3 Nephi 22:10 Textual Variants

Isaiah 54:10 (King James Bible) neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed

The 1830 typesetter accidentally misread peace as the visually similar people. This kind of error is understandable given the high expectation of covenant with people. There are 32 passages where the text uses the word people to refer to people making covenants or to the Lord making covenants with people, including ten occurrences of the noun phrase “covenant people”. There is an instance of similar phraseology in another Book of Mormon quotation from the King James Bible (also from Isaiah): “and I will preserve thee and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people” (1 Nephi 21:8, quoting Isaiah 49:8). On the other hand, there are only six other instances in the text that refer to “a covenant of peace” or to “a covenant to keep the peace”, yet all of these refer to keeping or making a treaty of peace with opponents in war. So it is not surprising that here in 3 Nephi 22:10 the 1830 typesetter accidentally replaced the original “the covenant of my peace” with “the covenant of my people”.

Here the King James text has peace, not people. In accord with the King James Bible and the reading of the printer’s manuscript, the 1908 RLDS edition and the 1981 LDS edition restored peace to the text. The critical text will continue with peace in this passage.