2 Nephi 10:19 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
for it is a choice land [ 1|, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] saith God unto me[ 1|, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] above all other lands

Usage in the larger passage and elsewhere in the Book of Mormon suggests that here in 2 Nephi 10:19 only “saith God” should be surrounded by commas. Nearby we have references to “saith God” but not to “saith God unto me” (that is, throughout this chapter Jacob refers to God’s saying in general, not God’s specific saying to Jacob):

Later in his own book, Jacob quotes from Zenos’s parable that refers to the promised land as being choice unto the Lord:

Thus the more reasonable interpretation here in 2 Nephi 10:19 is to punctuate the sentence to read “it is a choice land, saith God, unto me”.

Summary: Change the punctuation in 2 Nephi 10:19 so that only “saith God” is set apart by commas; the prepositional phrase “unto me” belongs to the preceding text (thus “it is a choice land … unto me”).

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

References