Alma 2:17 Textual Variants

Here the 1830 compositor set Sidom rather than Sidon, the reading in 𝓟. The 1837 edition restored the correct Sidon. Sidon is the name of the river, with 37 occurrences, while Sidom is a land, with 7 occurrences. The first actual occurrence of Sidom is in Alma 15:1, so the error here in Alma 2:17 is simply a visual misreading of 𝓟. The first occurrence of Sidon is earlier in verse 15 of this chapter. The only other variation in the text with respect to the name Sidon is found twice in the original manuscript, where Oliver Cowdery wrote Sidon as Siden but more as a slip of the pen than intentionally (in Alma 43:40 and initially in Alma 43:51). All other occurrences of Sidon in the text are invariant in the manuscripts and printed editions. Sidon is definitely the correct name for the river.

The use of Sidon here in Alma 2:17 without any identifying specification makes it sound like a land. Elsewhere, the text almost always describes Sidon as either “the river Sidon” (27 times) or “the waters of Sidon” (8 times). There is one more occurrence of Sidon without any noun modifier: “neither durst they cross the head of Sidon over to the city of Nephihah” (Alma 56:25). Elsewhere the text has “the head of the river Sidon” (4 times).