Heather Hardy (personal communication, 26 May 2006) suggests that the word preserved here in Ether 2:7 could be an error for reserved. This is possible, as witness two other places in the text that show variation between reserve and preserve:
(See the discussion under each of these passages. In the first case, the critical text will emend reserve, the earliest reading, to restore.) Here in Ether 2:7, the verb preserve will work. For instance, the Oxford English Dictionary, under definition 2c for the verb preserve, lists the meaning ‘to keep in one’s possession, to retain’. Although there could be an error here in Ether 2:7, the earliest reading with the verb preserve will work and will therefore be retained in the critical text.
Summary: Maintain in Ether 2:7 the original use of the verb preserve: “the land of promise ... which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people”.