2 Nephi 9:2 Textual Variants

Here the 1892 RLDS edition accidentally replaced the plural “the lands of their inheritance” with the singular “the land of their inheritance”. In addition to the use of the plural in “the lands of their inheritance” here in 2 Nephi 9:2, we also have the plural “all their lands of promise” in the following clause, which further shows that the plural use in “the lands of their inheritance” is no mistake.

Elsewhere the Book of Mormon typically refers to the house of Israel or the Jews as returning to “the lands of their inheritance”:

• 1 Nephi 22:12
  • wherefore he will bring them again out of captivity and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their first inheritance
• 2 Nephi 6:11
  • nevertheless the Lord will be merciful unto them that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance
• 2 Nephi 10:7
  • when the day cometh that they shall believe in me that I am Christ then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh upon the earth unto the lands of their inheritance
• 2 Nephi 10:8
  • and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me saith God in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance
• 2 Nephi 25:11
  • and notwithstanding that they have been carried away they shall return again and possess the land of Jerusalem wherefore they shall be restored again to the [lands 1APS|land BCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRT] of their inheritance
• 3 Nephi 29:1
  • then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with the children of Israel concerning their restoration to the [land >+ lands 1|lands ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST] of their inheritance is already beginning to be fulfilled

The last two examples show the tendency in the text to replace the plural lands with the singular land. In 2 Nephi 25:11, beginning with the 1837 edition, the standard text has read “the land of their inheritance”, probably because of the preceding singular “the land of Jerusalem”. And in 3 Nephi 29:1, scribe 2 of 𝓟 initially wrote “the land of their inheritance” but later added the plural s supralinearly with somewhat heavier ink flow (the originally written land was at the end of the line in 𝓟). The 1830 edition, set from 𝓞 for this part of the text, has the correct plural.

There are, of course, legitimate cases with the singular land that refer to the return of the house of Israel or the Jews:

• 1 Nephi 10:3
  • and after that they are brought back out of captivity to possess again their land of inheritance
• 3 Nephi 20:33
  • then will the Father gather them together again and give unto them Jerusalem for the land of their inheritance
• 3 Nephi 20:46
  • and then shall Jerusalem be inhabited again with my people and it shall be the land of their inheritance
• 3 Nephi 21:28
  • and then shall the work commence with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance
• Mormon 5:14
  • that the Father may bring about through his most Beloved his great and eternal purpose in the restoring the Jews or all the house of Israel to the land of their inheritance which the Lord their God hath given them unto the fulfilling of his covenant

Unlike the example in 2 Nephi 25:11, the two examples in 3 Nephi 20 require the singular because of the reference to the specific land of Jerusalem.

The phrase “land(s) of one’s inheritance” is also used to refer to the lands of other peoples. For another example of where the plural lands was replaced by the singular land, see Alma 54:13.