In 2 Nephi 28:30, the original text (as found in the printer’s manuscript) read “and them that shall say we have enough / from them shall be taken away even that which they have”. Grammatically, there were two difficulties with this passage: (1) the sentence-initial occurrence of the object form them instead of the subject form they; and (2) the repetition of the previous subject pronoun in the main clause (“them that shall say … from them shall be taken away … ”). In his editing of the printer’s manuscript for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith eliminated both problems by deleting the phrase from them and adding from to the front of “them that shall say we have enough”. But the 1837 edition ended up adding only the from and ignoring the deletion of from them, thus giving the current text a double redundancy in both preposition and object form of the pronoun (“and from them that shall say we have enough / from them shall be taken away even that which they have”). By following Joseph’s original editing (as marked in 𝓟), this problem of extra redundancy could be eliminated: “and from them that shall say we have enough shall be taken away even that which they have”.
Several examples elsewhere in the text still have the original type of redundancy that is found in the earliest text for 2 Nephi 28:30:
Joseph Smith edited the last passage so that it would read in the plural throughout, but he nonetheless left the redundant construction unchanged:
We should also note that the redundant language in 2 Nephi 28:30 reminds one of the Savior’s words in Matthew (translated fairly literally from the Greek in the King James Bible):
The edited text in Alma 12:11 suggests that the object form them in the earliest text for 2 Nephi 28:30 could be grammatically revised to the subject form they:
Interestingly, the earliest text had examples of the object form them being used in subject position:
The example in 2 Nephi 14:3 is particularly supportive of them that in subject position. In Isaiah 4:3 the King James Bible reads in the singular: “that he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy”. But the corresponding Book of Mormon text in 2 Nephi 14:3 is in the plural and originally read “them that” rather than the standard “they that” (“them that are left in Zion and remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy”).
In addition, the example in Mosiah 26:36 is particularly relevant for 2 Nephi 28:30 since it also restates the original pronominal subject (“them that would not confess … the same were not numbered … ”). In this particular case, the object form them was edited to those rather than to the subject form they. Similarly, 2 Nephi 28:30 could also be grammatically revised to read “and those that shall say we have enough / from them shall be taken away even that which they have”.
The critical text will, of course, restore the original language in 2 Nephi 28:30, despite its repetition of the pronominal subject and its use of the nonstandard object form them rather than the subject form they (or the demonstrative those).
Summary: Restore in 2 Nephi 28:30 the original construction: “and them that shall say we have enough / from them shall be taken away even that which they have”.