The 1852 LDS edition dropped the subordinate conjunction as at the beginning of this complex statement. Earlier, the 1830 compositor had first decided that the text of verse 47 should be kept separate from the text of verse 48: in 𝓟 he supplied a period between the two clauses; in the 1830 edition he initially set a semicolon. But during the printing, as an in-press change, he replaced the semicolon with a comma.
The dropping of as in the 1852 edition (perhaps accidentally) later led Orson Pratt (in his editing for the 1879 edition) to change the comma at the end of verse 47 to a period. The critical text will restore the original as and indicate that there should be only a comma between verses 47 and 48 (or at least that there should be no closure between the two verses). For other examples where a long initial as-clause is eventually completed by a main clause, see under Mosiah 23:12.
Summary: Restore in Alma 5:47 the subordinate conjunction as and the comma at the end of that verse, thus connecting the main clause at the beginning of verse 48 to the subordinate statement in verse 47.