2 Nephi 5:9 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and all they which were with me did take [it >js NULL 1|it A| BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] upon them to call themselves the people of Nephi

Although Joseph Smith deleted the it here, he left all other instances of the expletive it in the phrase “to take it upon one(self ) to do something”:

There is only one example of this construction for which the expletive it is not found in the manuscripts:

It is quite possible that the text in Alma 62:44 is in error, that the pronoun it was accidentally dropped as Oliver Cowdery took down Joseph Smith’s dictation. For discussion of this possibility, see Alma 62:44.

There is one other possible example of this construction with it, but here the following clause begins with and rather than to:

In this instance, there seems to be no referent for the pronoun it. The original manuscript is not extant for the and here; thus it is possible that the and (written as &) after you in the printer’s manuscript is in error. A reading with to would provide the appropriate referent for the pronoun it: “and take it upon you to cross yourself in these things”. For discussion of this possible emendation, see Alma 39:9.

Summary: Restore the original it in 2 Nephi 5:9 (“all they which were with me did take it upon them to call themselves the people of Nephi”); all other examples in the text of this construction have been left unedited.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 1

References