“Thou Shalt Make a Hole in the Top, and Also in the Bottom”

The Lord answers the last question first: holes in the top and bottom of the vessel that can be stopped and unstopped. Of this arrangement, Nibley notes:

“And the Lord said… thou shalt make a hole in the top thereof, and also in the bottom thereof; and when thou shalt suffer for air, thou shalt unstop the hole thereof, and receive air. And if it so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood” (p. 542, 1st ed.). An exacting editor by removing those very significant “thereofs” has made it appear that when Jared wanted air he was to open the top window of the boat and admit fresh air from the outside. But that is not what the original edition of the Book of Mormon says. For one thing, the ships had no windows communicating with the outside—“ye cannot have windows… ” (2:23); each ship had an airtight door (2:17), and that was all. Air was received not by opening and closing doors and windows, but by unplugging air holes (“thou shalt unstop the hole thereof, and receive air… ”), this being done only when the ship was not on the surface “when thou shalt suffer for air” i.e., when they were not able to open the hatches, the ships being submerged (2:20). This can refer only to a reserve supply of air, and indeed the brother of Jared recognizes that the people cannot possibly survive on the air contained within the ships at normal pressure: “… we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish” (2:19). So the Lord recommended a device for trapping (compressing) air, with a “hole in the top thereof and also in the bottom thereof,” not referring to the ship but to the air chamber itself. Note the peculiar language: “unstop” does not mean to open a door or window but to unplug a vent, here called a “hole” in contrast to the door mentioned in verse 17; it is specifically an air hole—“when thou shalt suffer for air, thou shalt unstop the hole thereof, and receive air” (1st ed.). When the crew find it impossible to remain on the surface—“and if it so be that the water come in upon thee” (2:20), they are to plug up the air chamber: “ye shall stop up the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood.” This, I believe, refers to replenishing the air supply on the surface, lest they suffocate when submerged—“that ye may not perish in the flood.”

Even more interesting is Nibley’s lengthy comparison between the barge construction and the texts of some ancient flood stories, one of which includes a possible parallel to the Jaredite air-system: “The boat has… a door to be shut during the storm flood and at least one ‘air-hole’ or ‘window’ (nappashu). The word nappashu, meaning ‘breather’ or ‘ventilator’ designates no ordinary window.”

Variant: Multiple occurrences of “thereof” were removed from this sentence, beginning with the 1920 edition:

And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top thereof, and also in the bottom thereof; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole thereof and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood.