Ether 2:4–5 Textual Variants

There is a possibility that the last them in this passage is an error for him. As explained under 1 Nephi 10:18–19, them and him were sometimes mixed up during the early transmission of the text, especially when taking down Joseph Smith’s dictation (since in colloquial speech both object pronouns are pronounced identically as /ßm/).

At the beginning of verse 4, the text records that the Lord, while in a cloud, talked with the brother of Jared, not with the entire group. But the text immediately following in verse 5 refers to the entire group: “the Lord commanded them that they should go forth … the Lord did go before them”. Even here, one could argue that the them in “the Lord commanded them” is an error for him (in other words, the Lord commanded the brother of Jared). Later in verse 14, the text once more explicitly refers to the Lord as speaking with the brother of Jared while he, the Lord, was in a cloud:

• Ether 2:14
  • and it came to pass at the end of the four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared and stood in a cloud and talked with him

Ultimately, however, the plural usage will work throughout verse 5. One could say that the Lord spoke to the entire group through the brother of Jared. In the same way, we have biblical references stating that the Lord spoke to the children of Israel when in actuality he spoke through his prophet:

• Leviticus 10:11 (through Moses)
  • and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses
• Joshua 21:45 (through Joshua)
  • there failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel
• Jeremiah 10:1 (through Jeremiah)
  • hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel

As Don Brugger points out (personal communication), there are examples like this in the Book of Mormon as well. For instance, in 1 Nephi 4:34 Nephi tells Zoram that “surely the Lord hath commanded us to do this thing”, yet the actual commandment was given to Lehi (as explicitly stated earlier in 1 Nephi):

• 1 Nephi 3:2, 4
  • behold I have dreamed a dream in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brethren shall return to Jerusalem … wherefore the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban and seek the records and bring them down hither into the wilderness

We should also note that if the last them in Ether 2:5 were changed to him, the reader could readily misread the text as stating that it was the brother of Jared who stood in a cloud: “the Lord did go before them and did talk with him as he stood in a cloud”. It is easier to interpret all of verse 5 as referring to the group, even though the brother of Jared is the one through whom the Lord spoke and commanded the group.

David Calabro points out (personal communication) that it is also possible that the latter part of verse 5 refers to a time when the whole group directly heard the Lord’s voice speaking to them from a cloud. The Lord normally spoke through Moses to the children of Israel in the wilderness, but when the Lord first gave the Ten Commandments at mount Sinai, they all heard the voice of the Lord speaking to them directly (Deuteronomy 5:22–27). Similarly, the latter part of verse 5 here in Ether 2 could be referring to such an event. Under that interpretation, the plural pronoun them would work without any problem.