Helaman 9:16 Textual Variants

behold we know that this Nephi must have agreed with some one to slay the judge and then he might declare [it 1ABCDEGHKPRST| FIJLMNOQ] unto us that he might convert us unto his faith that he might raise himself to be a great man chosen of God and a prophet

The 1852 LDS edition omitted the direct object pronoun it from this passage. It was restored in the 1920 LDS edition. (For another example of the omission of a direct object it, see under Alma 13:22.) Here in Helaman 9:16, the it is nonexpletive—that is, it does not refer to one of the following that- clauses (which are actually resultive clauses, not complements for the verb declare). In this particular instance, the it refers to the slaying of the judge. Of course, it is possible to have an expletive use of it referring to a following direct object that-clause:

Helaman 10:6
- behold I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels that ye shall have power over this people and shall smite the earth with famine and with pestilence and destruction according to the wickedness of this people

Summary: Retain the original it in Helaman 9:16: “and then he might declare it unto us” (the reading of the earliest extant text, the printer’s manuscript).

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 5

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