The Book of Mormon

Helaman 13:31

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~6 BC

1830 Edition

and behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that it becometh slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them;

Influences

John 16:2 (KJV)
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Changes

aAnd behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that ithey becometh slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them;.

Simple English

'The time is coming when he will curse your riches. They will become slippery. You can’t hold onto them. When you are poor, you won’t be able to keep them.'

Paraphrase

'The time is coming when he’ll curse your wealth so that it becomes slippery—you won’t be able to hold onto it. When you’re poor, you won’t be able to keep anything.'

Notes

13:31-35

The phrase, "we have hid up our treasures, and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land." seems reminiscent of 1800s treasure hunting and Masonry. See Helaman 13:18 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." -Joel Tiffany, "Interview with Martin Harris," Tiffany's Monthly, vol. 5, no. 4 (Aug. 1859): p. 165.