2 Nephi 3:20 Textual Variants

One wonders here if perhaps the word forth is missing from the end of “their cry shall go”. Elsewhere in the text, we always have forth when referring to a cry being broadcast to the people (although there are only two examples):

• 3 Nephi 20:41
  • and then shall a cry go forth depart ye depart ye
• Ether 14:18
  • yea a cry went forth throughout the land who can stand before the army of Shiz

The original manuscript is not extant in 2 Nephi 3:20, but it seems quite plausible that it read “their cry shall go forth”. The adverb forth could have been accidentally lost when the text was copied into the printer’s manuscript.

There are two cases in the manuscripts where the adverb forth was dropped while the scribe was copying the text into the printer’s manuscript; in the first case, the error was caught, but not in the second:

• Alma 20:28 (Oliver Cowdery, immediate correction in 𝓟)
  • therefore the brethren of Ammon was brought [NULL > forth 1|forth ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] out of prison
• Alma 47:22 (Oliver Cowdery, from 𝓞 into 𝓟: forth lost)
  • and they went [up >% forth 0| 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] and bowed themselves before the king

Thus there is both internal and external evidence that forth is missing from 2 Nephi 3:20 and that this verse should be emended to read “their cry shall go forth even according to the simpleness of their words”.