The Book of Mormon

Helaman 5:30

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~30 BC

1830 Edition

And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder; neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise; but behold, it was a still voice, of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul.

Influences

1 Kings 19:12 (KJV)
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Changes

And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder;, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise;, but behold, it was a still voice, of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul.—

Simple English

When they heard this voice, they knew it was not thunder. It was not a loud, noisy sound. It was a quiet voice, perfectly gentle, like a whisper. But it went right through to their souls.

Paraphrase

When they heard this voice, they realized it wasn’t thunder. It wasn’t a loud, chaotic sound. It was a quiet voice, perfectly gentle—almost like a whisper. And yet it cut straight to their souls.

Notes

5:28-43

"The preface to the King James Bible (prepared for the 1611 printing) uses certain words which do not appear in the Bible, such as 'clouds of darkness' and 'overshadowed.' This preface is still printed in the KJV Bibles today:

'clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this Land, that men should have been in doubt which way they were to walk... the appearance of Your Majesty, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and surmised mists...'

Smith repeated these words over and over again in the book of Helaman:

'And it came to pass that they were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness... behold the cloud of darkness, which had overshadowed them, did not disperse... the Lamanites could not flee because of the cloud of darkness which did overshadow them... he saw through the cloud of darkness... the Lamanites said unto him: What shall we do, that this cloud of darkness maybe removed from overshadowing us? And Aminadab said... You must repent.... and when you shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you... the cloud of darkness was dispersed. And it came to pass that when they cast their eyes about, and saw that the cloud of darkness was dispersed from overshadowing them, behold, they saw that they were encircled about... by a pillar of fire.' (Helaman 5:28, 31, 34, 36, 40-43).

After this repetitious section of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith never used the words 'cloud of darkness' again." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 27.