David Calabro (personal communication) suggests that we should consider the possibility that the word quarters in the phrase “the four quarters of the earth” (here and elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text) is an error for “the four corners of the earth”. In nearly every case, the Book of Mormon text has quarters for this phrase, here in 1 Nephi 19:16 as well as in the following instances:
The two instances of quarters in 1 Nephi are extant in 𝓞. For the three cases in 3 Nephi, 𝓞 is not extant, but for that part of the text both 𝓟 and the 1830 edition are firsthand copies of 𝓞 and agree; so in those three cases 𝓞 undoubtedly read as quarters. The instance in Ether is not extant in 𝓞, but probably read quarters (the reading in 𝓟) since there is no actual evidence of mix-ups between quarter(s) and corner(s) in the manuscripts (or in the editions, for that matter). We can assume that if these instances of quarters are errors for corners, they would have occurred as Oliver Cowdery took down Joseph Smith’s dictation.
There is, however, one instance of corners in the Book of Mormon text, and this is found in the long Isaiah quotation in 2 Nephi 12–24:
One could argue that all the other passages are indirectly referring to Isaiah 11:12 and therefore quarters could be an error for corners. But one problem we need to solve here is why Oliver Cowdery was able to get corners in the one case when Isaiah 11:12 was directly quoted (namely, in 2 Nephi 21:12). There is no evidence that Oliver ever referred to a King James Bible when he took down Joseph Smith’s dictation—nor did he refer to one when he copied 𝓞 into 𝓟 or when he proofed the text of 𝓟 (but there is evidence that John Gilbert, the 1830 compositor, did reference a King James Bible when he set the type for the Isaiah quotations). The fact that Isaiah 11:12 was correctly copied as corners suggests that Oliver did not otherwise mishear corners as quarters. Rather, it implies that quarters is indeed correct in all the other Book of Mormon passages where Isaiah 11:12 is not directly quoted.
Most important, there is one occurrence of the phrase “the four quarters of the earth” in the King James Bible:
In the Greek, the phrase “the four quarters of the earth” actually reads “the four corners of the earth”. Elsewhere, the King James Bible systematically translated this phrase as “the four corners of the earth/land”; besides Isaiah 11:12, there is Ezekiel 7:2 and one more in Revelation:
In other words, Revelation 20:8 should have been translated more literally as “the four corners of the earth” in the King James Bible, but it was not. This difference in translation of the same Greek phrase in Revelation originated with William Tyndale’s 1526 (and 1534) translations of the New Testament. Earlier, John Wycliffe’s 1388 New Testament translated both instances in Revelation as “(the) four corners of the earth”, as do all modern translations. Thus Tyndale is responsible for the biblical variation.
This variation between corners and quarters is also found in the Book of Mormon, except the distribution is reversed! There is only one occurrence of “the four corners of the earth”, while others read “the four quarters of the earth”. There is no substantive evidence that the predominate use in the Book of Mormon text of “the four quarters of the earth” is an error. The critical text will maintain the general use of quarters in this phrase except for the occurrence of corners in 2 Nephi 21:12 (which quotes Isaiah 11:12).
There is one more case where the Book of Mormon text does not use quarters for this expression; yet this too is a case where the passage refers to the gathering in of the dispersed of Israel:
This example provides further evidence that variation is possible for this expression. Thus we end up with examples of quarters, corners, and parts in referring to the gathering of Israel from all over the world. And as Don Brugger points out (personal communication), there are also examples referring to the gathering that use the phrase “the ends of the earth” (but this phrase occurs without the number four).
Summary: Maintain the distinction between “the four quarters of the earth” and “the four corners of the earth” in the Book of Mormon text; in each case, we follow the reading of the earliest textual sources; there is also one example of “the four parts of the earth”.