter seems to be the appropriate meaning. And indeed it is: the OED gives the following definition for the now obsolete but if (under definition 10b for the conjunction but): 'if not, unless, except.' Citations of this usage in the OED date from about 1200 to 1596, including this one from Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1580): "He did not like that maides should once stir out of their fathers houses, but if it were to milke a cow." The OED also states that this meaning of but if was "very common" from the 1300s through the 1500s.

To depart, meaning 'to part, divide, separate'

In the printer's manuscript for Helaman 8:11, the text reads "God gave power unto one man even Moses to smite upon the waters of the Red Sea and they departed hither and thither." The 1830 typesetter thought departed must be an error, so he replaced it with the expected parted. Yet the OED explains that the verb depart once had the now obsolete meaning of 'to put asunder, sunder, separate, part' (see definitions 3a—3d), with citations from 1297 through 1677. Many of the citations in the OED for this meaning are religious ones. For instance, John Wycliffe's 1388 translation of Isaiah 59:2 reads "ʒoure wickednesses han departid bitwixe ʒou and ʒoure God" (which the King James Bible translates as "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God"). There is John Maundeville's reference (about 1400) to Moses's rod: "þe ʒerde of Moyses, with þe whilk he departid þe Reed See," meaning 'the rod [yard] of Moses with which he parted the Red Sea.' When the King James Bible refers to Moses using his rod to part the Red Sea, the verb is divide: "But lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it" (Exodus 14:16). William Tyndale, in his 1526 translation of Romans 8:39, uses depart: "To departe us from Goddes love." The King James Bible, on the other hand, uses the verb separate: "to separate us from the love of God." The 1557 Geneva Bible translates John 19:24 as "They departed my rayment among them." But the King James Bible once more circumvents this use of depart, in this instance by selecting the verb part: "They parted my raiment among them." Finally, there is this example from the 1548—49 Book of Common Prayer: "Till death vs departe." In 1662 this reading was changed to "Till death us do part" because by then the meaning of 'to part' for depart was obsolete. Note, however, that the change in the very familiar phraseology was minimal: the de- was replaced with the helping verb do, thus maintaining the cadence and sound of the original language.

Extinct, referring to an individual's death

Alma 44:7 reads "and I will command my men that they shall fall upon you and inflict the wounds of death in your bodies that ye may become extinct." Such usage seems very odd today since, as the OED explains under definition 4 for this past participial adjective, we now use extinct to refer to a family, race, or species as having died out or come to an end. But in Early Modern English, extinct could refer to a person's death. The OED, under definition 3, lists citations from 1483 through 1675, the last one from an English translation of Machiavelli's The Prince: "The Pope being dead and Valentine extinct."

We should note that the text does not consistently use the archaic meaning for every instance of these words. For example, the verb require has its expected meaning in Alma 34:12: "but the law requireth the life of him who hath murdered." One can shoot as well as cast arrows: "and they cast stones at him upon the wall and also many shot arrows at him" (Helaman 16:2). There is also one case of "to counsel with someone" in the earliest text, in Mosiah 17:6: "having counseled with his priests"; and there are two instances that refer to counseling the Lord: "seek not to counsel the Lord" (Jacob 4:10) and "counsel me not" (Jacob 5:22). The conjunctive but if occurs only once in the text with the meaning 'unless.' In seven other places, the text uses unless, as in Mosiah 17:8: "for this cause thou shalt be put to death unless thou wilt recall all the words which thou hast spoken evil concerning me and my people." Similarly, depart otherwise means 'to leave' in the Book of Mormon rather than 'to part.' There are two other references to Moses's parting of the Red Sea (1 Nephi 4:2 and 1 Nephi 17:26), and they have the verb divide, just as the King James Bible does. Four instances of extinct refer to the death of individuals in a single military engagement (Alma 45:14, Helaman 11:10, and 3 Nephi 3:8 as well as Alma 44:7), but there is one that refers to the permanent extinction of an entire race of people: "even until the people of Nephi shall become extinct" (Alma 45:11). Yet even with all these examples where the words take on their more familiar uses, we find that those meanings are also found in Early Modern English. In any event, examples of variant meaning are not unexpected in a text of this size since language itself is inherently variant. We cannot expect the text to have no variation at all. The critical text will accept these earliest readings as the original text, despite their archaic meanings and their inconsistent usage.

