2 Nephi 5:34

~588–559 BC

1830 Edition

And it sufficeth me to say, that forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren.

Changes

And it sufficeth me to say, that forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren.

Simple English

Forty years had passed. We had already had wars and fights with our brothers.

Paraphrase

It’s enough to say that forty years had passed, and we’d already fought wars with our brothers.

Notes

5:34

It is reasonable to wonder how, within just forty years, the population could have grown large enough to sustain what the text describes as “wars.” After all, this would still have been the first generation of people in the New World. It is also important to note that Lehi’s original group likely consisted of only seventeen to nineteen adults.