As discussed under 1 Nephi 22:4, Oliver Cowdery had difficulty distinguishing between whether and whither in the manuscripts. Here in Alma 16:5 the larger context makes it quite clear that whither is correct. Zoram and his two sons have already decided that they are going to search for the captured Nephites. They simply want to know where to look for them; they do not need to know whether they should look for them. They already know that the captives are somewhere in the wilderness (see verses 3–4). And Alma’s answer from the Lord gives only the requisite information—namely, where to go in the wilderness to recover the captives:
There is nothing in his answer like “yea ye should go into the wilderness in search of your brethren”. Surprisingly, the whether of the printer’s manuscript here in Alma 16:5 was retained in the text until the 1981 LDS edition (and it continues in the RLDS text), although Joseph Smith, in his editing of 𝓟 for the 1837 edition, overwrote the first e of Oliver’s whether with an i, giving whither. But this change was never implemented in the 1837 edition itself, perhaps because the change in one letter was difficult to notice.
Summary: Accept in Alma 16:5 the 1981 LDS emendation of whether to whither; Joseph Smith marked 𝓟 for this change, but it was never implemented in the 1837 edition; the question is not whether Zoram and the Nephite armies should search in the wilderness for the captive Nephites, but rather where in the wilderness they should search.