2 Nephi 6:7 Textual Variants

Isaiah 49:23 (King James Bible) they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth

Here in 2 Nephi 6:7, the earliest source (the original manuscript) has the plural form faces, while the King James Bible reads face. This passage is also quoted in 1 Nephi 21:23; there the earliest textual source (also the original manuscript) has the singular face, just like the King James Bible:

• 1 Nephi 21:23
  • they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth

The Hebrew word for face ( √appayim) is actually dual in number and originally meant ‘nostrils’. Ultimately, the word √appayim derives from √ap / ƒaf/, meaning ‘nose’, just as the English word nostril derives from nose. (For the etymology of nostril, see under nose-thirl in the Oxford English Dictionary; for the etymology of √appayim, see under √ap in William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament [Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1971].) In Hebrew, this dual form has been generalized to mean ‘face’. Since the word √appayim always takes the dual form, the context determines whether the singular ‘face’ or the plural ‘faces’ is intended. Obviously, here in Isaiah 49:23, faces is a perfectly good English translation of √appayim since the passage is in the plural (“they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth”).

Of course, the change to the plural faces here in 2 Nephi 6:7 probably has nothing to do with the original Hebrew underlying Isaiah 49:23. Rather, faces may simply derive from what Joseph Smith or Oliver Cowdery would have expected as speakers of English. The change to the plural did not occur in 1 Nephi 21:23, which could indicate that the difference in 2 Nephi 6:7 may be an error in transmission. However, since faces will work in 2 Nephi 6:7, the safest solution is to follow the earliest textual sources, thus face in 1 Nephi 21:23 but faces in 2 Nephi 6:7.