The Book of Mormon

2 Nephi 3:17

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~588–570 BC

1830 Edition

And the Lord hath said, I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much: for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him.

Influences

Revelation 11:3 (KJV)
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Changes

And the Lord hath said,: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much:, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him.

Simple English

'The Lord said: ‘I will bring a Moses. I will give him power with a rod. I will give him my law in writing. But I will not make him a great speaker. He will not speak much. I will not make him powerful in speaking. But I will write my law to him with my own finger. I will make someone to speak for him.’'

Paraphrase

The Lord said, 'I’ll raise up a Moses. I’ll give him power with a rod, and I’ll give him written judgment. But I won’t make him a great speaker—he won’t speak much. Yet I’ll write my law to him with my own finger, and I’ll give him a spokesman.'

Notes

3:4-21

2 Nephi 3:4–21 serves as a clear example of the circular repetition that characterizes much of the Book of Mormon.

The repeated phrase “fruit of my loins” appears in varied forms no fewer than 21 times within this single passage.

As noted above, this pattern of repetition is not isolated but appears consistently across different authors in the Book of Mormon. See also Alma 5:6, Ether 2:17, and 3 Nephi 16:8–15.

M.T. Lamb made the rather axiomatic comment, “The prevailing style of the Book of Mormon is so verbose, so full of inelegant and uncalled-for repetitions, that any ordinary writer can greatly excel it—often reducing its wordy sentences to one-half, and one-third, and even one-fourth their present compass without any sacrifice of thought or force or beauty...” —M.T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or The Book of Mormon, Is It From God? (New York: Ward and Drummand, 1887), p. 27.

The verbose, lengthy, and repetitive style of the Book of Mormon casts doubt on the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. As Jerald and Sandra note, "Considering the effort needed to make the original gold plates of the Book of Mormon and then to engrave them, one would expect a scribe to be as concise as possible, not wordy. Nephi's brother, Jacob complained: 'I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates' (Jacob 4:1). However, lengthy sentences abound in the Book of Mormon." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 231.

Other examples of verbose sections: 3 Nephi 8:1-3; 3 Nephi 10:37 (compare against Matt. 23:37); 3 Nephi 16:8-10.

B.H. Roberts, president of the LDS First Quorum of the Seventy and assistant church historian made these candid remarks, "... I shall hold that what is here presented [concerning various accounts of Anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon] illustrates sufficiently the matter taken in hand by referring to them, namely that they are all of one breed and brand; so nearly alike that one mind is the author of them, and that a young and undeveloped, but piously inclined mind. The evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their creator. It is difficult to believe that they are the product of history..." -B.H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon, ed. Brigham H. Madsen (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), p. 264.