Jacob 3:5 Textual Variants

The editors for the 1920 LDS edition changed cursings to cursing in the LDS text. The singular cursing is in agreement with the third person singular hath that occurs in the following relative clause (“the cursing which hath come upon their skins”). Nonetheless, this argument does not have much force since in the original Book of Mormon text the biblical hath could occur with plural subjects. (See the discussion regarding hath under 1 Nephi 13:32 and 1 Nephi 13:34 as well as under infl al endings in volume 3.)

All other references to the Lord’s cursing of the Lamanites are indeed in the singular, as in these examples where cursing is used as a count noun:

• 2 Nephi 1:18
  • or that a cursing should come upon you for the space of many generations
• 2 Nephi 1:22
  • that ye may not be cursed with a sore cursing and also that ye may not incur the displeasure of a just God upon you
• 2 Nephi 4:6
  • wherefore if ye are cursed behold I leave my blessing upon you that the cursing may be taken from you and be answered upon the heads of your parents
• 2 Nephi 5:21 (two times)
  • and he had caused the cursing to come upon them yea even a sore cursing because of their iniquity
• 2 Nephi 5:23
  • for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing
• 2 Nephi 5:24
  • and because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people
• Jacob 3:3
  • nevertheless they are cursed with a sore cursing

In fact, the count noun cursing never appears in the plural anywhere in the Book of Mormon text except in Jacob 3:5. Besides the examples that refer to the cursing of the Lamanites, there is one more later on in Alma for which the word cursing is used:

• Alma 45:16
  • for this is the cursing and the blessing of God upon the land

In all, there are nine occurrences of the noun cursing in the earliest text but none of cursings except in Jacob 3:5.

In addition, there are 30 occurrences of the count noun curse in the Book of Mormon and all of these occur in the singular, including the following eight that specifically refer to the cursing that came upon the Lamanites:

• 1 Nephi 2:23
  • for behold in that day that they shall rebel against me I will curse them even with a sore curse
• Alma 3:6
  • and the skins of the Lamanites were dark according to the mark which was set upon their fathers which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren
• Alma 3:9
  • and it came to pass that whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed
• Alma 3:18–19 (two times)
  • now the Amlicites knew not that they were fulfilling the words of God when they began to mark themselves in their foreheads nevertheless as they had come out in open rebellion against God therefore it was expedient that the curse should fall upon them now I would that ye should see that they brought upon themselves the curse
• Alma 17:15
  • thus they were a very indolent people many of whom did worship idols and the curse of God had fell upon them because of the traditions of their fathers
• Alma 23:18
  • yea and they were friendly with the Nephites therefore they did open a correspondence with them and the curse of God did no more follow them
• 3 Nephi 2:14–15
  • and it came to pass that those Lamanites which had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites and their curse was taken from them and their skin became white like unto the Nephites

Except for Jacob 3:5, the text consistently refers to either “the curse” or “the cursing” that came upon the Lamanites.

All of this evidence suggests that the plural cursings in Jacob 3:5 is a scribal error for cursing. We do not have the original manuscript for this word, but Oliver Cowdery may have added the plural s while copying from 𝓞 into 𝓟 (a common error on his part), or he might have accidentally added the s as he took down Joseph Smith’s dictation (also a common error on his part). The plural skins in the following relative clause may have prompted Oliver to accidentally write cursings, the antecedent in the previous clause for the relative pronoun which.

We have examples in the manuscripts of Oliver Cowdery accidentally adding an s to create an unusual if not impossible plural for English:

• 1 Nephi 21:10 (Isaiah 49:10 has water)
  • even by the springs of [water 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST|waters 1] shall he guide them
• 1 Nephi 21:26 (Isaiah 49:26 has wine)
  • they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet [wines >+ wine 0|wine 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]

In the first example, Oliver’s error occurred as he copied from 𝓞 into 𝓟. In the second one, the error occurred as Oliver took down Joseph’s dictation. Note in both cases that the corresponding Isaiah passage (as well as English usage) prefers the singular.