Amen

Before commenting on some of the varied meanings of the Hebrew word amen, I’ll write briefly about why the language has so many nouns and verbs that carry an unusually high number of multiple meanings. Compared to other languages, especially modern ones, Biblical Hebrew includes a relatively small total vocabulary. For example, The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary lists 171,476 words in current use[i]. On the other side of the spectrum, Biblical Hebrew only has about 8,000. Because the Old Testament Hebrew vocabulary set is so limited, a comparatively high number of meanings are assigned to each word. This makes the language both easy and difficult to learn. Easy, because there are fewer total words to memorize in order to become fluent in the language, and hard, because it requires more time and research to learn the full scope of each word’s possible related meanings. 

When I first started studying Hebrew, it was both exciting and daunting to learn that many nouns and verbs represent five or more ideas. Take the well-known word shalom, for example. Most Westerners are only familiar with one primary meaning, that of “peace”, but shalom actually carries at least nine distinct meanings, including: peace, safety, tranquility, completeness, comfort, wholeness, well-being, hello, and goodbye.

So, what does this have to do with amen? It's another example of a Biblical Hebrew word that takes on various related meanings. Church and synagogue goers everywhere are very familiar with its two main scripture-based meanings, but its last two have added depth to my personal worship as I've learned more about their origins. 

First we’ll start with the primary meaning of amen as expressed today. It operates as a voiced agreement with a prayer, talk, or testimony and means “true”, “surely (it is so)”, or “may it be so.” This Hebrew word gets its principle meaning from neh-eh-MAHN נֶאֱמָן, which signifies “true” and “faithful”. We see the same three-letter root אמן (A-M-N א-מ-ן) from amen and neh-eh-MAHN appear in other Biblical Hebrew words and phrases that also include references to the idea of "truth". The word ahm-NAHM (אָמְנָם) from 2 Kings 19:17 is an example. It signifies "indeed" or "of a truth".

Amen is similarly anchored in the principle Hebrew word for “truth”, eh-MEHT אֶמֶת. Underlining this point, the common modern-Hebrew phrase beh eh-MEHT בֶּאֱמֶת means “Really?” or “Are you serious?”, although it's literally translated as “In truth?” As a matter of fact, the word amen is so rooted to the idea of “truth” in Hebrew that the Savior Himself is referred to as The Amen in Revelation 3:14. In this verse notice how the Lord uses the words faithful, true, and witness, which are all directly linked in meaning to the word amen, immediately after referring to Himself as "The Amen".

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God…”

The self-application of the word amen as one of His Divine titles makes sense seeing that He is “the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). 

The next usage of amen is as a sealing witness by a speaker at the end of a discourse or testimony. In this case, amen changes from being a statement of agreement coming from the hearer to being an affirmation by the speaker that what he or she has just said is accurate and true. In a sense, it functions like a New Testament “verily”, except that it comes at the end of a discourse instead of at the beginning, in effect sealing the individual’s words as a personal witness or testimony. This is the common usage we come across in the scriptures where the Savior or the Apostles are testifying of truth. Besides the examples I’ve given below from the Apostle John’s testimony and the writings of the New World prophet Nephi, see Alma 13:9, Helaman 12:23-26, Ether 5:1-6, and Doctrine and Covenants 81:1-7.

“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)

“And (1) I bear record that I saw the things which my father saw, and the angel of the Lord did make them known unto me. And now I make an end of speaking concerning the things which I saw while I was carried away in the Spirit; and if all the things which I saw are not written, (2) the things which I have written are true. (3) And thus it is. Amen.” (1 Nephi 14:29-30, emphasis added)

Nephi makes three prior testimonial statements here before capping his witness with the final affirmative amen.

There’s even more to amen when we take into account two verbs that stem from the same Hebrew root אמן (A-M-N). The third meaning comes from a verb that incorporates the concept of truth: leh-heh-eh-MEEN (לְהֶאֱמִין). It signifies “to believe”, “to trust”, and “to confide in”.  So when a listener says amen at the end of a prayer, testimony, or talk, it takes on the deeper expression of “I/we (actively) believe that what was said is true,” rather than just being a statement of passive agreement.

The last application of amen that I’ll reference here is the one that I like best, mainly because it's directly effected my personal prayer relationship with the Lord. I’ll explain what I mean by referring to another Hebrew verb that’s founded on the word amen and, again, is linked to the word “truth”. This form is the masculine, imperative (command) form of leh-ah-MEHN (לְאַמֵן), a verb that means “to teach, train, educate, tutor, coach, bring up/raise”. So, this command-form of ah-MEHN אמן, when stated at the end of a prayer, literally means, “Teach and train me (in the truth)”. It also carries an added indirect reference to our Father-child relationship with God since the verb also means to “raise” or “rear (a child)”.

