Question: Did Joseph Smith get the word Nahom from the Biblical names Naham (1 Chron. 4:19), Nehum (Ne. 7:7) and Nahum (Na. 1:1)?

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Questions

== Critics claim Joseph Smith got the word Nahom, from this Biblical names, Naham (1 Chron. 4:19), Nehum (Ne. 7:7) and Nahum (Na. 1:1)

Critics claim that Nahom is just a coincidence, and they cite Moroni in the Comoros Islands as an example of coincidence

Source(s) of the criticism

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]

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However, the word Nahom is not found in the Bible. Nahom is the only name expected to be found in Arabia, since it's the only place not named by Lehi, that is mentioned in the Book of Mormon. If Joseph Smith decided to chose one of the three names above (which he didn't), critics ignore that there are hundreds of other names in the Bible that Joseph Smith could have chosen. Why not Micah, Haggai, or literally hundreds of more names? Certainly, NHM doesn't fit with Micha, Haggai, and hundreds of other names in the Bible.

Joseph Smith couldn't have known that Nahom was the right name, that would beautifully fit other details about Arabia described in the Book of Mormon. Examples:

• When Lehi and his party began the journey, they were near the Red Sea

"And he came down by the borders near the shore of the Red Sea; and he traveled in the wilderness in the borders which are nearer the Red Sea"(1 Nephi 2:5)

• Lehi and his party traveled southeast before reaching Nahom

1 Nephi 16:13 "And it came to pass that we traveled for the space of four days, nearly a south-southeast direction, and we did pitch our tents again; and we did call the name of the place Shazer. "and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth" (1 Nephi 16:13)

• Lehi and his party travel eastward after reaching Nahom

"1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness." (1 Nephi 17:1)

• Bountiful is exactly eastward of Nahom, there is no other region in Arabia that can be called Bountiful

• The valley of Lemuel

For more information:

Book of Mormon geography—Old World—Nahom

Joseph Smith most likely didn't know that there were no vowels in Hebrew, during the translation period of the Book of Mormon. If he decided to choose Naham, Nehum, and Nahum, why did Joseph Smith not write the word as Naam, or Ehum, or ahum or Nahaham? Certainly NHM wouldn't fit one of these names. Why did he wrote Nahom and not Najan, or Mahom? Let alone that NHM does date to the time of Lehi.

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Answer

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This criticism is a argument of silence, you can prove anything by searching hundreds of names in the Bible. One might not be surprised to find a similar name to Nahom in the Bible, especially because most of the Bible was written in Hebrew, and it was written in the middle east. However, one cannot say the same thing about finding Nahom in Arabia, because all the details in the Book of Mormon point to a specific location and time period. It can't fit nowhere else.

== Notes ==

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