The place names used by Lehi and his group provide readers of the Book of Mormon with some of the best means of testing the authenticity of the Book of Mormon from a linguistic viewpoint. Apparently most of these names were transliterated by Joseph Smith, and it should be remembered that the Prophet had not studied Semitic languages before his translation of the Book of Mormon. Yet, as Dr. Nibley indicates in the following quotation, the place names given by Lehi evidently came from a Semitic source:
When Ishmael died on the journey, he "was buried in the place which was called Nahom." (1 Nephi 16:34.) Note that this is not "a place which we called Nahom," but the place which was so called, a desert burial ground. Jaussen reports (Rev. Biblique X, 607) that though Bedouins sometimes bury the dead where they die, many carry the remains great distances to bury them. The Arabic root NHM has the basic meaning of "to sigh or moan," and occurs nearly always in the third form, "to sigh or moan with another." The Heb. Nahum, "comfort," is related, but that is not the form given in the Book of Mormon. At this place, we are told, "the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly," and are reminded that among the desert Arabs mourning rites are a monopoly of the women. (Ibid., pp. 90-91.)