KJV translation errors in the Book of Mormon

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Question: If the Book of Mormon is an accurate translation, why would it contain translational errors that exist in the King James Bible?

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Introduction to Question

The Book of Mormon contains quotations from the King James Version of the Bible (Hereafter "KJV"). These quotations contain what are now considered to be translation errors on the part of the translators of the KJV.

Royal Skousen, a Latter-day Saint linguist and scholar of the textual history of the Book of Mormon, has given a definitive and exhaustive list of these translation errors. Below is a table that contains all of them. They are organized in alphabetical order:

Location in Bible and Book of Mormon	Erroneous Translation	Passage Fragment	Commentary
1. Isaiah 3:22 ~ 2 Nephi 13:22	Crisping pins	"and the mantles and the wimples and the crisping pins"	"The modern-day equivalent of crisping pin would be curling iron. The Hebrew is generally interpreted here as referring to purses or handbags."
2. Isaiah 5:2 ~ 2 Nephi 15:2	Fenced	"and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof"	"The Hebrew verb for fenced in Isaiah 5:2 is now translated as 'to dig about' or 'to hoe or weed'; in other words, "he dug about it and cleared it of its stones."
3. Isaiah 14:29 ~ 2 Nephi 24:29	Fiery flying serpent	"and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent"	"The correct rendition of the Hebrew for Isaiah 14:29 should be 'a flying fiery serpent'. The compound fiery serpent is represented in the Hebrew by a single word saraf, which comes from the verb saraf 'to burn'; here we have a flying serpent whose sting burns (in other words, 'a flying poisonous serpent')."
4. Isaiah 14:4 ~ 2 Nephi 24:4	Golden city	"how hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased!"	The better translation is "how hath the oppressor ceased, the assaulting ceased".
5. Isaiah 9:1 ~ 2 Nephi 19:1	Grievously afflict	"and afterward did more grievously afflict by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations"	The better translation is "but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan".
6. Micah 5:14 ~ 3 Nephi 21:18	Groves	"and I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee"	"Here the noun grove is used to refer to a sacred grove used for cultic rites. However, the original Hebrew in these passages refers to Asherim, that is, wooden images of the Canaanite goddess Asherah."
7. Isaiah 14:2 ~ 2 Nephi 24:2	Handmaids	"and the land of the Lord shall be for servants and handmaids"	"In this verse the sense of handmaid is 'a female slave', especially since the paired noun 'servant means 'a male slave'. In biblical contexts, handmaid usually means 'a female personal servant', but not here."
8. Isaiah 3:3 ~ 2 Nephi 13:3	Orator	"and the cunning artificer and the eloquent orator"	"Here in the Hebrew the sense of orator is 'enchanter'. The English word derives from the Latin verb meaning 'to pray' (see definition 1 under orator in the [Oxford English Dictionary])."
9. Isaiah 2:16 ~ 2 Nephi 12:16	Pictures	"and upon all the ships of Tarshish and upon all the pleasant pictures"	The better translation is "and upon all the pleasant ships".
10. Isaiah 3:2 ~ 2 Nephi 13:24	Prudent	"the judge and the prophet and the prudent and the ancient"	"In the phrase 'the prudent and the ancient', the adjectival noun prudent is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for divining. This phrase is translated, for instance, as 'the diviner and the elder' in the English Standard Version."
11. Isaiah 2:4 ~ 2 Nephi 12:4	Rebuke	"and he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people"	"The Hebrew verb here lacks the negative sense of rebuke—that is, it means 'to judge' rather than 'to reprove'; note the preceding parallel line: 'and he shall judge among the nations'."
12. Isaiah 3:24 ~ 2 Nephi 13:24	Rent	"and instead of a girdle, a rent"	"There are two Hebrew verbs, both with identical consonants, but with different meanings: one means 'to tear' and the other means 'to go around or to surround'. The noun rent derives from the first verb, but the noun rope or cord (meaning to go around the body) derives from the second. Here the word girdle takes the archaic meaning 'belt'. Modern translators have typically rendered this line in Isaiah 3:24 as 'and instead of a belt, a rope'."
13. Isaiah 29:21 ~ 2 Nephi 27:32	Reproveth	"and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate"	"The verb reprove is used four times in the Book of Mormon, all in biblical quotes. The King James use of reprove adds a negative sense that is not in the Hebrew original. In all cases, the neutral verb judge would be a more appropriate translation."
14. Isaiah 13:21 ~ 2 Nephi 23:21	Satyrs	"and satyrs shall dance there"	"The Hebrew word here in the singular is sa'ir, which in the Hebrew refers to hairy demons or monsters that inhabit the deserts. This word has been incorrectly translated into its phonetically similar Greek word satyr, which refers to a woodland god that is half-human and half-beast."
15. Isaiah 14:5 ~ 2 Nephi 24:5	Scepter	"the Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers"	The better translation is "the Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the rod of the rulers".
16. Isaiah 52:15 ~ 3 Nephi 20:45	Sprinkle	"so he shall sprinkle many nations"	The Hebrew verb for sprinkle doesn't make sense in context here. Other translations have made this verse something like "the nations shall marvel upon him". Joseph Smith in his "New Translation" of the Bible replaced sprinkle with gather, showing the difficulty of rendering this verse.
17. Isaiah 14:12 ~ 2 Nephi 24:12	Weaken	"art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations"	"There are two meanings for this verb in the Hebrew: one means 'to weaken', the other 'to defeat or to lay prostrate'. In this context, the second of these works better and is the one adopted in modern translations, such as the English Standard Version: 'How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!'"
18. Isaiah 13:12 ~ 2 Nephi 23:12	Wedge	"I will make a man more precious. . .than the golden wedge of Ophir"	The better translation is "more precious. . .than the gold of Ophir".
19. Isaiah 3:22 ~ 2 Nephi 13:22	Wimples	"the changeable suits of apparel and the mantles and the wimples"	"The Hebrew word refers to a wide or flowing cloak. The English word used by the King James translators, wimple, is quite different: 'a garment of linen or silk formerly worn by women, so folded as to envelop the head, chin, sides of the face, and neck; now retained in the dress of nuns' (the first definition under the noun wimple in the Oxford English Dictionary)."

