Jacob 2:30—Comparing Meanings
Jacob 2:30 is the only verse in all of scripture (except for the highly suspect D&C 132) that commands multiple wives. If you interpret it to mean that God will occasionally command plural marriage, as the Church purports that it does, verse 30 is the linchpin of the plural marriage teaching.
Perhaps the Lord made Jacob 2:30 sufficiently vague so that not all would come to the correct conclusion and would stumble. I believe many Book of Mormon believers have stumbled.
So I’d like to take some liberty with this vague verse and rewrite it to provide some straightforward interpretations for comparison. Before I do, it’s important to remember that the surrounding verses condemn polygamy in no uncertain terms.
In the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa August 1829–circa January 1830, verse 30 is just a small part of a big paragraph and its context becomes even more obvious. Verse 30 does not stand out as an exception to all the condemning of multiple wives that surrounds it.
Screenshot of the manuscript with what is now verse 30 in red parenthesis in the middle
With each of these examples, keep in mind that multiple wives is strongly condemned before and after verse 30. Here’s the untampered verse in Jacob 2:
For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.
Next, here’s my tampering of verse 30 to convey the Church’s interpretation:
When I, the Lord, want seed raised up unto me, meaning that I want more children born, I will command my people to be polygamists; otherwise, the rest of the time my people can hearken unto the things that Jacob is saying, that I have commanded in the past, and remain monogamists.
Here’s another interpretation I explained in this post:
If I, the Lord, want seed raised up unto me, meaning that I want a righteous branch, I will always command my people to be monogamists; otherwise, if they are not my seed, they will ignore my commandments and sin by hearkening unto the example of David and Solomon by taking multiple wives.
Yet another interpretation spelled out in this post:
If I, the Lord, want seed raised up unto me, meaning that I want a righteous branch, I will command my people to depart, as a remnant, out of a land that practices polygamy and other whoredoms before I destroy that land; otherwise, my people will remain where they are and hearken unto my commandment to be monogamists.
And a possible interpretation that I heard on this podcast with an RLDS perspective:
If I, the Lord, want seed raised up unto me, meaning that I want a righteous branch, I will be speaking to those people and commanding them to live monogamy; otherwise, if they are living at a time when I am not speaking to them, they will continue to obey the commandments I have already given them to be monogamists and to not commit adultery.
A lot hangs on this vague, linchpin verse. Considering the context of verse 30, I think the hardest-to-swallow explanation is the Church’s: “raising up seed unto [the Lord]” refers to God occasionally commanding the whoredom of multiple wives.