2 Nephi 15:5 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the [hedge 1ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQRST|edge F] thereof and it shall be eaten up

Isaiah 5:5 (King James Bible) I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up

The 1852 LDS edition accidentally set edge rather than the correct hedge. Perhaps there was some expectation of “take away the edge thereof ”, meaning ‘take away the sharpness thereof’ (see definitions 1 and 2 for edge in the Oxford English Dictionary). Ultimately, edge doesn’t make much sense in this context, and the error was corrected in the next LDS edition (1879).

Summary: Maintain the use of hedge in 2 Nephi 15:5, the reading of the earliest Book of Mormon text as well as the King James reading.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 2

References