1 Nephi 18:25 Textual Variants

The 1858 Wright edition replaced the plural forests with the singular forest, but this change was not transmitted into the 1874 RLDS edition (which sometimes follows readings unique to the 1858 Wright edition).

Elsewhere the Book of Mormon text prefers the singular forest when it occurs with beasts or animals:

• Enos 1:3
  • behold I went to hunt beasts in the [ forest 1ABCDEFGHIJKNOPS|forests LMQRT]
• Mosiah 8:21
  • yea they are as a wild flock which fleeth from the shepherd and scattereth and are driven and are devoured by the beasts of the forest
• 3 Nephi 20:16
  • and ye shall be among them as a lion among the beasts of the [ forest 01ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRT|forests S]
• 3 Nephi 21:12
  • yea in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the [ forest 1ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRST|forests L]
• Ether 10:19
  • for the land was covered with animals of the forest

The Book of Mormon text consistently uses the singular forest when the accompanying preposition is of (“the beasts of the forest” or “animals of the forest”), although it should be pointed out that the two passages in 3 Nephi 20–21 follow (with some variation) the language of Micah 5:8 from the King James Bible, which has the singular forest.

But when the preposition is in, the earliest textual sources can read with either the singular forest (in Enos 1:3) or the plural forests (in 1 Nephi 18:25). Of course, in 1 Nephi 18:25 the beasts would have been found in many different forests, while in Enos 1:3 we can assume that on this occasion Enos was hunting in one particular forest, thus the singular. In any event, when the preposition is in, the context largely determines whether we have forest or forests. (See the discussion for Enos 1:3.)