Here the original text first gives the name of the son of Jared who accepted the kingship (namely, Orihah), then uses the subject pronoun he to state that “Orihah he was anointed to be king over the people”. This kind of redundancy is found in earlier English as well as in ballads and in colloquial and dialectal speech today. The Oxford English Dictionary, under definition 3a for he, provides this example from Middle English:
Since the redundancy of Orihah he was nonstandard in Joseph Smith’s time, he removed the redundant he in his editing for the 1837 edition. The critical text will restore the original usage, despite its archaic (or dialectal) nature.
Although there are no other examples in the text precisely like this one, there are other cases where a name is immediately followed by the subject pronoun he. In the following examples, the redundant he was removed by Joseph Smith in his editing for the 1837 edition; in these cases, the original he was the subject of a present participial clause:
See under each of these passages for further discussion regarding Joseph Smith’s editing out of the redundant he; also see under subject repetition in volume 3.
David Calabro points out (personal communication) that the expression Orihah he could also be viewed as a Hebraism, namely, the nominative absolute. Examples of this Hebraism can be found in the King James Bible, for instance in Deuteronomy 31:8: “and the LORD he it is that doth go before thee”. Calabro gives a more literal translation for the Hebrew as “and Yahweh he [is] the one going before thee”. Calabro also notes that this Hebrew construction is very relevant to the passage here in Ether 6:27 where the subject Orihah is “singled out and contrasted with other possible or actual alternatives”, which is how Waltke and O’Connor characterize the purpose of the nominative absolute. Or as Calabro puts it, “Orihah is singled out from his brothers and cousins as the one who is anointed as king”. For further discussion of this Hebraism, see pages 297–298 (section 16.3.3c) as well as pages 131–132 (section 8.4.1b) in Bruce K. Waltke and M. O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1990).
Summary: Restore in Ether 6:27 the redundant pronoun he after Orihah, the reading of the earliest text; such usage was prevalent in earlier English and continues in colloquial and dialectal English to this day; the usage may also be considered an instance of the Hebraistic nominative absolute.