DESOLATION

Lehite GN

1.

NEPHITE city and land, 1st c. BC (1 Nephi 21:8, 19, 21; 2 Nephi 8:19; 13:26; 15:9; 16:11; 17:19; 20:3; 23:9, 22; Alma 16:10, 11 (x2); 22:30, 31, 32; 46:17; 50:34; 63:5; Helaman 3:5, 6 (x2); 13:32; 14:24; 15:1; 3 Nephi 3:23; 4:1, 3; 8:14; 10:7; 22:1, 3; Mormon 3:5, 7; 4:1, 2 (x2), 3, 8, 13, 19 (x2); Ether 7:6)

Etymology

The GN DESOLATION is a translation into English of what may have a possible Hebrew Vorlage, not a transliteration into Roman characters of a Lehite GN but.

A possible underlying Hebrew word in the Old Testament for DESOLATION may be ḫorbah, “desolated place, ruin; desolation, waste,” from the root ḫrb, “to dry up, be in ruins. Also possible is the Hebrew GN Hormah, given to three towns or cities, each of which were attacked, damaged, or destroyed. For example see Judges 1:17, “And Judah went with Simon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah.” See also Numbers 21:3 and Deuteronomy 1:44. Hormah comes from the root ḥrm, which in the Hebrew hophal form means “to be proscribed by destruction.”

Another possible underlying Hebrew word may be semamah and sammah, both of which have the general sense of “waste, devastation, ruin” (cf. the Hebrew of “abomination that maketh desolate,” Hebrew siqqus ha-mesomem,” which appears in the Jacobean English renderings of the apocalyptic visions of Daniel 11:31 and 12:11; cf. Mark 13:14 “abomination of desolation.”)

(SR)

Cf. Book of Mormon DESOLATION OF NEHORS

Variants

Deseret Alphabet:

Notes

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