1 Nephi 14:13 Textual Variants

Royal Skousen
the great mother of abominations did gather together [in 01PS| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] multitudes upon the face of all the earth among all the nations of the Gentiles to fight against the Lamb of God

The 1830 typesetter accidentally omitted the preposition in before multitudes. The meaning of the original text is that these multitudes are a part of the great mother of abominations, not that the great mother of abominations is forming her own armies. The Book of Mormon text includes a good many examples of different peoples gathering together “in multitudes”, especially to fight wars, including these two nearby examples:

For 1 Nephi 14:13, the 1908 RLDS edition, based on the printer’s manuscript, restored the in.

Summary: Restore in the LDS text the preposition in, the reading of the original manuscript, in 1 Nephi 14:13; the Book of Mormon consistently describes people as gathering together “in multitudes” to fight wars.

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part. 1

References