Here in the textual history for Helaman 6:39, there are two errors that entered the text. The first was the replacement of “upon the poor” with “upon their poor” in the first printing of the 1852 LDS edition. This error was undoubtedly prompted by the occurrence of their earlier in the sentence (“they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs”). In the second printing of the 1852 edition, the original the was restored, most likely by reference to the 1840 edition. The definite article the is supported by the occurrence of the in the following conjunct, “and the meek and humble followers of God”.
The second error has to do with the definite article in that following noun phrase, which in the earliest text read as “the meek and humble followers of God”. The 1837 edition inserted the definite article the before humble followers, thus creating three separate conjuncts in the larger prepositional phrase: “upon the poor and the meek and the humble followers of God”. The earlier text implies that there are two conjuncts, (1) the poor and (2) the followers of God who are meek and humble. In other words, in the earlier text meek is treated as an adjective modifying followers, but in the altered text the meek acts as a distinct noun phrase.
Elsewhere in the text, every occurrence of the meek acts as a noun phrase (eight times):
In two of these examples, the meek is conjoined with another noun phrase; one conjoined noun phrase repeats the definite article (“the meek and the poor in heart”, in 2 Nephi 28:13), but the other does not (“save the meek and lowly of heart”, in Moroni 7:44). In the last example, the phrase of heart modifies only lowly, not both meek and lowly; the phrase “the meek of heart” sounds quite implausible.
Elsewhere in the text, there are six examples of meek as an adjective, each of which occurs as a conjunct:
The conjoined adjective phrase “meek and lowly in heart” (which occurs three times in the Book of Mormon text) also occurs once in the King James Bible: “for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Literally the Greek there reads “meek I am and lowly in heart”, which argues that the adjective meek is distinct from the adjective phrase lowly in heart. Similarly, for the two cases of “meek and lowly of heart” (here in Helaman 6:39 and also in Moroni 7:44), the adjective meek should be interpreted as distinct from the adjective phrase lowly of heart.
These other examples, in conjuncts of both noun and adjective phrases, argue that the original expression in Helaman 6:39, “the meek and humble followers of God”, is perfectly acceptable. There is no need to repeat the definite article the before humble. The critical text will therefore restore the earliest reading in Helaman 6:39.
Originally in Helaman 6:39, the typesetter for the 1830 edition placed commas after both poor and meek, which implies that he treated all three conjuncts as nouns (even though there was no the before the third conjunct, “humble followers of God”):
The comma after meek may have therefore prompted the addition of the repeated the before humble followers in the 1837 edition:
The 1920 LDS edition removed the comma after poor but left the one after meek:
The critical text will remove the intrusive the before humble followers. The original reading implies that there should be no commas at all since there are only two noun-phrase conjuncts, “the poor” and “the meek and humble followers of God”:
Summary: Remove from Helaman 6:39 the intrusive the that the 1837 edition inserted before humble; in the original text the word meek serves as an adjective modifying followers (“the meek and humble followers of God”), which explains the lack of a repeated the before humble followers.