One could argue that all these examples are actually errors that entered the Book of Mormon text in the early transmission of the text: for example, require looks like request, the preposition with after counsel could have been accidentally omitted, and part could have been miswritten as depart. But the other examples seem fully intended: arrows are cast along with stones, the highly unusual but if cannot be an error for unless, and the word extinct refers to the death of individuals in four out of five cases in the Book of Mormon.

Another argument against this analysis would be that all these archaic meanings might have still existed in Joseph Smith's upstate New York dialect. Thus far there is no evidence to support such a hypothesis. Lexical studies consistently show that the archaic meanings for these words did indeed become obsolete in England prior to 1700. Nor have any vestiges of their use in the American colonies been found as of yet.

Conjectural Emendations

If the original vocabulary of the Book of Mormon text dates from Early Modern English, one might wonder if there are any archaic words or expressions that were unrecognizable to Joseph Smith and his scribes, thus leading them to misinterpret and change the language during the early transmission of the text. Two possibilities have arisen thus far. The first one deals with the word ceremony in Mosiah 19:24: "and it came to pass that after they had ended the ceremony that they returned to the land of Nephi." The problem with this passage is that the word ceremony seems out of place. The larger context implies that their discourse was simply over:

and it came to pass that they were about to return to the land of Nephi and they met the men of Gideon and the men of Gideon told them of all that had happened to their wives and their children and that the Lamanites had granted unto them that they might possess the land by paying a tribute to the Lamanites of one half of all they possessed and the people told the men of Gideon that they had slain the king and his priests had fled from them farther into the wilderness and it came to pass that after they had ended the ceremony that they returned to the land of Nephi rejoicing because their wives and their children were not slain and they told Gideon what they had done to the king (Mosiah 19:22—24)

The OED lists no meaning for ceremony that would work reasonably well for this passage except to assume that the conversation itself is a ceremony or that it involved some kind of cere­monial aspect in recounting the execution of King Noah.

I have had a number of my students and research assistants try to find another word that might work better in Mosiah 19:22—24, one that would perhaps sound or look like ceremony. The idea behind this approach is that such a word might have been miscopied or misheard as cere­mony. The only plausible suggestion proposed thus far comes from Renee Bangerter in her 1998 BYU master's thesis ("Since Joseph Smith's Time: Lexical Semantic Shifts in the Book of Mormon," pp. 16—18), where she proposes that the original word in Mosiah 19:24 might have been sermon. Although the current meanings for this word will not work in this passage, Bangerter notes that the OED gives the earliest meaning for sermon as 'something that is said; talk, discourse,' which would exactly fit the context described in Mosiah 19:22—24. This meaning is, however, obsolete; the last citation in the OED with this meaning dates from 1594: "Desiring Don Infeligo with very mild sermon to be friends with Medesimo again." The last citation found on Literature Online <lion.chadwyck.com> with this meaning comes from Giles Fletcher and dates from 1593: "Out of my braine I made his Sermon flow."

In part 3 of volume 4 of the critical text,
Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (this part will be published in the summer of 2006), I discuss under Mosiah 19:24 how sermon could have accidentally been replaced by ceremony. Basically, I propose the following: the scribe for the original manuscript (which is unfortunately not extant here) spelled sermon as cermon, which was then misread as ceremony (and spelled as cerimony) when Oliver Cowdery copied the word from the original manuscript into the printer's manuscript. Such a conjectural emendation is possible once we recognize that the vocabulary for the original Book of Mormon text dates from the 1500s and 1600s.

A second possible misinterpretation deals with the expression "the pleasing bar of God," as found in Jacob 6:13 (and similarly in Moroni 10:34 as "the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah"). In part 2 of volume 4 of the critical text (this part was published in August of this year), under Jacob 6:13, I argue that the pleasing bar is actually a mistake for the pleading bar. An abbreviated description of the evidence for emending the text to the pleading bar was initially presented in 2004 and can be found in a previous issue of the FARMS publication Insights (vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 2—3). This conjectural emendation was first proposed by Christian Gellinek in 2003. There are no uses of the term pleasing bar anywhere on the Internet except in reference to the Book of Mormon, yet there is clear evidence that the legal term pleading bar was used in the 1600s. And as might be expected, no instances of pleading bar have thus far been found during the 1800s, in either England or the United States. But such a conjectural emendation is consistent with the hypothesis that the vocabulary of the Book of Mormon dates from Early Modern English.

