Abstract: This study assesses some of the interpretations of the name Liahona, which are unsatisfactory from a linguistic perspective. Since a dialect of Hebrew is the most likely underlying language of the Book of Mormon, the approach taken in this study parses the word Liahona into three meaningful segments in Hebrew: l-iah-ona; a Biblical Hebrew transliteration would be l-Yāh-Ɂōnấ. This name is a grammatical construction that attaches the prepositional prefix l- to Yāh, the name of “the Lord,” followed by the noun *Ɂōnấ. The preposition l- in this context denotes the following name as the agent or the one who is responsible for the following noun, i.e., l-Yāh designates the Lord as the agent, author, or producer of the *Ɂōnấ. Languages are complex, and etymological conjectures in ancient languages are hypothetical; therefore, the explanations and justifications presented here, of necessity, are speculative in nature. Etymological explanations have to involve the complexity of linguistics and sound changes. The hoped-for result of this study is that a simple and reasonable explanation of the meaning of Liahona will emerge from the complexity, and a more reasonable translation of Liahona will be the result.

The root and meaning of the word Liahona, only mentioned once in the Book of Mormon (Alma 37:38), has been a topic of conjecture and debate for decades. In this paper I briefly evaluate four earlier studies or comments on the etymology of the word. Each study varies in its methodology and therefore comes to different conclusions. There is general agreement that Liahona is divided into three parts. Each study translates the first segment L- as “to.” The second element is identified either as Yah or Yaho, the short form of Yahweh, that signifies “the Lord.” There is no agreement in these studies as to the phonemic construction of the third element, i.e., what word it represents, what its phonemes are, [Page 212]how it is pronounced, and how it is to be translated. None of the earlier treatments identify the third element as a physical object; the Liahona is described as a round ball of fine brass with spindles (1 Nephi 16:10). An acceptable etymology of Liahona should at least take its physical characteristics into account in addition to its interpretation as a compass. The interpretation of Liahona given in the translated text is “a compass — and the Lord prepared it” (Alma 37:38). Since these studies do not address the Liahona’s physical characteristics nor its function, they fall short of an acceptable etymology for this name.

As I make clear shortly, I propose that the name Liahona is also parsed into three acceptable grammatical elements of Biblical Hebrew. The first element L- is a preposition that attaches to a name [-iah-] that is followed by an object [-ona]. In this grammatical construction L- does not signify “to,” but denotes that the named person [-iah-] is the agent, actor, author, or the one responsible for the object [-ona]. This proposal necessitates a lengthy discussion on the justification for this interpretation taken from the Bible and from epigraphic Hebrew texts of the pre-exilic period.

The second element of Liahona is Yāh, the short form of the divine name Yahweh, “the Lord.” There are no l-Yāh- expressions in the Masoretic Text, so a few l-Yahweh expressions are documented to demonstrate how this expression can be interpreted. The preposition l- occurs with other names in the Biblical text, and examples are given that show that it denotes the named person as the agent, author, or producer of the object. The l-Yāh expression identifies Yāh as the one who produced the object [-ona], or as interpreted in Alma 37:38, the one who prepared it.

The third element in the name Liahona is proposed to be *Ɂōnâ.