2 Nephi 10:15 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
wherefore for this cause that my covenants [may 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNPQRST| O] be fulfilled …

The 1907 LDS vest-pocket edition accidentally dropped the modal verb may. Since that edition was never used as a copy-text, this error was never transmitted into any later LDS edition.

The loss of the modal led to an awkward subjunctive construction (“that my covenants be fulfilled”). Elsewhere, whenever we have “for this cause” (or “for the very cause”), the following that-clause always takes a modal auxiliary verb:

Note that in two instances the modal auxiliary is may, just as here in 2 Nephi 10:15.

Summary: Maintain the original modal auxiliary may in 2 Nephi 10:15 (“for this cause that my covenants may be fulfilled”).

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

References