There are several complications in this passage. First, the printer’s manuscript has “the peace of the land”, but the 1830 edition has “the peace of the band”. The 1908 RLDS edition and the 1981 LDS edition restored the word land, which makes more sense than band. Here in 3 Nephi 6:3, these robbers have forsaken their band and are promising to keep the peace; in other words, they no longer belong to the band. Most probably, the 1830 typesetter misread an original land in 𝓞 as band. Here is another example in the text where land was apparently misread as band:
In this instance, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote the band in 𝓟 instead of the land.
Another complication in 3 Nephi 6:3 is the unique use of the preposition of in the phrase “the peace of the land”. Elsewhere we have many references to peace “in the land” (24 times), plus three references to peace “through(out) the land” and one to peace being restored “to the land” (Alma 62:11). Nonetheless, “the peace of the land” works; and in support of this usage there are also examples referring to “the peace of this people” (Mosiah 29:10) and “the peace of my people” (3 Nephi 9:9).
A third complication in this passage is its syntax. The first relative clause (“which had entered into a covenant to keep the peace of the land”) is restrictive, while the second relative clause (“which were desirous to remain Lamanites”) can be interpreted as either restrictive or nonrestrictive. Recent editors have chosen to make the second one nonrestrictive by surrounding it with commas, thus making it easier to interpret the following lands as the direct object for the verb granted: “and they granted unto those robbers … lands according to their numbers”. Still, this sentence is difficult to process, but no additional change in the punctuation will guarantee that readers will correctly parse this sentence, at least on its initial reading.
Grant Hardy, in The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2003), follows the text of the 1920 LDS edition and therefore retains the use of band (the 1830 reading). But Hardy repunctuates the passage so that the prepositional phrase of the band postmodifies the earlier those robbers:
Under this interpretation, the prepositional phrase “of the band” is delayed by a rather long relative clause. We can find evidence elsewhere in the text for delayed of-initial prepositional phrases, although in the other cases the intervening text is considerably shorter:
In 3 Nephi 6:3, the reading in 𝓟 (with the phrase “the peace of the land”) works much more straightforwardly. Morever, the phraseology “robbers of the band” is anomalous; elsewhere the text has examples of only “band(s) of robbers” (nine times).
Summary: Accept in 3 Nephi 6:3 the reading of the printer’s manuscript for the phrase “the peace of the land”; the use of band in this phrase (the reading of the 1830 edition) makes the reading even more complicated; also maintain the preposition of in this phrase, despite the uniqueness of this phrase in the text; keep the current punctuation with its commas around the relative clause preceding the direct object lands since those commas mitigate the difficulty of the reading.