--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Brookbank, Thomas W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 2 published: 1909-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Thomas W. Brookbank, "Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon—I," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 2 (December 1909): 117–120.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1302unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1302unse start_page: 117 end_page: 120 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1302unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon—I Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. BY THOMAS W. BROOKBANK. I. At the beginning of these remarks, it is confessed that not many different kinds of Hebrew idioms are known to the writer to exist in the Book of Mormon; but our readers may rest assured that those which are brought to their attention, will be sustained by proofs fully competent to manifest their Jewish character, and a few of them well sustained, make it necessary for us to refer the authorship of the Book of Mormon to some person or persons who were familiar with the peculiarities of the Hebrew language. With respect to the idiom first to be considered, we find the following statement is given in Green s Hebrew Grammar, para- graph 269, as the principle upon which it is based. He says: "The dependence of one verb upon another is most distinctly expressed by putting the second verb in the infinitive. The second verb may, however, be in form co-ordinated with the first by being put in the same or an equivalent tense with or without a copulative, the true relation between the verbs being left to be inferred from their obvious signification." He then gives some examples to illustrate the application of the principle thus enunciated, and from them the following are selected: "I know not (how) I shall flatter." In this example how is a supplied word,, and an infinitive is thrown out of use by co-ordinating flatter with know. The meaning of the expression becomes plainly manifest by restoring the infinitive, as, ' 'I know not how to flatter. ' ' A second illustration is, 'How can (or ' shall) 1 endure and see the evil that shall come upon my people" — the 118 IMPROVEMENT ERA. second verb is here put in the same order as the first one, instead of being made to occur in its usual dependent relation, as, "How can I endure to see," etc. This example is taken from Est. 8: 6; and if we incorporate the marginal reading into the text, it will read, "How can I be able that I may see," etc. The sense is not thereby modified, but this rendering serves to show that the connective is not always the same— that one being used which the sense most obviously demands. With this peculiar idiomatic structure of sentences let us now compare the following expres- sions taken from the Book of Mormon: 1. "How is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?" (I Nephi 17: 51); instead of, "How is it that he cannot instruct me how to build a ship?" build in the text being co-ordinated with instruct. 2. "And bade him that he should read;" for "And bade him to read" (I Nephi 1: 11). 3. "Commanded my father * * * that he should take his family" (I Nephi 2: 2). 4. "Did plead with me that I would forgive them" (I Nephi 7: 20). 5. "And desired him that he would give unto us the records" (I Nephi 3: 24). 6. "I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me" (I Nephi 8: 8.) 7. "I cast my eyes round about that perhaps I might discover my family also" (I Nephi 8: 13). 8. "I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard" (I Nephi 14: 28). 9. "The Lord created the earth that it should be inherited" (I Nephi 17: 36). 10. "He hath created his children that they should possess it" (I Nephi 17: 36). Many more examples can be found in the Book of Mormon to illustrate the idiom under consideration, but those now given suffice all present purposes, since they manifest beyond a doubt that this peculiar form of expression was familiar to the writers of that record. The reader can easily supply the infinitive form of the dependent verbs. Again, we find that the Nephite authors made frequent use of a figure of speech called enallage, which is a convenient HEBREW IDIOMS IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 119 term to express the substitution of one gender, person, number, case, mode, tense, etc., of the same word for another; and learned commentators inform us that it was frequently applied by the ancient Hel^rews. Dr. Angus in the Bible Hand Book, paragraph 277, speaking of Hebraisms, says that plural forms are sometimes put by the Jews for the singular to imply that there are more than one person or thing held in view, though it may be to only one that the direct address or reference is made. In other words, when more than one was to share in a thought, or sentiment, the plural was some- times used to show that the single individual chiefly in mind was not the only one to whom it was applicable, and, conversely, when more than one was to be included, the singular could be substituted for the plural to show, among other things, that those to whom the thought or command, etc., was directed, were not viewed collectively only, but as individuals also, who separately composed the mass. An example of the substitution of the singular for the plural occurs in the terms used by Moses in giving the ten com- mandments to the Israelites (Ex. 20). Just previous to the announcement of these laws, God had instructed his servant to speak to the people, saying, "Ye hav e seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I 'bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenants, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine" (Ex. 19: 4, 5). This is a preface to the ten command- ments, and plural forms are used exclusively when reference is made to the whole body of the Israelites; but there occurs a remarkable and uniform substitution of the singular for the plural, when the obligation of the law is being laid upon these same people. By the use of thou and thy instead of ye and your, however, every individual is searched out and made to feel his personal account- ability before the law almost as sensibly as if he had been command- ed by name to observe it. None could deceive himself with the vain plea that all must be well with Israel individually in the sight of God, because collectively the people were acknowledged by him. It is thus manifest that this idiom placed in the power of the Jews a wonderfully effective mode of address. An example of a differ- 120 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ent kind — one that illustrates the substitution of the plural for the singular, is found in Gen. 19: 29, where it is stated that God over- threw the "cities" in which Lot dwelt. Now Lot could dwell in only one of the cities of the Dead Sea plain, as physical necessities require us to suppose, but in using the plural for the singular in this case, the manifest purpose is to point out the fact that disas- ter had befallen not only the city where Lot had his abode, but that other cities also in the same neighborhood had been overwhelmed, and probably in the same manner. Other examples of this kind of enallage occur in Judges 12: 7; Nehemiah 3: 8; and elsewhere in the Bible. 20, we find a remarkable Turning, now, to I Nephi 2: 19, change number involving the Hebraism under consideration. in The text reads thus: "And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me saying, Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart. And inas- much as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper and shall be led to a land of promise, yea, a land which is choice above all lands." It is to be observed with respect to the grounds for the change in this text from the singular to the plural, that as Nephi's faith in God, and his diligence in serving him, were not characteristic of all the people with whom he was associated, the Lord commends him personally for his individual righteousness, and so uses the singular pronoun in his address; but, on the other hand, as he pur- posed making the promise of prosperity under the stated conditions broad enough to apply not only to Nephi, but to all his compan- ions as well, and to their posterity, ye is appropriately substituted for the singular thou in the latter part of the text, according to the principles of the idiom in hand. Nephi, further, though a chosen and highly favored servant of God, was thus left without any grounds for claiming special favors and privileges under the gen- eral promise of prosperity to all who should heed the command- ments of the Lord. In I Nephi 17: 55, there is another fine example of enallage. "And now, they [Nephi's brothers] This verse reads: said, We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee, for we know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken us. And they fell down before^me and were about to worship me, but I