Book of Mormon Evidence: Attestation of Sebus

An Odd but Attested Name

The account of Ammon defending king Lamoni’s flocks takes place at a location called “the waters of Sebus” (Alma 17:26). Paul Hoskisson, a Latter-day Saint Semitic scholar, notes that for a long time he was puzzled by the name Sebus.

Hebrew words, like other Semitic words in general, are most often built on a structure of three different consonants. This language feature emphasizes the consonants and their sequence and order. The problem with Sebus is that its first and third consonants, /s/ and /s/, are the same—something that is extremely rare in any Semitic language.¹

Some biblical scholars have been puzzled by the word bšs, which is only found in Amos 5:11. They have argued that bšs is derived from the Akkadian šabāšu which mean “to collect (taxes), to gather in.”² Hoskisson found that the Akkadian word in its Neo-Babylonian form (subbusu) is actually derived from the West Semitic Aramaic root sbs.³ Aramaic is a west Semitic language that was known in ancient Israel and is closely related to Hebrew.

Because only consonants, rather than vowels, were typically written out in ancient Semitic languages, the name Sebus from the Book of Mormon would also likely have been spelled sbs.⁴ In other words, this Book of Mormon name appears to be attested in an ancient Near Eastern language that is closely related to Hebrew and with which ancient Israelites were familiar.

Wordplay on “To Gather”

In what appears to be an example of intentional wordplay, the Book of Mormon repeatedly connects the idea of gathering with the name Sebus. First of all, the text explains that “the water of Sebus” was where “all the Lamanites drive their flocks … that they may have water” (Alma 17:26), indicating that it was a place of gathering flocks. After a band of Lamanite ruffians scattered the king’s flocks, Ammon mentioned gathering explicitly when saying to his fellow servants, “Let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together, and bring them back to the place of water” (v. 31). Gathering is mentioned again in the next verse where the king’s servants “did gather them together again the to place of water” (v. 32).

 Wordplay on “To be Angry”

Hoskisson found a second possible wordplay based on the Babylonian word šabāsu which means “to be angry.”⁵ After the Lamanite attackers failed to permanently scatter the flocks and began to be struck down by stones from Ammon’s sling, “they were angry because of the slain of their brethren” (Alma 17:36). Hoskisson notes, “Perhaps the choice of the word angry in Alma 17:36 was not just serendipitous but a conscious play on a word that sounded similar to Sebus.”⁶

The theme of anger—as well as gathering—is picked up again when the people “began to assemble themselves together” after Lamoni and his household were overcome with the Spirit (Alma 19:18). Those who gathered at the scene included some of the men “who had stood at the waters of Sebus and scattered the flocks which belonged to the king, for they were angry with Ammon because of the number which he had slain of their brethren at the waters of Sebus” (v. 21). One of those present, “being exceedingly angry,” tried to kill him Ammon but was struck dead (v. 22). It is not insignificant that the phrase “waters of Sebus” is mentioned three times in these two verses alone (vv. 21–22).

Conclusion

Concerning the potential attestation of Sebus in ancient Semitic languages, Hoskisson concluded,

Thus, a possible Aramaic word from around the time of Lehi meaning to “gather,” as well as a well-attested word in Babylonian (including the Neo-Babylonian of Lehi’s day), could provide the etymology for the Book of Mormon place name Sebus. The consonants line up; the vowels match. Additionally, it is telling that the only name in the Book of Mormon that begins and ends with the same consonant, a sibilant, corresponds well with one of the rare Semitic words that begin and end with a consonant, also a sibilant.⁷

Adding to the credibility of this proposal is the way that the meaning of this Aramaic/Neo-Babylonian cognate (“to gather”) shows up multiple times in the Book of Mormon narratives involving Sebus. The fact that another potential wordplay involving a similar-sounding Babylonian term (šabāsu, “to be angry”) has been identified in relation to these Sebus narratives, bolsters the argument even further. Hoskisson’s initial puzzlement over the name Sebus, followed by his discovery of these startling linguistic connections, shows how some things found in the Nephite record, which at first seem strange or wrong, can turn out upon closer examination to be right on target.