How Do You Divide the Land?

In Ether, Moroni describes a Jaredite term of “dividing the land” (Ether 10:20). The question arises, like so many when understanding the scriptural record, what does that mean.

Example of a sea that divides the land 

Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, states that “divide” means to part or separate an entire thing; to part a thing into two or more pieces. To cause to be separate; to keep apart by a partition or by an imaginary line or limit. A wall divides two houses. The equator divides the earth into two hemispheres. Today, the dictionary defines this word as: “to separate or be separated into parts; to halve something; to part something; to split apart as in “asunder.”
    In Hebrew the word for “divide” is “chatsah” חָעָה, meaning to separate, in two parts, half; while the word “badal” בָּדל , means to be divided, separate, partition, between.
    Thus, to divide something is to separate it into two parts, or to come between two parts. Consequently, when Moroni wrote: “They built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land” (Ether 10:20, emphasis added), he was discussing something that divided the Land of Promise into two parts. This, obviously would be where the land was divided into the “Land Northward,” the home of the Jaredites and the only land to which they were familiar, and the “Land Southward,” a distant land they used only for hunting and at times was shut off from them completely (Ether 9:31-33).

Example of a sea that divides the land in the Middle East

This means, that there was a sea in the Land of Promise that separated the Land Northward from the Land Southward, and except for the four directional seas there were no others involved. Thus, there was a North Sea, South Sea, West Sea and East Sea, as well as a Sea that divided the land.
    We should keep in mind that the language of the Book of Mormon is particularly important for two reasons:
1. Joseph translated the record according to his own language and knowledge of the time, which was the American version of the English language as spoken in New England in the early 1820s;
2. Joseph translated according to our understanding. As Joseph Smith said, “For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for He speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding” (2 Nephi 31:3 , emphasis added).
    This means we need to understand the language Joseph Smith knew in New England in the early 1800s, since it was that language which the Lord used to communicate to him through Moroni and the Spirit during translation of the plates.

As has been mentioned here before, it is rather interesting that Noah Webster, who lived 90 miles away from Joseph Smith at the time, published a dictionary of the local American language that tells us that language.
    Some have suggested that Joseph Smith would not have been aware of that dictionary let alone had it in his possession. Even if that were true, it is not the point. Webster was very fastidious in his gathering of the American usage of the English Language as opposed to the British usage. However, it just so happens that Joseph was not only aware of that dictionary, but had a copy. We know this from the list of reference material which was used in the School of the Prophets by Joseph and others who taught those early sessions—this dictionary was the one used in the School.
    To support this understanding of the Lord talks to us in our own language, Mormon states it quite clear when he wrote: “And now I, Mormon, proceed to finish out my record, which I take from the plates of Nephi; and I make it according to the knowledge and the understanding which God has given me (Words of Mormon 1:9). Consequently, no matter what reference individual writers may have based their record upon, Mormon tells us that the abridged their records according to the knowledge the Lord gave him.
    So all this fuss theorists frequently us and we discuss from time to time must be considered in light to the Lord’s communication to us through his prophets, scriptures and directly is in  our language according to our knowledge.
    Therefore, we need to better understand the English language before starting to determine what the scriptural text says. And that language should be the one known to Joseph Smith in 1829, as well as the proper use of that language so that we can understand it today.

A door or the door?

As an example, in proper English, there is a correct usage of the words “the” and “a” when preceding a noun. That is, “the door” is used when the door has been earlier introduced, but the wordage “a door” is used when the door has not been earlier introduced, and is the introduction of that noun. Therefore, a person “opened a door,” but later “closed the door,” to show it is the same door. Stated differently, we would initially say that a sea surrounds an island, but after that refer to it as “the sea surrounds the island.”
    In Mormon’s writings, we find: “And it came to pass that they did not head them until they had come to the borders of the land Desolation; and there they did head them, by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, yea, by the sea, on the west and on the east” (Alma 50:34). Thus, we find that the narrow pass in the narrow neck of land was bordered on the east by the East Sea and on the west by the West Sea.
    This is why “the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward” (Alma 22:32). Later we find that Mormon writes: “And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land” (Ether 10:20).
    Note, this is the first introduction of the city built there (probably the City of Desolation), but not the first time the sea has been introduced. Consequently, Mormon is telling us that the sea that divides the land is the East or West Sea, which have earlier been introduced, that divides “the land” (also earlier introduced), but the wordage where “a city” was built is not previously introduced.

