Helaman 13:27 Textual Variants

In this passage, the plural hearts occurs first (“walk after the pride of your own hearts”), but then in the following text there is a singular heart (“and do whatsoever your heart desireth”). The original manuscript apparently had the singular heart since both the printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition do. But this singular heart in 𝓞 could still be an error for hearts. In the original text, the historical third-person singular ending -(e)th could occur with plural subjects, so “whatsoever your hearts desireth” is quite possible. Here in Helaman 13:27, the 1905 LDS edition emended the singular heart to hearts, most likely in an attempt to make the noun agree with the preceding plural hearts in “walk after the pride of your own hearts”. Nevertheless, the singular -(e)th ending was left at the end of desireth. The 1911 LDS edition also followed this plural reading, but the 1920 LDS edition restored the singular heart, the reading of all the earliest textual sources.

In the original text for Helaman 13:22, the usage is similar. There a singular heart is referred to by means of a plural pronoun. In fact, the previous verse has an instance of plural hearts, so we end up with a second example in the earliest text where both heart and hearts are found in the same passage without any change in the number of the subject:

• Helaman 13:21–22 (earliest text)
  • and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them … ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things which he hath blessed you but ye do always remember your riches not to thank the Lord your God for them yea your heart is not drawn out unto the Lord but they do swell with great pride unto boasting For further discussion of this issue, see under Alma 32:28. Here in Helaman 13:27, the critical text will maintain the variation in grammatical number for heart(s).