“The Daughters of Zion”

Brant Gardner

Literary analysis: Verse 16 is the literary inverse of verse 17, and the complement to 18-23, which then inverses 24. In other words, 16 and 18-23 are parallel, 17 and 24 are parallel, and the sets 16/17 and 18-23/24 are parallel to each other. In each the contrast is between the current finery of the women as a symbol of the fascination with riches, and the coming judgement of the Lord that will rectify this excess.

It should also be noted that the numbers of verses marked in the parallels is a function of the separation into verses, not the original themes. Thus there is no problem with verses 18-23 matching with the single verse 24, simply because someone decided to break up the list of 18-23 into separate verses, but left the list in 24 inside a single verse.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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