This personalized amen at the end of my prayers reminds me that I need to pause and patiently wait for the Lord’s tutoring inspiration once I stop speaking, instead of rushing off to other tasks that are calling for my attention.

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[1] Oxford Dictionaries online

"To Hear is to Obey"

Shema Yisrael at the Knesset Menorah in Jerusalem

“And at the end of that time she said to Janshah, 'I wish to go with thee to thy mother land, where thou shalt marry me and we will abide there.' 'To hear is to obey,' answered he and took counsel with Shaykh Nasr who said to him, 'Go thou home, I commend her to thy care.'”

A Thousand and One Nights, The Story of Janshah (Volume 5, chapt. 74)

A few years back, at a time when my wife and I struggled daily to help our younger son, Kent, learn to follow instructions, I would often respond to his frequent misbehavior by putting him in timeout and reviewing his choices with him. On some of these occasions, especially those days when he had succeeded at wearing me down to the point I didn’t have the energy or will to creatively address his misbehavior, I would just repeat my default phrase “Kent, you need to learn to listen.” Eventually he caught hold the saying himself, and after a few seconds in timeout he would emphatically declare “I will listen!”

My wife and I know now as we knew then that Kent really didn’t have an issue with hearing or listening. In most cases, he had heard exactly what we had asked him to do (or not to do) - the problem was his failure to respond to our instructions.

It’s always interested me that in Biblical Hebrew the verbs “to listen/pay attention/hear” and “to obey” are one and the same: leesh-MOH-ah לִשְׁמוֹעַ. Not surprisingly, the same linkage exists in other regional, archaic languages. The following are some examples where I’ve listed the language followed by the single verb that expresses both “to hear” and “to obey”.

Persian – اطاعت کردن

Turkish – dinlemek

Armenian – հնազանդվել

Macedonian – слуша

The linguistic connection between hearing and obedience was so well understood in ancient Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture that for centuries the automatic response to a command was either “To hear is to obey” or "I hear, and I obey." This phrasing can be found throughout the famous compilation of Islamic Golden Age stories known as A Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), as illustrated by the citation at the top of this post. The scriptures also point to this concept in various places. I’ll start with the Old Testament and finish with one example from the Book of Mormon.

In the Book of Genesis the connection hearing = obedience and vice versa is made as Jehovah speaks with Abraham:

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18) 

First line of "Shema" in Hebrew (Deut. 6:4)

Some of the best known examples of the verbal connection between hear and obey are from King David’s writings. Notice that each time the King of Judah says “hear,” he follows up with a request for the Lord to act upon or respond to (obey) his petition:

“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.” (Psalms 4:1)

“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.” (Psalms 61:1)

My favorite example from the Book of Mormon is found in Mosiah 21:15.

“And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage.”

Obviously God isn’t slow to hear our petitions in the sense that there’s a time delay between when we say our prayers and when He hears them; He knows all things from the beginning, even our thoughts and words before we express them. The verse above uses the Semitic language meaning of “to hear” to communicate the idea that God was slow to respond to (obey) the cries of His people because of their prior failure to hear (obey) Him.   

Repentance as "Re-Turning"

A lot has already been written by Biblical Hebrew commentators about the distinctions between the two main verbs that were translated as "to repent" in English, so I’ll only give a brief overview of this topic before moving on to illustrate the links between the Bible and other LDS scriptures on the Hebraic concept of repentance.

When “to repent” is used in the O.T. in the sense of God’s feelings toward His children's acts of disobedience, especially habitual sin, the verb leh-hee-nah-KHEM לְהִנָחֵם is used. The verbs in English that most accurately describe לְהִנָחֵם are “to regret, to pity, to grieve, to have compassion (on).” The following verse provides a perfect example: 

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” (Genesis 6:5,6) 

But the Biblical Hebrew verb that best expresses the idea of repentance as used in modern English is lah-SHOOV לָשׁוּב, which literally means to turn back, to return, or to turn again towards, with a huge emphasis on the “again” element of the verb. In fact, the root of the verb, shoov שׁוּב, is an adverb that means “again”.

Here are several O.T. examples. The first verse demonstrates beautifully the link between repentance and (re)turning towards the Lord.

