Isaiah 53:7 (King James Bible) he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth
The King James translation for this passage first has the simple past-tense verb form opened but later the present-tense verb form openeth. The reason for this difference in tense seems to derive from the fact that the past-tense opened is preceded by past-tense verb forms (“was oppressed … was afflicted”) while the present-tense openeth is preceded by present-tense verb forms (“is brought … is dumb”). Yet the Masoretic Hebrew text underlying the King James Bible uses exactly the same verb form in both instances; both clauses should have been literally translated into Early Modern English in the same tense, as in “and he opened not his mouth”. The parallelism of the passage also supports translating both instances of the Hebrew verb with the same tense. In fact, modern English translations typically translate both clauses in the past tense:
The Greek Septuagint, on the other hand, translates both cases in the present tense; yet even there the tense remains the same for both occurrences of the verb open.
The Book of Mormon text in Mosiah 14:7 also has the same tense for both cases of the verb open—namely, the past-tense opened. Later on, in Mosiah 15:6, Abinadi quotes once more from the second half of the verse in Isaiah 53:7:
Again, the Book of Mormon text has the past tense opened for the last part of Isaiah 53:7, thus indicating that the use of opened in Mosiah 14:7 is not the result of scribal error but is definitely intended.
Summary: Retain the Book of Mormon’s consistent use of the past-tense opened in both Mosiah 14:7 and Mosiah 15:6; such usage agrees with the Hebrew text as well as modern English translations; in Isaiah 53:7, the King James Bible inconsistently reads opened at the beginning of the verse but openeth at the end.