Mosiah 22:2 Textual Variants

The original text here is grammatically difficult. After the conjunction for, we expect (at least eventually) a main clause. Instead, we get two subordinate clauses: a present participial clause (“the Lamanites being so numerous”) followed by a resultive that-clause (“that it was impossible for the people of Limhi to contend with them”). The 1920 LDS edition removed the subordinate that here in this passage. David Calabro (personal communication) suggests two alternative grammatical changes that could have been implemented here: delete the conjunctive for at the beginning or edit the nonfinite being to were:

alternative grammatical emendations

• the Lamanites being so numerous that it was impossible for the people of Limhi to contend with them
• for the Lamanites were so numerous that it was impossible for the people of Limhi to contend with them

There is one other example of this kind of subordinate construction in the text, although this one has a following main clause (“therefore he caused …”) that leads to closure:

• Mosiah 2:6
  • for the multitude being so great that king Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple therefore he caused a tower to be erected that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them

Of course, the original text has many examples where a subordinate construction is left stranded. The critical text will therefore restore the earliest reading here in Mosiah 22:2, despite its grammatical difficulty.