BOM Jacob 6

Just a couple of quick notes about today’s reading, Jacob 6:

First of all, it seems at the end of this chapter that Jacob may have assumed that he was done.  He offers a solemn farewell in verse 13 that is reminiscent of Nephi’s leave-taking in 2 Nephi 33:13-15 and of Moroni’s final goodbye in Moroni 10: 34:

Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen.

He may have been surprised to still be around for Jacob 7.

Incidentally, Professor Royal Skousen has argued that pleasing bar, here and in Moroni 10:34, should actually read pleading bar.  It’s an intriguing suggestion.  (Pleasing certainly doesn’t seem to accord neatly with awful dread and fear!)  See his discussion at pages 397-402 here.

Please understand, too, that the question that Jacob asks in verse six isn’t “why are you going to die?” but, really, “why are you choosing to die?”  The verb will here isn’t merely a future tense of the verb to be but is a verbal form of the noun will, as in to will something to happen.  This is self-evident to me, but, just for fun, I’ve now checked two translations of the Book of Mormon, and they agree:  The German has denn warum wollt ihr sterben? (wollt being a conjugated form of the infinitive verb willen) and the Spanish has ¿por que querèis morir?