I noticed a clever example of Hebrew wordplay in Mormon 8, which we can add to a growing list of wordplay that makes more sense in Hebrew than in English.
Here is the verse:
39 Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? (Mormon 8)
The context is important. Moroni is talking about the latter days, a time when the church is corrupted and "none save a few only" have avoided pride. The prideful lift themselves up "unto the wearing of very fine apparel" and love money, substance, fine apparel, and "the adorning of your churches" more than the poor.
Thus, while the prideful "adorn [them]selves," they suffer "the naked" to "pass by." Pretty clever.
As I studied the Hebrew root for "adorn" I noticed another really interesting layer. The clear candidate here is:
עָדָה "adah" -- adorn, deck self, pass by, take away
Notice the third definition. "Pass by." We find that in the same verse!
In other words, the root of "adorn" is the same as the root of "pass by." So we could say that the prideful adorn (adah) themselves to be noticed of the world, yet suffer the naked to pass by (adah) without noticing them.
There's more context here that renders this passage not only pointed and clever but also majestic and temple-related. It centers on the first part of the verse: "Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life?" This question will be the topic of my next post.