These new findings argue that Joseph Smith was not the author of the English-language translation of the Book of Mormon. Not only was the text revealed to him word for word, but the words themselves sometimes had meanings that he and his scribes would not have known, which occasionally led to misinterpretation. The Book of Mormon is not a 19th-century text, nor is it Joseph Smith's. The English-language text was revealed through him, but it was not precisely in his language or ours.

In this article, I have briefly listed some of the examples of the original archaic language in the Book of Mormon. A complete discussion of this issue will eventually appear in volume 3 of the criti­cal text, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon. Many of these examples, especially those that involve textual variation, are discussed in volume 4, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, now in the process of being published.

By Royal Skousen
Professor of Linguistics and English Language,
Brigham Young University

[greyfoxx39]

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[greyfoxx39]

Ping to an article in the ongoing attempt to validate the Book of Mormon on FR. THIS thread allows for agreement OR rebuttal.

[Cobra Scott]

That isn ‘t surprising in light of the fact that Smith was a student of Hebrew and much of his expected learning material would have been dated.

[the long march]

Too me this is just more consistent proof that Spaulding was the original manuscripts author and that J. Smith is a charlatan and a thief

[the long march]

Smith was an illeterate scam artist. He was uneducated by even the standards of the 11830s. Please at least be hinest about that

[Bidimus1]

P> of course this is wonderful attempt at laying the blame for the poor condition of the book of mormon on poor semiliteratge j.smith and his equly poor scribes has a minor problem, in that one of the scribes tells exactly how it was done and that it was with out error

“By aid of the Seer Stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say ‘written;’ and if correctly written, the sentence would disappear and another appear in its place; but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used”

From Comprehensive History of the Church by LDS historian and Seventy Brigham H. Roberts

I am of course waiting with baited breath for some one to say that B.H.Roberts was an Anti....

[greyfoxx39]

I am of course waiting with baited breath for some one to say that B.H.Roberts was an Anti....

It's incredible the lengths the mormons go to to try to convince the world of Smith's and the BOM legitimacy!

[Leisler]

Smith was the L. Ron Hubbard of his day, but without the honesty.

[Leisler]

Well, that's what you have to do when your church is built not on rock, but tissues.

[the long march]

Or the printing press and access to Hollyweird

[Cobra Scott]

Nothing I said contradicts your claim. However completely illiterate he was not. Self taught, and poorly, inadequately at that, but not completely illiterate.

[Elsie]

In addition, there are obvious errors in the original manuscript itself that require conjectural emendation.

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Oh... in my BoM 1981 edition, on the page with the introduction (4th sheet from front) has these lines...

 

"The record is now published in many languages as a new and additional witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that all who will come unto him and obey the laws and ordinances of his gospel may be saved.

 

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: "I told the brethern that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

 

Then I find, just 4 pages past that, under A BRIEF EXPLANATION ABOUT  THE BOOK OF MORMON, I found this at the bottom of the page...

 

About this edition: Some minor errors in the text have been perpetrated in past editions of the Book of Mormon.  This edition contains corrections that seem appropriate to bring the material into conformity with prepublication manuscripts and early editions edited by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

 

 

Interesting!

[Bidimus1]

So when will those pre-pub documents be released to the public ?

not holding my breath

[Colofornian]

I am of course waiting with baited breath for some one to say that B.H.Roberts was an Anti....

Well, of course, BH was an "anti" --

#1...he took a plural wife after the 1890 manifesto...oh, wait, so did over 200 other leading Mormon men...and Lds church officials had to secretly solemnize them to begin with...so I guess that alone wouldn't qualify him...
...but wait! Don't Mormons NOW contend that any Lds member would be ex-communicated from the church if they did that? Oh, wait, again...Lds voters themselves voted Roberts into Congress in 1898 -- about 5 years after he took a plural wife...so much for Lds being "anti-polygamy" post manifesto!
#2 -- Didn't Roberts late in his life express doubts as to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon? Wouldn't that also qualify Roberts as an "anti-Mormon?"