The Jaredites built a great city

So it is “And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land.” Thus, a city is used as it is the first introduction of it; however, the narrow neck, the sea and the land” have already been introduced.
    In this way, we can see that “the sea” refers to a sea already introduced, meaning, already written about. It does not mean a sea that had not earlier been introduced as many theorists try to claim when they espouse a fifth added to those of the four directions (Helaman 3:8). This is supportive of the fact that much earlier, Jacob told the Nephites they were on an island in the midst of the sea (2 Nephi 10:20).    Thus, we can see that this “sea that divides the land” is not a new sea being introduced to the reader—nor is it a large lake, or another unconnected body of water—but the same body of water earlier described. That is, the East Sea or the West Sea, which bordered the area of the narrow neck of land where the city was built.
    The only other body of water mentioned that is not one of the four directional seas is Ripliancum far to the north in the time of the Jaredites (Ether 15:8). It is neither give the name “sea” or is identified as one unless it refers to the Sea North, which is unknown. Certainly, it would not be the sea that divides the land since it is far from the narrow neck where the Jaredites built the a city.
    That brings us to the fact that the “East Sea, West Sea, North Sea, and South Sea” are mentioned in Helaman concurrence with one another, that is, they are mentioned in such a manner as to suggest that these seas were not only connected, but one continuous sea around the “island” of the Promised Land (2 Nephi 10:20).
    This is also found in the explanation of Hagoth. Mormon wrote; “And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward” (Alma 63:5). There is one introduction of a subject (an exceedingly large ship), and six uses of the word "the," which in each case describes a noun previously introduced.
    Obviously, that sea that divided the land was, in this case, the West Sea, for there is where Hagoth launched his ships, and it was by the narrow neck of land that led into the land northward.
    Thus, we can see that the “sea that divides the land” mentioned in Ether, was not describing the South Sea, or any other body of water so located around or in conjunction with the narrow neck of land, but the seas already described that ran on either side of the narrow neck mentioned by Helaman.
    We should also keep in mind that the Jaredites lived their entire time in the Land Northward, and never settled south of the small and narrow neck of land, which they reserved as an animal preserve (Ether 10:21).
    In those days of the righteous king Lib, who ruled when the poisonous serpents were destroyed (Ether 10:19), and during the time when the Jaredites prospered in the land, and “never could a people be more blessed than were they” (Ether 10:28), the Land Northward was separated from the Land Southward by a large body of water, called a “sea” by Moroni. This sea was an extension of the Sea West and cut into the land, forming a large bay, called the Gulf of Guayaquil today, which divided these two lands—the Land Northward from the Land Southward—as it does today between Ecuador and Peru.
    Many people look for a separate sea, like a large lake or inland body of water, to be this sea, however, the key word here is “divided,” that is, this sea divided one land from another, obviously requiring a narrow passage between them. This is why Mormon could write that the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the Land Northward and the Land Southward.

There are many things that divide one area from another in nature: Top: A large, wide river can divide a land; Middle: A deep and wide canyon; Bottom: A narrow neck of land between two land masses

To the Jaredites, the Gulf of Guayaquil divided their homeland in the north, the area called the Land Northward in the Land of Promise, from the rest of the island, or the land to the south, called the Land Southward.
    This body of water, or sea as it was called, still exists today and still basically divides the country of Ecuador from the country of Peru, and provides a narrow passage along the coast between the bay and the mountain range.