Ether 6:5 Textual Variants

In the 1874 RLDS edition, the plural waves was replaced with the singular wave. The resulting phraseology, “upon the wave of the sea before the wind”, uses only singular noun forms and could be considered poetic. Nonetheless, the change was probably unintended; and the subsequent RLDS edition (in 1892) restored the original plural waves. Note that the following verse has the plural:

• Ether 6:6
  • and it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea because of the mountain waves which broke upon them

In fact, there is no instance of the singular wave in the entire Book of Mormon, only waves (eight of them in all, including here in Ether 6:5).