Ether 10:32 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
and it came to pass that Com drew away the half of the kingdom and he reigned over the half of the kingdom forty and two years and he went to battle against the king Amgid and [they 1ABCDGHKPRST| EFIJLMNOQ] fought for the space of many years in the which Com gained power over Amgid and obtained power over the remainder of the kingdom

Here the 1849 LDS edition accidentally omitted the plural pronoun they, with the result that the passage ends up stating that Com fought for the space of many years, which is true enough. But the original text states that Com and Amgid fought (against each other) for many years. The 1920 LDS edition restored the original they in this passage, undoubtedly by reference to one of the early editions of the Book of Mormon. Similarly, the critical text will maintain the plural subject pronoun here.

Summary: Maintain in Ether 10:32 the plural subject pronoun they, the reading of the earliest text (“and they fought for the space of many years”); the 1849 omission of the they changed the subject to he (that is, Com); although that reading will work, the plural reading is the correct one.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 6

References