Geography: The place of refuge is somewhere in the current center of the Nephite lands, between the lands of Zarahemla and Bountiful. Bountiful is bordered on the north by the land of Desolation, the ancient Jaredite homeland. This place of refuge must be large enough to support the combined Nephite population but compact enough that it can be both defended and besieged (3 Ne. 4:16).
Variant: The phrase: “and the land which was between the land Zarahemla and the land Bountiful” was present in the printer’s manuscript, and in the 1830 edition but was inadvertently deleted for the 1837 edition. It was restored in the 1981 edition.