[definitelynotaliberal]

The book seems to be merely a prosey detail of imaginary history with the Old Testament for a model followed by a tedious plegiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint old fashioned sound and structure of our King James translation of the scriptures. The result is a mongrel, half modern glibbness and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained, the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern, which was about every sentence or two, he ladeled in a few such scriptural phrases as, “exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,” etc. and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to pass,” was his pet. If he had left that out, his bible would have been only a pamphlet.

- Mark Twain, Roughing it

[Godzilla]

In addition, there are obvious errors in the original manuscript itself that require conjectural emendation.

There are two hand written copies in existance that are first generation of the bom. According to lds history and the testimony of the scribes, the words on these documents were taken down literally word for word and confirmed by the seer stone - hence the mormon claim that the translation was accomplished by the power of god and the most correct book in the world. That said the only way analysts can do this study is by CONJECTURE. Absent the 'plates' they can only make it up as they go.

[Bidimus1]

B.H.Roberts like many of the early “names” in the lds had doubts late in life... he never OVERTLY stated that j.smith was a fraud but in his book

Studies of the Book of Mormon

he does say “The evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their creator.”

[the long march]

Your claim was that he was well educated in Hebrew ... in fact that is an outright falsehood. He could not read, translate, or write ANY of the ancient languages

[allmendream]

Mark Twain’s take on the “archaic vocabulary” of the Book of Mormon.

“The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the
Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New
Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint,
old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the
Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half
ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained;
the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his
speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he
ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as “exceeding sore,” “and it came
to pass,” etc., and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to
pass” was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been
only a pamphlet.” Mark Twain

[greyfoxx39]

Twain would be ROTFL if he could see all these mormon scholars in their "research" and learned papers pickin' apart the BOM and trying to convince the world that it makes sense. ;)

Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 3:00:21 PM by

mormon paq tlhIngan

Selections from The Klingon Translation of the Book of Mormon

[Home] [Klingon Book of Mormon] [1 Nephi 4]

