In the 1828–1829 Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith initially describes the destruction of Jerusalem in the past tense—see 1 Nephi 10:3:

“how that after they WARE [were] destroyd” (emphasis added).

However, the verse reads differently today:

“That after they SHOULD BE destroyed” (emphasis added).

Joseph later marked the word were with a strikethrough in the 1836 Printer’s Manuscript while preparing the second edition, replacing it with should be, which he wrote above. Notably, were had already appeared in the first printed edition of 1830.

This revision is significant because Joseph originally dictated the prophecy anachronistically—as if Jerusalem’s fall had already occurred—despite it being 5–10 years in the future according to the Book of Mormon’s own internal timeline.

1 Nephi 10:3 – Book of Mormon Comparative (West Valley City, UT: Self-Published, August 2017), 26-27.