Here the manuscripts originally read “the judgments of God was upon them”. The 1830 typesetter dealt with the number disagreement by changing the plural judgments to the singular judgment. But Joseph Smith, working from the printer’s manuscript in his editing for the 1837 edition, kept the original plural judgments and changed the verb was to the plural were.
The problem here is to determine the intended meaning of the earliest text. One possibility is that the s of judgments in the manuscripts was due to scribal error. The other possibility is that the earliest text simply reflects a common dialectal possibility in the original language of the Book of Mormon—namely, the singular verb form of be could be used with both singular and plural subjects. For instance, 1 Nephi 4:4 originally read “they was yet wroth”. See the discussion under subject-verb agreement in volume 3.
The singular “judgment of God” is consistent with the phraseology in the King James Bible:
There are also occurrences of “judgment of God” in Romans 2 (verses 2, 3, and 5).
In the Book of Mormon text, on the other hand, the plural phrase “judgments of God” is the expected one. There are 12 other occurrences of the plural phrase in the original text:
In the 1858 Wright edition for Alma 58:9, the plural “judgments of God” was accidentally replaced by the singular “judgment of God”, but this reading has not persisted.
In contrast, there are only two cases of “judgment of God” in the original text of the Book of Mormon:
These two instances are each exceptional in their own way. In 2 Nephi 9:15, the text is referring to the final judgment rather than the judgments that come upon people in this life. Moreover, the word judgment is preceded by the word holy, unlike the occurrences of “judgments of God” elsewhere in the text. The example in 3 Nephi 12:21 parallels the language of the King James Bible (in Matthew 5:21: “and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment”). There is only one difference with the biblical text—namely, the additional prepositional phrase “of God” in the Book of Mormon. But the use of judgment in 3 Nephi 12:21 maintains the singular of the King James text.
Thus “the judgments of God” is the normal reading in the Book of Mormon text. Therefore, the final s of the original reading should be accepted in 1 Nephi 18:15. The 1830 typesetter’s emendation to the singular judgment was in error. From an editing point of view, Joseph Smith was correct to change the verb was to were when he restored the original plural “the judgments of God”.
Summary: Maintain in 1 Nephi 18:15 the original plural phraseology of “the judgments of God”; the critical text will also retain the nonstandard singular verb form was rather than the standard were.