According to the Book of Mormon and other Latter Day Saint movement sources, the Liahona is a brass ball that operated as a type of compass with two spindles. One of the spindles was said to point the direction Lehi and his party should travel after their escape from Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon states that the Liahona also contained periodic written instructions from God. According to some sources, the Liahona was among the Book of Mormon artifacts Joseph Smith said were found with the golden plates.[1][2] [3]
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In the Book of Mormon, the Liahona was found one morning at the tent door of Lehi. It is described as a round brass ball of “curious workmanship” with “two spindles,” one of which indicated the direction that his party should travel (1 Nephi 16:10). It is sometimes referred to as a compass, although the context makes it clear that it did not function like a magnetic compass. On occasion there was also writing on the ball that displayed additional instructions from God (1 Nephi 16:26-29). Using the Liahona, Lehi and his party were directed through the wilderness and across the ocean to the Americas. The Liahona worked “according to the faith and diligence” (1 Nephi 16:28) with which they heeded its direction, and ceased functioning at times when the members of the party demonstrated a loss of faith in God's commandments, notably when Nephi's brothers rebelled against Lehi during their ocean crossing (1 Nephi 18:12).
The only place in The Book of Mormon where the word "Liahona" is used is in the Book of Alma when Alma, speaking to his son Helaman, explains "our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass" (Alma 37:38). Alma tells his son that “it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ ... to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass ... to the promised land“ (Alma 37:44).
According to the Book of Mormon, the word Liahona means "a compass" (Alma 37:38). Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley also provided two additional possibilities for the meaning based on perceived Hebrew roots:
“Many people have dealt with the word Liahona. We had a teacher from Hebrew University here for a few years…. His name was Shunary. He never joined the Church, but the first thing that fascinated him was this name Liahona. He traced it back to the queen bee, the leader of bees swarming in the desert. When bees swarm, that's Liahona. I took it from a different one. Yah is, of course, God Jehovah. Liyah means the possessive, "To God is the guidance," hona (Liyahhona). That's just a guess; don't put it down. But it's a pretty good guess anyway".[4]
Jonathan Curci, an Italian Hebraist and scholar of the authentic Hebrew origins of the Book of Mormon, writes:
"Liaho "to (of) the Lord"The meaning of the Liaho ("to (of) the Lord") part of the word is common to all the above explanations and seems to gather the agreement of most scholars. The fact that the first two words are Hebrew entails that the final term should be of the same language. Although it is known that Lehi was learned in "the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:2), until now no Egyptian terms have been convincingly associated with the name Liahona.
Li : The first part of the name is li-, the letter lamed forming a contraction of ʾel which, in this case, indicates the possession of something, and can also mean toward something.
Iaho: The three letters yod, he, waw exhibit the fingerprints of the tetragrammaton YHWH because they are the first three letters that appear as a prefix or a suffix in the yahwistic theophoric names. When they form a suffix they are pronounced yahu, e.g., Yesha-yahu, Yerem-yahu, Shelem-yahu, Malk-yahu, etc."
As regards the suffix "onah", Jonathan Curci has discovered the Hebrew root of this English transliteration for the first time since the Book of Mormon appeared:
""The Direction (Director) of YHWH" or literally "To the Lord Is the Whither"How can Liahona possibly mean "compass" or "director"? The answer is found in the final part of the word (liaho)ʿona : the adverb ʿona appears several times in the preexilic texts of the Hebrew Bible. It can be translated as "whither." It is often tied to the verb halakh "to go." Some instances in which it appears are Genesis 16:8 "whither wilt thou go?" and "whither are you going" (see Genesis 37:30; also 2 Kings 6:6; Genesis 32:17; 37:30).
The adverb ʿona means direction or motion to a certain place.13 We certainly do not know Lehi's exact pronunciation of words. However, the efforts of the etymologist should be based on the transmitted rules and practices of Hebrew grammar. The striking assonance between the archaic Hebrew ʿona and the ending part of (liah) ʿona immediately drew my attention. How does the link between l-iaho and ʿona function? The first part ends with a waw and the ʿona begins with an ʿalef. These two sounds had to be extremely similar since the waw is pronounced "o" and the vowel kamatz under the ʿalef at the beginning of the word, which is generally a medium kamatz, is pronounced as an open "o."14 The transliteration of Liahona is then correct in this sense. Thus, Liahona had to be written . . . in the mind of Lehi and Nephi [for Hebrew represented here, see the PDF version of this article]. This second spelling might have entailed the omission of the ʿalef for the sake of brevity. This Hebrew spelling perfectly transliterates from Hebrew the English spelling that Joseph Smith received.
Furthermore, the entire context helps in understanding the meaning of the name Liahona. The words surrounding the name often reveal the elements of which it is formed. The following passages give a contextual meaning of the adverb ʿona meaning "whither."[5]