Mosiah 12:5 Textual Variants

Joanne Case (personal communication, 17 May 2004) wonders if the adverbial before is missing an object or if before is an error for forth. The expression “to drive forth” occurs 12 times in the Book of Mormon text, as in the following two examples where the context is similar to that found in Mosiah 12:5:

• Mosiah 12:12
  • thou shalt be as the blossoms of a thistle which when it is fully ripe if the wind bloweth it is driven forth upon the face of the land
• Helaman 3:16
  • even until they have fallen into transgression and have been murdered plundered and hunted and driven forth and slain and scattered upon the face of the earth

Although forth is possible in Mosiah 12:5, there is no textual evidence in the manuscripts or editions for forth and before ever being mixed up.

This example of before in Mosiah 12:5 is the only one in the entire Book of Mormon text where adverbial before is used to refer to space rather than time. The King James Bible, however, has a number of examples of before being used this way with the motion verbs go and run (but none with drive), as in these two examples:

• Matthew 21:9 and the multitudes that went before and followed cried saying …
• Luke 19:4 and he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree

Despite its uniqueness, the usage in Mosiah 12:5 is perfectly fine. There is no need to emend before by adding an object or by replacing before with forth.