Here the 1830 typesetter placed a semicolon before the phrase “in the first place”, thus assigning this phrase to the following present participial clause (“in the first place being left to choose good or evil”) rather than the preceding text (“being called and prepared from the foundation of the world … on account of their exceeding faith and good works in the first place”). Mahlon Edwards (personal communication, 20 November 2003) has proposed that the phrase “in the first place” works better with the preceding text; he suggests the following punctuation:
Elsewhere there are three examples for which “in the first place” clearly begins a finite clause:
The last of these is found shortly after Alma 13:3. For one other instance of “in the first place”, the reading is ambiguous:
In this instance, the phrase “in the first place” could refer to what the Lord desires first of all or above all else. Or this phrase could mean that the Lord desires that we should first believe in his word (even though the subordinate that follows the phrase “in the first place”). The difference in meaning here is minor, as it is in Alma 13:3. Given the way the phrase is unambiguously used in Alma 13:5, it is probably best to maintain the current punctuation in Alma 13:3.
Summary: Maintain the current punctuation in Alma 13:3, with the semicolon preceding the phrase “in the first place”; attaching this phrase to the following participial clause is supported by the nearby usage in Alma 13:5 (“or in fine / in the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren”).