Thus the Book of Mormon includes some anachronistic, erroneous elements in its translation. Our critics ask “if the Book of Mormon is ‘the most correct book of any on earth,’ why would it contain translational errors that exist in the King James Bible?”

The only description of the translation process that Joseph Smith ever gave was that it was performed by the "gift and power of God"

We do not know the specific mechanism by which the biblical passages were included in the translation, therefore we cannot answer this question definitively based upon current historical information. The only description of the translation process that Joseph Smith ever gave was that it was performed by the "gift and power of God," and that the translation was performed using the "Urim and Thummim." Joseph Smith stated the following in July 1838:

Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon? Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which I translated the plates and thus came the book of Mormon. (Joseph Smith, (July 1838) Elders Journal 1:42-43.)

That said, a well-documented textual history of the Book of Mormon and statements left by witnesses to the translation may provide us a path to some answers.

Manuscipt evidence, as well as several statements from eyewitnesses to the translation, definitively rules out that a Bible was consulted during the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Using the Original and Printer's Manuscripts of the Book of Mormon, Latter-day Saint scholar Royal Skousen has definitively shown that none of the King James language contained in the Book of Mormon could have been copied directly from the Bible. He deduces this from the fact that when quoting, echoing, or alluding to the passages, Oliver (Joseph's amanuensis for the dictation of the Book of Mormon) consistently misspells certain words from the text that he wouldn't have misspelled if he was looking at the then-current edition of the KJB.

Witnesses to the translation process never reported that a Bible or any other book was present during the translation. Joseph performed most of the translation in the open using the stone and the hat. Thus how do we get the language from the King James version of the Bible? Given this evidence, we could assume that the Biblical passages were revealed to Joseph during the translation process in a format almost identical with similar passages in the King James Bible. Of course, it's possible that Joseph Smith dictated every portion of the Book of Mormon that quotes Isaiah to Oliver so that Joseph is always looking at the Bible and Oliver isn't; but that's less likely given the consistency with which Oliver misspells the words (wouldn't there be at least one time, throughout all the time that Joseph and Oliver were translating, where Joseph Smith hands Oliver the Bible to more efficiently copy the passages and where Oliver then spells the words correctly?) and the fact that no witnesses to the translation report a Bible in use.

When considering the data, Skousen proposes that, instead of Joseph or Oliver looking at a Bible, that God was simply able to provide the page of text from the King James Bible to Joseph's mind and then Joseph was free to alter the text as he pleased. In those cases where the Book of Mormon simply alludes to or echoes KJV language, perhaps the Lord allowed these portions of the text to be revealed in such a way that they would be more comprehensible/comfortable to his 19th century, Northeastern, frontier audience. This theology of translation may feel foreign and a bit strange to some Latter-day Saints, but it seems to fit well with the Lord's own words about the nature of revelation to Joseph Smith. The Lord speaks to his servants "after the manner of their language that they may come to understanding" (Doctrine and Covenants 1:24). Latter-day Saints should take comfort in fact that the Lord accommodates his perfection to our own weakness and uses our imperfect language and nature for the building up of Zion on the earth.

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