Editorial: Mormon gives a very direct introduction to the text he is copying. It is very clearly a copy from the plates, and very clearly the text that Benjamin “spake and caused to be written.” Since the speech was written officially, we may suppose that we have the official copy, with no editing from Mormon, and subject only to Joseph Smith as a translator (however he may or may not have affected the translation). We may also presume that because this is an official written text that care would have been taken in its construction, and that we might find evidence of such care not normally seen in spontaneous oral discourse. Indeed: “A stunning array of literary structures appears in Benjamin’s speech, purposefully and skillfully organized. Benjamin’s use of chiasmus, all types of parallelisms, and many other forms of repeating patterns adds focus and emphasis to the main messages and the persuasive qualities of this text” (Welch, John W. “Parallelism and Chiasmus in Benjamin’s Speech.” In: King Benjamin’s Speech. FARMS 1998, p. 315).
Rhetorical: Benjamin begins his speech by declaring that they will be hearing divine words. He invokes the divine when he notes that the “mysteries of God will be unfolded”. This tells his audience that he is speaking on behalf of God, and that through Benjamin God’s will is to be proclaimed.
Scriptural: Benjamin unfolds “mysteries of God” in the sense that this is information that is either new to the people, or is being reinforced afresh. Because God is different from us, we may expect that we do not understand all that God does or intends (“Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”). Whenever a prophet explains the will of the Lord, the “mysteries” are being unfolded. The ways and thoughts of the Lord are being made known to us.
Vocabulary: “The phrase ”this day“ may be very significant in the scriptures. This solemn and emphatic concept appears, for example, in the famous covenantal text at the end of the book of Joshua: ”Choose you this day whom ye will serve.... Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.... So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day" (Joshua 24:15— 25). It seems that words of this nature were especially used in antiquity in reference to religious or ceremonial holy days.
The words “this day” appear eighteen times in the Book of Mormon. Six occurrences are regular expressions meaning “at this time,” and one in Alma 30:8 quotes Joshua 24:15. But the remaining eleven all appear in conjunction with holy Nephite gatherings at their temples.
King Benjamin uses the phrase “this day” five times in his monumental speech, and each time it occurs at ritual and covenantal highpoints in the text: He enjoins the people to give heed to “my words which I shall speak unto you this day” (Mosiah 2:9). He calls the people as “witnesses this day” that he has discharged his duties as king according to the law and has a pure conscience before God “this day” (Mosiah 2:14—15; compare Deuteronomy 17:14—20). He declares “this day” that his son Mosiah is their new king (Mosiah 2:30). He affirms that “this day [Christi hath spiritually begotten you” (Mosiah 5:7). These usages are important covenantal markers. It seems likely that Benjamin is using this phrase not as a mere literary embellishment, but as a term with legal and religious import.
…further corroboration for these pointed uses of “this day” in the Book of Mormon can be found in Hebrew literature. In Hebrew the word etzem is significant. It appears, for example, in Exodus 12:17, “Ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day [b’etzem hayom hazeh] have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.” Abraham Bloch has recently concluded that “this descriptive word was not a mere literary flourish” but a technical term of art with some unknown special significance.
For further insight, Bloch turns to the medieval Jewish jurist Nahmanides, who “noted with great amazement that etzem [‘self-same’J was used only in connection with the observance of Yom Kippur [the Israelite festival of the Day of Atonement] and Shavuot [the biblical festival of the Firstfruits, or Pentecost].” The implication is that this term was used to indicate that these high holy days in and of themselves produced a binding legal effect or holy religious status.
Evidently, in Nephite language and rhetoric, the phrase “this day” often indicated the covenantal and legal status of a holy day, much as “this day,” “today,” or “this selfsame day” did in Hebrew“ (Welch, John W., Donald W. Parry, and Stephen D. Ricks. ”This Day." In: Reexploring the Book of Mormon. FARMS. 1992, pp. 117-9).