2 Nephi 3:7
1830 Edition
Yea, Joseph truly said, thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment, that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers.
Changes
Simple English
Joseph said the Lord told him: 'I will bring a special seer from your kids. He will be respected a lot among your kids. I will tell him to do work for your kids, his brothers. This work will be very helpful to them. It will teach them about the promises I made with your fathers.'
Paraphrase
Joseph said the Lord told him: 'I’ll raise up a chosen seer from your descendants. His own people will respect him highly. I’ll command him to do a work for your descendants, his brothers, that will be of great value to them—bringing them to know the promises I made with your ancestors.'
Notes
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.