Alma 5:4 Textual Variants

Here scribe 2 of 𝓟 wrote the singular hand, but otherwise the Book of Mormon text avoids the singular hand for expressions of this type. Elsewhere the text has only the plural hands in instances of “delivering someone into the hands of X” (17 times), “delivering someone out of the hands of X” (32 times), and “delivering someone from the hands of X” (2 times). There are no other examples of this type that take the singular hand.

In addition, there is abundant evidence in the manuscripts that the scribes frequently wrote hand instead of the correct hands. In the following list, we have ten examples where the scribe initially wrote hand but then corrected it to hands; Oliver Cowdery is responsible for seven of the examples, scribe 2 of 𝓟 for the remaining three (each of the latter is marked below with an asterisk):

• 2 Nephi 15:12 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • neither consider the operation of his [hand >+ hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]
• * Mosiah 27:4 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • laboring with their own [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] for their support
• Alma 44:7 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • ye are in our [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]
• Alma 52:10 (initial error in 𝓞)
  • and strengthen the cities round about which had not fallen into the [hand > hands 0|hands 1ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of the Lamanites
• Alma 57:12 (initial error in correcting 𝓟)
  • therefore they yielded up the city [into our hands 0ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQS| NULL >+ into our hand > into our hands 1|unto our hands RT]
• Helaman 4:9 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • yea they retained many cities which had fallen into the [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of the Lamanites
• 3 Nephi 4:8 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • and deliver them out of the [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of their enemies
• Mormon 5:23 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • ye are in the [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of God
• Mormon 6:15 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • being left by the [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of those who slew them to molder upon the land
• Moroni 2:2 (initial error in 𝓟)
  • on him whom ye shall lay your [hand > hands 1|hands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST]

Thus the chances are quite high that the singular hand in 𝓟 for Alma 5:4 is an error for hands.

Of course, the singular hand is possible in English. In fact, when we consider similar usage in the King James Bible, we find evidence for both singular hand and plural hands, as in the following sampling from the first part of the King James Old Testament:

• Genesis 37:21 and he delivered him out of their hands
• Exodus 2:19 an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds
• Exodus 3:8 to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians
• Deuteronomy 1:27 to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites
• Joshua 21:44 the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand
• Judges 6:13 and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites
• Judges 8:3 God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian Oreb and Zeeb
• Judges 8:34 who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies

In all these examples, the original Hebrew uses the singular for two distinct Hebrew words meaning ‘hand’; thus the variation in number in the King James Bible derives from usage in Early Modern English. Since for this type of expression the singular hand is possible in the King James Bible, the critical text will accept the singular hand in Alma 5:4, the reading of the earliest extant textual source (the printer’s manuscript), even though the odds are high that this instance of the singular hand is a scribal error for hands.