The name “Land Bountiful” is assigned in the English of the Stick of Joseph, to two different places, one in the Old World, and later, to one in the New World.

One important evidence that the Stick of Joseph is an authentic ancient Jewish document, is the fact that the name “Land Bountiful” so clearly point to an underlying Hebrew proper noun.

Unfortunately, this fact has been missed by some of the modern Hebrew translations of the book. For example, the “Chronicles of the Nephites” (דברי ימי הנפיטים) 1988 translation, actually transliterates the English word “Bountiful” into Hebrew letters (באונטיפול). But the true underlying Hebrew name, is a great evidence for the authenticity of this text.

The key to the original underlying Hebrew name for “Bountiful” is to be found in 1Nephi 17:5 (RLDS 5:63-64; 1Nefi 5:13 Stick of Joseph) where we read:

“And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of it’s much fruit and also wild honey…”

This passage follows a formulation that we see used throughout the Tanak (“Old Testament”) and even in the Hebrew of the Book of Matthew, whereby a proper noun is assigned, followed by an explanation of the name which linguistically connects with the name. For example:

“And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” (Gen. 4:25)

Where the name Seth (שת Shet) is derived from the word for “appointed” (שת Shat). 

This formulation is used in many places in the Tanak, but also in the Hebrew of the Book of Matthew:

“And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua (ישוע): for he shall save (יושיע) his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)

Here in the case of the Land Bountiful, the formulation is:

“And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful (רבה Rabbah), because of it’s much (רב Rav) fruit and also wild honey…”

This strongly points to the place name being “Rabbah” and in fact the ancient Hebrews did use the name “Rabbah” as a place name, for two different places in the Tanak, the Capital of the Amonites (1Sam. 11:1; Jer. 49:3) and a city in Judah (Joshua 15:60). 

So why did Joseph Smith render the proper noun “Rabbah” as “Bountiful” instead just using the name “Rabbah” as does the KJV in the above mentioned passages? So that in these last days, we would see this passage, recognize the idiomatic Hebrew formulation of this passage, see that underlying Hebrew name “Rabbah” behind it, see that this is a proper noun used by the ancient Hebrews, and have just one more evidence that the Stick of Joseph is an ancient Hebrew book.

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