In setting the type for the 1837 edition, the compositor’s eye skipped from the second and the land to the third one, thus omitting “and the land which was between the land of Zarahemla”. The 1908 RLDS edition restored the original text to the RLDS text. Except for the preposition of before Zarahemla, the 1981 LDS restored the original reading to the LDS text. The of seems to have been accidentally omitted, perhaps because there is no of in the conjoined “and the land Bountiful”. As discussed under 1 Nephi 17:7, the Book of Mormon text definitely favors “the land Bountiful”, although there are a few occurrences with the of. On the other hand, in the original text of the Book of Mormon there are no instances of “the land Zarahemla” (see the discussion under Alma 2:15). Instead, we always get “the land of Zarahemla” (105 times). Thus the of should be restored here in 3 Nephi 3:23.
Summary: Restore the original preposition of to the phrase “the land of Zarahemla” in 3 Nephi 3:23; the shorter phrase “the land Zarahemla” never occurred in the original text of the Book of Mormon; in this passage, the compositor for the 1837 edition skipped from the second instance of and the land to the third instance, thus omitting the entire phrase “and the land which was between the land of Zarahemla”; the critical text will maintain the longer reading.