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.” (Ezekiel 18:30)

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:7)

“Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts…” (Malachi 3:7)

“For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.” (2 Chronicles 30:9)

In addition, Book of Mormon prophets were very familiar with the metaphor and imagery that linked repentance with (re)turning towards God. Note the following examples:

 “But if ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord; yea, thus saith the Lord, blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me, but wo unto him that repenteth not.” (Helaman 13:11)

“But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel.” (3 Nephi 16:13, 15)

Even the Savior Himself uses the Hebrew language meaning of "to turn" at times. (See 3 Nephi 30:2.) The Lord's statements here are synonymous, just as the two verbs are in this context.

"Turn all ye Gentiles from your wicked ways; and repent of you evil doings."

To finish off, a few personal thoughts in this subject.

That the Old Testament and Book of Mormon prophets regularly used the verb “to return (again)” to convey the concept of repentance carries an implied lesson: God knew and expected that due to our fallen nature we would often decide to turn away from Him throughout our lives and then find the spiritual need to "re-turn" towards Him. Ideally that returning will happen on an hourly basis throughout the day anytime we notice our focus shifting away from our Father and the Savior. One of my favorite analogies is that while driving, in order to safely reach our various destinations each day, we literally make dozens of small course corrections each minute using the steering wheel. 

The ultimate goal of repentance is returning to our previous relational state with our Father, which includes reunion with God in His presence. All things point towards repentance leading to a final return to our face-to-face relationship with Him that we enjoyed before we came to Earth, an idea that’s captured in several of these verses. (See 2 Chronicles 30:9 above.) As we sincerely repent as often as needed, metaphorically turning our face (gaze) towards His, the Lord promises that we'll again see Him as He is, and know Him personally once again. 

“And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life.” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:38)

The Windows of Heaven

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10)

The phrase "windows of heaven" from this Old Testament verse had always confused me over the years. This may seem like a superficial hang-up, but I could never quite wrap my mind around Malachi’s side-by-side referencing of “windows” and “heaven”. The spatial incompatibility was what threw me off. After all, aren’t windows horizontal elements built into side walls, and isn’t heaven traditionally referenced as vertically being above us?

Ruins from pre-Christian Era dwellings in Sikait, Egypt
which demonstrate examples of "khalonot" (side windows)

Going to the original language of the Old Testament helped me resolve this seeming incongruity. I learned that there are actually two main Biblical Hebrew words that were translated as “window” in the English translation of the Old Testament. And it turns out they have very different meanings. What we would traditionally call a window is signified by the Hebrew word חַלוֹן (khah-LOHN). It’s the side opening in a structure that, in ancient biblical times, would have been typically covered by wood or some other material rather than glass. This is the “window” that’s referenced in 2 Kings 9:30.

"And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window (חַלוֹן)."

A reconstructed circa 1000 B.C. home in the ancient
town of Catal Huyuk (located in modern day 
Turkey), showing an "aruba" opening above the oven

The other Old Testament Hebrew word that was translated as “window”, אֲרוּבָּה (ah-roo-BAH), carries a separate meaning. It signifies an overhead opening in a building or tent, so it can also be translated into English as “chimney” or “smoke and air vent”. In ancient times, the ah-roo-BAH was located at the center of a tent’s apex to allow for general ventilation, allowing smoke from the heating or cooking fire to exit the dwelling space while letting light enter. In permanent structures it took the form of a removable ceiling tile which would have typically been located in a corner of the house or along a side wall. (See the example in the side photo.)

It’s this second kind of window or chimney, an ah-roo-BAH and not a khah-LOHN, that Malachi references in 3:10. As a result, his metaphorical reference to “the windows of heaven” places them above us, instead of to the side. This is the same word we find in Genesis 7:11, the first Biblical reference to “the windows of heaven.” It’s used to describe the rains that came down from above during the Great Flood of Noah’s time.

“…the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven (השָׁמַיִם וַאֲרֻבֹּת vah ah-roo-BOHT hah shah-mah-YEEM) were opened.”

An example of a smoke vent "aruba"
at the apex of a portable tent

So in Malachi 3:10, the prophet is referencing the metaphorical overhead windows through which the Lord pours out the blessings of heaven upon people who are tithed. The light that would come directly through the opening of the tent or roof alluded to in this verse might also symbolize these various blessings, including spiritual knowledge and truth since light is associated with both.

But it gets even better. It turns out there's another level of meaning in this verse. Malachi uses a word play on two Biblical Hebrew homophones (words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same – sew, so, and sow, for example) in order to teach a key doctrinal lesson about obedience and God’s covenant relationship with those who keep His commandments. This second noun עֲרוּבָּה, also pronounced ah-roo-BAH, makes up the second word in Malachi's word play. It's spelled the same as the term for “chimney” or “vent” in Hebrew(אֲרוּבָּה)  except that in the first consonant place ע (ayin) is substituted for א (alef). Although the two terms are pronounced identically, the second word means a “promise”, “pledge”, or “guarantee”. It appears in a modified (constructive) form in Genesis 38:20.

