A comparison of the Lord’s Prayer in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 13:9-13) and the New Testament (Matthew 6:9-13) indicates these changes: (1) the personal pronoun who is used in the Book of Mormon to refer to God rather than the impersonal pronoun which; (2) the term “Thy kingdom come” is omitted from the Book of Mormon account, perhaps because the church (or “kingdom”) had already been established among the Nephites; (3) the Book of Mormon says “on” earth rather than “in” earth; (4) the sentence “Give us this day our daily bread” is omitted from the Book of Mormon account. The remainder of the two prayers is the same.
Some Latter-day Saints have raised the question as to why the clause “Lead us not into temptation” appears in the Book of Mormon account whereas the Prophet Joseph Smith apparently later changed this in his inspired revision of the Bible to read “And suffer us not to be led into temptation.” The following statement is a possible answer to this question:
Few of the present generation can comprehend the attitude of the Protestant Christian world to the Bible at the time the Book of Mormon was published. Every word in it was regarded as sacred and the word of God. The people worshipped the book rather than the Author. Such was the condition of the minds of those to whom the latter-day gospel was carried. Therefore, not to put fresh obstacles in the way of the honest, or further hurt their susceptibilities, the Lord, in his divine wisdom and loving kindness, permitted those portions of the Bible that were incorporated in the Book of Mormon to appear in the identical language to which the people were accustomed. It was only when a change was absolutely necessary that he permitted it. If this supposition be correct, then in no case would this precaution have to be observed more strictly than in the utterances of the Redeemer himself, as, for instance, in the Lord’s prayer.To show how clearly the text of the Old Testament has been followed, we draw attention to some peculiarities in the extracts from the prophecies of Isaiah that appear in the Book of Mormon. In the second verse of the twenty-second chapter of the second book of Nephi, the word Jehovah appears with every letter capitalized. It is so printed in the Bible where this same verse occurs. (Isa. 12:2.) Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon the word appears with only the first letter a capital. In the same chapter (verse 6.) Zion is spelled Sion; in all other places it is spelled with a Z. But in this place it is copied letter for letter from the corresponding verse in Isaiah (12:6.) In Isaiah (6:2, 6.) the double plural—both Hebrew and English—appears in the word seraphions. It so appears when quoted in the Book of Mormon. The word silverlings appears (II Nephi 17:23.) in the reproduction of Isaiah 7:23. Now silverlings were as unknown to English speaking people at the time the Book of Mormon was translated as they were to the Nephites. These are small things, but they have weight when considered in this connection.
Another thing that must be remembered: it was not until considerably later in the history of the Prophet Joseph Smith, that it was shown to him that the more correct translation of this portion of the prayer would be, “Suffer us not to be led into temptation.” (Improvement Era, 4:306-7.)