The Book of Mormon

Helaman 13:18

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~6 BC

1830 Edition

And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord of Hosts, yea, our great and true God, that whoso shall hide up treasures in the earth, shall find them again no more, because of the great curse of the land, save he be a righteous man, and shall hide it up unto the Lord:

Influences

1 Thessalonians 1:9 (KJV)
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

Changes

And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord of Hosts, yea, our great and true God, that whoso shall hide up treasures in the earth, shall find them again no more, because of the great curse of the land, save he be a righteous man, and shall hide it up unto the Lord:.

Simple English

'It will happen, says the Lord of Hosts, our great and true God: Anyone who buries treasure in the earth won’t find it again. This is because of the great curse on the land. Unless he is a good person. Unless he buries it for the Lord.'

Paraphrase

'The Lord of Hosts, our great and true God, says this: Anyone who buries treasure in the ground will never find it again because of the great curse on the land—unless he’s righteous and dedicates it to the Lord.'

Notes

13:18

The phrase, "whoso shall hide up treasures in the earth, shall find them again no more, because of the great curse of the land..." seems reminiscent of 1800s treasure hunting and Masonry. See Helaman 13:35 as well.

In December of 1825 the Wayne Sentinel, printed in Palmyra, NY, printed the following story: "WONDERFUL DISCOVERY-A few days since was discovered in this town [Albion], by help of a mineral stone, which becomes transparent when placed in a hat and the light excluded by the face of him who looks into it, provided he is fortune's favorite, a monstrous POTASH KETTLE in the bowels of Mother Earth, filled with the purest bullion. Some attempts have been made to dig it up, but without success. His Satanic Majesty, or some other unseen agent, appears to keep it under marching orders, for no sooner is it dug onto in one place, than it moves off like 'false delusive hope' only to re-appear in some remote place. But its pursuers are now sanguine of success. They have entrenched the kettle all around, and driven a steel ramrod into the ground immediately over it, to break the enchantment. Nothing now remains but to raise its ponderous weight and establish a mint that it may be coined into federal money. Good news indeed for these hard times..." -Wayne Sentinel, Dec. 27, 1825, ass quoted in The Creation of the Book of Mormon: A Historical Inquiry, by LaMar Petersen, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Freethinker Press, 2000), p. 28.

Martin Harris gave the following account of the Smiths and the money diggers: "Mr. Stowell was at this time at old Mr. Smith's, digging for money. It was reported by these money-diggers, that they had found boxes, but before they could secure them, they would sink into the earth. A candid old Presbyterian told me, that on the Susquehannah flats he dug down to an iron chest, that he scraped the dirt off with his shovel, but had nothing with him to open the chest; then he went away to get help, and when they came to it, it moved away two or three rods into the earth, and they could not get it." -Tiffany's Monthly, vol. 5, no. 4 (Aug. 1859): p. 165.