"And Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge (hah eh-rah-VOHN הָעֵרָבוֹן) from the woman's hand; but he found her not."

Based on this creative word play, the central promise found in Malachi 3:10 can alternatively be read:

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the ‘guarantees, promises, pledges’ of heaven (ah-roo-BOHT hah-shah-MAYEEM אֲרֻבּוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם), and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

The Linguistic Connection between Temples and Mountains in Hebrew

Model of the Temple of Herod

While studying Hebrew verbs this past week I came across a new one I hadn’t learned before. It’s לְהַרִים (leh-hah-REEM), which means “to lift, pick up, raise up, hold up, elevate”. Although I wasn’t familiar with this verb, I recognized the root consonants ח - ר (h - r) as the ones that make up the word for mountain, הַר (hahr). So it turns out that the word mountain in Hebrew literally means “lifted up, raised, elevation”.

In English the same meaning is expressed using the adjective “exalted”, which is derived from the Latin verb exaltare. This word is composed of the two Latin roots ex or “up” + altus or “high”. Like the Hebrew verb leh-hah-REEM, exaltare signifies “to raise, elevate”.

Being the language fanatic that I am, I enjoyed learning about the derivation of the word “mountain” in Hebrew, but what was even better was to be able to apply it to the Old Testament references that link temples (The House of the Lord, בֵּית-יְהוָה Beit Adonai) to mountains, especially in the Book of Isaiah.

Galilean mountains, Israel 

A few examples include:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” (Isaiah 2:2)

“For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.” (Ezekiel 20:40)

The connection makes perfect sense since Temples of God have historically been, and currently are, unique places on Earth where God elevates or lifts His children’s view, focus, behavior, and commitment to Him, and where ultimately we can commune with Him in a way that we can’t in any other place in mortality.

The Expanded Meaning of "To Sit" in Hebrew

“I am now going to take exception to the present translation of the Bible in relation to these matters. Our latitude and longitude can be determined in the original Hebrew with far greater accuracy than in the English version. There is a grand distinction between the actual meaning of the prophets and the present translation.”

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 290-291

In a previous post I mentioned that the verb “to sit (down)” in Hebrew, lah-SHEH-veht, has a much broader meaning than the same verb does in English. The English verb only relates to the actual action of sitting down, but in Hebrew the verb includes the added meanings “to dwell or reside”. The implication is that scriptural invitations from God for us to sit mean that we are being invited to remain with Him permanently. Notice that the Hebrew verb used in the following Old Testament verses for “to sit” and “to dwell” are the same (lah-SHEH-veht), so they all use the same root of shin-vet (sh-v) in various conjugated forms.

“Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down (shvee שְּׁבִי), O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” (Isaiah 52:2)

 “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt (veh yeh-SHEHV וַיֵּשֶׁב) by the well Lahai-roi.” (Genesis 25:11)

“I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit (i.e., ‘dwell, stay’, loh eh-SHEHV לֹא אֵשֵׁב) with the wicked.” (Psalms 26:5)

“If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit (yesh’-VOO יֵשְׁבוּ) upon thy throne for evermore.” (Psalms 132:12, emphasis added)

But this verb in Hebrew also carries an additional connotation that reveals itself in a few related words. The Hebrew word for “tribe”, “clan”, or (my preferred term in English) “an extended family”, is SHEH-veht (שֶׁבֶט), which is derived from the verb “to sit (down)”. The relationship between the verb and this noun becomes clear when we consider that in ancient Middle Eastern culture usually just family members, immediate and extended, routinely sat together in council or in social gatherings. So when the Lord uses the verb "to sit" as an invitation, He means that we are all invited to dwell with Him as part of His Eternal family.

In New Testament writings, the Apostles often referenced this expanded meaning. See Ephesians 2:6 as an example.

“And (Christ) hath raised us up together, and made us sit (i.e., dwell) together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” 

Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon

A sample of Demotic writing, a type of "reformed Egytian"

Just a quick point before diving into what (for me, at least) is a fascinating topic: This post will only deal with “external” or logical evidences of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Gaining a spiritual or internal witness that the book was written by prophet-authors under the Lord’s direction and by inspiration is a completely different matter. It requires the reader to study the book with an open mind and heart, then to ask God in prayer about its authenticity. (See Moroni 10:3-5, Book of Mormon.) Although we should never accept “external” evidences in place of spiritual witnesses of Divine truth, they often support and reinforce the spiritual knowledge a person has gained. It’s from this perspective that I’ll describe just a few of the thousands of linguistic evidences that the various writings that make up the compilation we know as the Book of Mormon was written by Semitic groups using the linguistic structure of the “learning of the Jews.”  (See 1 Nephi 1:2 and 1 Nephi 3:19)

Click on the following link for a brief explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon.