1 Nephi 4

1 AND it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren, saying: Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?	1 'ej loDnI'pu'wI' jatlhpu'. lutlhlogh yeruSalemDaq wIghoS, 'ej joH'a' ra'mey lob 'e' wIvoq. ghaH HoS law' qo' HoS puS. chay' ghaH HoS law'be' laban vaghmaHDaj je netlhDaj joq jatlhtaH.
2 Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea.	2 vaj wIghoS; wIHoSchoH; moSe' wIrur. bIQ'a' Doq bIQmey jatlhta' 'ej naDev pa' je waveghpu', 'ej toy'vo' yav QaDDaq ghoS vavpu'ma', 'ej tlha'pu' paro' mangghommey 'ej biQ'a' Doq bIQmeyDaq HoHpu'.
3 Now behold ye know that this is true; and ye also know that an angel hath spoken unto you; wherefore can ye doubt? Let us go up; the Lord is able to deliver us, even as our fathers, and to destroy Laban, even as the Egyptians.	3 DaH teH 'e' boSov; 'ej QumwI''a' lI-jatlhpu' 'e' boSov; chay' SuHanlaH? wIghoS; nuHIjlaH joH'a', vavpu'wI' wIrur; laban Qaw'laH, 'ejipnganpu' rur laban.
4 Now when I had spoken these words, they were yet wroth, and did still continue to murmur; nevertheless they did follow me up until we came without the walls of Jerusalem.	4 DaH mu'meyvam vIjatlhpu'DI', QeHtaH chaH, 'ej beptaH; 'ach mutlha' yeruSalem SomDaq.
5 And it was by night; and I caused that they should hide themselves without the walls. And after they had hid themselves, I, Nephi, crept into the city and went forth towards the house of Laban.	5 'ej ram 'oH; Som HurDaq chaH vISo'moH. 'ej So'eghpu'DI' vengDaq ghoS jIH, nevI', 'ej jItam, 'ej laban juHDaq vIghoS.
6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.	6 'ej muDev qa''a', Hochmey vIruch 'e' vISovbe'taH.
7 Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was drunken with wine.	7 'ach vIghoSpu', 'ej laban juH jIghoSDI' loD vIleghpu', 'ej HIqmo' chechmo' yavDaq pumpu'.
8 And when I came to him I found that it was Laban.	8 'ej ghaHDaq jIghoSpu'DI' laban ghaH 'e' vItu'.
9 And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.	9 'ej yan vIlegh, 'ej vaHvo' vIlel; 'ej baS mIp ghaH ret'aq, 'ej yan vaQqu', baS let 'ej lo'laH ghaH 'etlh 'e' vIlegh.
10 And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.	10 'ej laban vIHoH mura' qa''a'; 'ach tIQDaq not 'Iw vIlIchbe'ta' 'e' vIjatlhpu' 'ej jIHeD 'ej vIHoH 'e' vIneHbe'.
11 And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.	11 'ej lutlhlogh yIlegh! ghopDu'lIjDaq HIjpu' joH'a' mujatlh qa''a'. HIja', 'ej yInwIj nge' 'e' neH 'e' vISov je, 'ej joH'a' ra'mey lobQo'; 'ej Dachmeymaj nge'pu'.
12 And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands;	12 'ej lutlhlogh yIHoH! ghopDu'lIjDaq HIjpu' joH'a' mujatlh qa''a';
13 Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.	13 batlh ngoQmey qaSmoHveH nuv qab HoH joH'a'. wa' Hegh QaQ law' Harbe'ghachmo' tayqeq Hegh QaQ puS.
14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.	14 'ej DaH mu'meyvam Qoy'pu'DI' jiH, nevI', joH'a' mu'mey'e' mujatlhpu'bogh vIqaw': ra'mey lobchugh puqpu'lI', lay' puH chep.
15 Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law.	15 HIja', 'ej teq ghajbe'chugh joH'a' ra'mey (moSe' teq) luloblaHbe' 'e' vIHar.
16 And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass.	16 'ej baS nagh beQDaq teq ghItlhlu'pu'.
17 And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this causethat I might obtain the records according to his commandments.	17 'ej mura'mo' paqmey vISuqveH ghopDu'wIjDaq laban HIjpu' joH'a'.
18 Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword.	18 vaj qa''a' ghogh vIlob, 'ej laban jIb vItlhap, 'ej nachDaj vIteqta', yanDaj vIlo'.
19 And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the garments of Laban and put them upon mine own body; yea, even every whit; and I did gird on his armor about my loins.	19 'ej nachDaj vIteqta'DI', laban Sut vItlhap 'ej Hoch vItuQmoH; 'ej porghwIjDaq may'luchDaj vItuQmoH.
20 And after I had done this, I went forth unto the treasury of Laban. And as I went forth towards the treasury of Laban, behold, I saw the servant of Laban who had the keys of the treasury. And I commanded him in the voice of Laban, that he should go with me into the treasury.	20 'ej 'e' ruchDI', laban Huch pa'Daq vIghoS. 'ej jIghoStaHvIS, Huch pa' KEY-mey ghajbogh laban toy'wI''e' vIleghpu' 'ej Huch pa'Daq yIghoS vIra', laban ghogh rur ghoghwIj.
