The Hill Shim and the Land Antum are two Book of Mormon words which appear to have real good ties to the Egyptian Language and and this should be no surprise to anyone who researches the book.
1 Nephi 1:2 – Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.
Mosiah 1:4 – For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings (the Brass Plates)….
Mormon 9:32 – And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.
The Hill Shim
Mormon 1:3 – Therefore, when ye are about twenty and four years old I would that ye should remember the things that ye have observed concerning this people; and when ye are of that age go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim; and there have I deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings concerning this people.
Shim means the row, corridor, or storage place. Below are some snippets from the Chicago Demotic Dictionary.
I find it very interesting that Ammoron did not place the records in the Hill Shim. He placed the records in an unnamed place which he says shall in the future be called the Hill Shim. It will be known as the storehouse, or repository of the records.
Antum
Repeating again from Mormon 1:3 – Therefore, when ye are about twenty and four years old I would that ye should remember the things that ye have observed concerning this people; and when ye are of that age go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim; and there have I deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings concerning this people.
The beginning of the word Antum seems the same as the word for Antionum which means to hold back, restrain, or repel. The word “um” or “ym” means sea (see the suppositions clause at the bottom of this page). Putting it together, it is likely that Antum means the land which holds back the sea.
Recently, I ran across a posting on one of BYU’s websites which quotes Hugh Nibley giving a very similar answer to Antum.
As Cumorah is not far from Niagara Falls, my belief is that the name Antum gives us a strong hint at its general location. It is likely in modern day Canada in the neck of land which separates Lake Eire and Lake Ontario. Is there any other land which holds back the sea? There is one break in that land which holds back the sea, and that break is called Niagara Falls.
As is commonly the case when I refer to geography, these references are intended to help people see a connection. We are not for certain when it comes to Geography as the book was written as a spiritual guide with limited references to exact locations.
Suppositions
When dealing with ancient languages, things are not always brought in to perfect matches. Therefore, there is always plausible deniability in the accuracy of the claim. Translators do the best they can with the knowledge they have and complete agreement on the meaning in ancient texts is not always achieved.
In this document and other included documents regarding words with an Egyptian connection, I am taking words in the Book of Mormon as spelled by Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery – the scribe. Some of these spellings create syllables that seem to match to the Chicago Demotic Dictionary which was published in 2012 and to other teaching aids also.
Two examples of suppositions are listed below:
- IR is a portion of a word in the Book of Mormon. In the Chicago Demotic, YR means River. My supposition is that IR = YR.
- UM is also used as a syllable in some of these words in the Book of Mormon. In the Chicago Demotic, YM means sea. My supposition is that UM = YM. The word for sea in Hebrew is also close, YOM or יָם.
In general, you should be looking for similar phonology and determine if it is a close enough match. You should also look for context of the specific verse and surrounding verses to give further hints as to the original meanings of the words.