What must Joseph Smith have thought as he translated this passage? Mormon received the commission to work with sacred records when he was young, but had to wait a number of years before he could assume the task. The records he was to work with were buried in a hill. By the time Joseph wrote this passage, he had lived through the parallel events. While there are certainly differences in the experiences of Mormon and Joseph Smith, it is doubtful that Joseph would have missed the parallels. Nevertheless, unlike other references in the Book of Mormon to the future, there is not textual foreshadowing showing Mormon as a type of the future translator. While we see the connection clearly, Mormon was unaware of it.
Geographic: Mormon does not give us enough information to firmly place the hill Shim. It is in the land Antum, and we have no other indication of the location of that land. We may presume, however, that it was close by Mormon’s home in the Bountiful land, and therefore that it was one of the northern lands. We will see it again in Mormon 4:23 when Mormon goes to the hill Shim fleeing Lamanites invading from the southland. This continues to point to the hill Shim lying in the northern parts of the Nephite holdings. (see Sorenson’s comments, John L. Sorenson. The Geography of Book of Mormon Events. FARMS 1990, pp. 312 and 317).