Book of Mormon

LDS Book of Mormon scholar-linguists such as Sidney B. Sperry and Hugh Nibley have written extensively about Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon. I’ll touch on just a few examples of these unique linguistic elements that these authors haven’t already commented on, at least not to my knowledge. The Hebraisms I’ll reference here are examples of (1) Hebrew possessive constructs, (2) the use of conjunctions for lists, and (3) other Classical Hebrew idioms that weren’t commented on by Sperry in an article I'll reference at the end of this post. At this time I won’t delve into a fourth category of Hebraisms - singular nouns in English that have plural endings in Hebrew - since I already covered that topic in my blog post dated January 24th, 2014.

Possessive Constructs

In English we generally express possession through the use of possessive pronouns that function like adjectives (my, your, his, her, our, etc.) or by using an apostrophe + an "s". But in Hebrew, the most common grammatical construct used to show possession is the preposition sheh שׁ (of) + a corresponding indirect personal pronoun (me, you, him, her, us, etc.). For example, notice the differences in possessive syntax between English and Hebrew detailed below:

English construct - “Yesterday I saw his dog.”

Hebrew construct - “Yesterday I saw the dog of him.” (Eht-MOHL rah-EE-tee eht hah-KEH-lehv sheh-LOH .אתמול ראיתי את הכלב שלו)

The sentence using the Hebrew possessive structure sounds extremely unnatural and foreign to us, just as it would have to 19^th Century English speakers such as Joseph Smith. But for some reason, perhaps as a type of “external” evidence that I discussed earlier, the Lord preserved the original Hebrew-based structure in many passages of the translation of the Book of Mormon into English. The following is just a short list of examples from my study of the book last month. Again, the phrasing sounds foreign because it truly is foreign to 19th Century English.

“Wherefore, he has given a law; and where there is no law given there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him.” (Note that “his power” wasn’t used here in 2 Nephi 9:25, emphasis added)

This is one of my favorite examples because it sounds so unusually awkward to the English-trained ear:

“Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God.” (Jacob 4:8, emphasis added)

And finally,

“Hearken, O ye house of Israel, and hear the words of me, a prophet of the Lord.” (Jacob 5:2, emphasis added)

Again, the common English structure would be “my words”, but this phrase can be seamlessly rendered in Hebrew as “eht hah-mee-LEEM sheh-LEE (מילים שלי), “the words of me.”

Conjunctions

I’ll use only two of many examples here from the Book of Mormon. In 19^th Century and contemporary English, lists are grammatically structured using commas to separate each of the items in sequence, with the last member in the list being flagged with an “and”. In Classical and Biblical Hebrew, however, an initial “and” (vav ו) marks each item in the list, not just the last one. For comparison, note the following passages. The first comes from the Old Testament: 

“The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.” (Genesis 35:23, emphasis added)

These next two passages are from the Book of Mormon. They both show the same Hebrew-based conjunctive structure:

“And four of them were the sons of Mosiah; and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni; these were the names of the sons of Mosiah.” (Mosiah 27:34)

“Therefore the people of the Nephites were aware of the intent of the Amlicites, and therefore they did prepare to meet them; yea, they did arm themselves with swords, and with cimeters, and with bows, and with arrows, and with stones, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons‍ of war, of every kind.” (Alma 2:12)

Hebraic Idioms

Some of the most common Hebrew idioms that emigrated to the Americas from the Middle East as God guided various groups here are the expressions “As I live”, “As thou livest”, and “As the Lord liveth.” These phrases were often used in ancient Semitic languages to initiate an oath. The Hebrew root contains two parts: a conjugated form of the verb "to live" (xai חַי), followed by the person whose name the oath-taker is referencing.

From the Old Testament:

“And the mother of the child said, As‍ the Lord‍ liveth, and as‍ thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.” (2 Kings 4:30)

From the Book of Mormon:

“But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.” (1 Nephi 3:15)

“And it came to pass that I spake with him, that if he would hearken unto my words, as the Lord liveth, and as I live, even so that if he would hearken unto our words, we would spare his life.” (1 Nephi 4:32)

“Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee. And as I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride.” (1 Nephi 21:18)

To close out this post, I included a link to an article by Sidney B. Sperry of Sperry Symposium fame. In it he details a wide array of Hebrew idioms found in the Book of Mormon. (The PDF can be found at the bottom left of the webpage.)

Sperry article