21 And he supposed me to be his master, Laban, for he beheld the garments and also the sword girded about my loins.	21 Sut yan je leghmo' laban jIH 'e' Qub.
22 And he spake unto me concerning the elders of the Jews, he knowing that his master, Laban, had been out by night among them.	22 'ej jew'pu' quppu' 'e' mujatlh. joHDaj, ramDaq tlhejpu' laban.
23 And I spake unto him as if it had been Laban.	23 'ej jatlhpu'DI' laban vIrur.
24 And I also spake unto him that I should carry the engravings, which were upon the plates of brass, to my elder brethren, who were without the walls.	24 'ej loDnI'pu'Daq, Som Hur, baS naghmey beQ ghItlhmey vIqeng 'e' vIjatlh.
25 And I also bade him that he should follow me.	25 'ej HItlha' 'e' vIra'.
26 And he, supposing that I spake of the brethren of the church, and that I was truly that Laban whom I had slain, wherefore he did follow me.	26 'ej lalDan loDnI'pu' vIjatlhpu' 'e' Har, 'ej laban vIHoHbogh jIHna' 'e' Har, 'ej mutlha'.
27 And he spake unto me many times concerning the elders of the Jews, as I went forth unto my brethren, who were without the walls.	27 'ej Som Hur loDnI'pu'Daq vIghoStaHvIS jew'pu' qanpu' mujatlh.
28 And it came to pass that when Laman saw me he was exceedingly frightened, and also Lemuel and Sam. And they fled from before my presence; for they supposed it was Laban, and that he had slain me and had sought to take away their lives also.	28 'ej muleghvIp laman lemu'el Sam je. 'ej SaHwIj Haw'pu'. laban jIH 'e' luHar, 'ej muHoHta' 'e' luHar 'ej 'e' yInmeychaj nge' neH je.
29 And it came to pass that I called after them, and they did hear me; wherefore they did cease to flee from my presence.	29 'ej vIjach 'e' qaSpu', muQoy'; 'ej SaHwIj Haw' 'e' lumevpu'.
30 And it came to pass that when the servant of Laban beheld my brethren he began to tremble, and was about to flee from before me and return to the city of Jerusalem.	30 'ej loDnI'pu'wI' leghpu'DI' laban toy'wI', QomeghchoH 'ej jIHvo' Haw'rup 'ej yeruSalemDaq cheghrup.
31 And now I, Nephi, being a man large in stature, and also having received much strength of the Lord, therefore I did seize upon the servant of Laban, and held him, that he should not flee.	31 'ej DaH jItInmo' 'ej muHoSmoHmo' joH'a', laban toy'wI' vIwoHta' jiH, nevI', 'ej Haw'be'veH vI'uch.
32 And it came to pass that I spake with him, that if he would hearken unto my words, as the Lord liveth, and as I live, even so that if he would hearken unto our words, we would spare his life.	32 'ej mu'meywIj lobchugh, yInmo' joH'a' 'ej jIyInmo', wIHoHbe' 'e' vIjatlh.
33 And I spake unto him, even with an oath, that he need not fear; that he should be a free man like unto us if he would go down in the wilderness with us.	33 'ej jachnISbe' 'e' vI'Ip; 'ej ngemDaq nutlhejchugh loD tlhab ghaHlaH 'ej nurur.
34 And I also spake unto him, saying: Surely the Lord hath commanded us to do this thing; and shall we not be diligent in keeping the commandments of the Lord? Therefore, if thou wilt go down into the wilderness to my father thou shalt have place with us.	34 'ej Dochna'vam wIruch 'e' nura'ta' joH'a'; joH'a' ra'mey wIlobbe''a'? vaj vavma'Daq DebDaq DaghoSchugh bIyIn. 'e' vIjatlh.
35 And it came to pass that Zoram did take courage at the words which I spake. Now Zoram was the name of the servant; and he promised that he would go down into the wilderness unto our father. Yea, and he also made an oath unto us that he would tarry with us from that time forth.	35 mu'meyvammo' qajunpaQ ghajchoH Soram. toy'wI' pung 'oH Soram; 'ej vavma'Daq DebDaq ghoS 'e' lay'pu'. HIja', 'ej DaH nutlhej 'e' 'Ippu.
36 Now we were desirous that he should tarry with us for this cause, that the Jews might not know concerning our flight into the wilderness, lest they should pursue us and destroy us.	36 DaH meqvamvaD nutlhej 'e' wIneH. nuHoHveH 'ej nuQaw'veH DebDaq leng luSovbe' jew'pu' 'e' wIneH.
37 And it came to pass that when Zoram had made an oath unto us, our fears did cease concerning him.	37 'ej nu'IpDI' mevpu' SaHmeymaj.
38 And it came to pass that we took the plates of brass and the servant of Laban, and departed into the wilderness, and journeyed unto the tent of our father.	38 baS naghmey beQ laban toy'wI' je wItlhap 'e' qaSpu' 'ej DebDaq matlheD 'ej vavma' Hur pa' maleng.