1 Hearken and hear, O ye my people, saith the Lord and your God, ye whom I delight to bless with the greatest of all blessings, ye that hear me; and ye that hear me not will I curse, that have professed my name, with the heaviest of all cursings.
Tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly. 89:8
Revelation through Joseph Smith to the church at Kirtland, Ohio, February 4, 1831
41:1-61 Hearken and hear, O ye my people, saith the Lord and your God, ye whom I delight to bless with the greatest of all blessings, ye that hear me; and ye that hear me not will I curse, that have professed my name, with the heaviest of all cursings.
I'm God.
If you listen to me, I'll give you the greatest blessing.
If you don't, I'll give you the greatest cursing.
2 Hearken, O ye elders of my church whom I have called, behold I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall assemble yourselves together to agree upon my word;
3 And by the prayer of your faith ye shall receive my law, that ye may know how to govern my church and have all things right before me.
Here's a commandment for the church: [1]
Gather together and agree about my word.
4 And I will be your ruler when I come; and behold, I come quickly, and ye shall see that my law is kept.
I'll be your ruler when I come.
And I come quickly.
5 He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple; and he that saith he receiveth it and doeth it not, the same is not my disciple, and shall be cast out from among you;
Expel anyone who refuses to obey my law.
6 For it is not meet that the things which belong to the children of the kingdom should be given to them that are not worthy, or to dogs, or the pearls to be cast before swine.
Don't give the things that belong to children to dogs
or cast pearls before swine.
41:77 And again, it is meet that my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., should have a house built, in which to live and translate.
Build Joseph Smith, Jun. a house.
41:88 And again, it is meet that my servant Sidney Rigdon should live as seemeth him good, inasmuch as he keepeth my commandments.
And give Sidney Rigdon whatever he needs to live comfortably.
41:9-129 And again, I have called my servant Edward Partridge; and I give a commandment, that he should be appointed by the voice of the church, and ordained a bishop unto the church, to leave his merchandise and to spend all his time in the labors of the church;
10 To see to all things as it shall be appointed unto him in my laws in the day that I shall give them.
11 And this because his heart is pure before me, for he is like unto Nathanael of old, in whom there is no guile.
Here's another commandment for you:
Make Edward Partridge a bishop
(by the voice of the church).
12 These words are given unto you, and they are pure before me; wherefore, beware how you hold them, for they are to be answered upon your aouls in the day of judgment. Even so. Amen.
Amen.
What was Jesus's first commandment in the Doctrine and Covenants?
Copyright © 1999-2026
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible
Send comments to Steve Wells
at steve(at)skepticsannotededbible.com
I've tried to make the function and navigation of the SAB website as intuitive as possible. And so, hopefully, not much explanation is necessary. However, there are a few things that I've recently added (and that I'm currently working on) that I should mention.
The images on the SAB homepage link to the homepages of each of the four scriptures that are presented at the SAB website: the Bible, the Mormon Scriptures, the Quran, and the Bhagavad Gita. Clicking on an image opens the homepage for that scripture. The link below the image opens a drop-down table. This is a way to quickly access individual books or chapters in a particular scripture.
The header displays links to selected verses and trivia questions, which are randomly selected from the four scriptures. The images in the bookshelf on the right are links to the home pages for each scripture. And, of course, the SAB logo on the left side of the header links to the SAB home page.
Links to The Bible in Fewer Words are in the upper right. This is a podcast that my wife, Carole, and I did which covered the entire Bible in 309 episodes - but in fewer words. It is available on the usual podcast platforms as well as on YouTube. There is also a link to the text and notes for episodes with embedded YouTube videos. This allows you to read the text along with us as we do each podcast episode.
The rest of the links on the homepage probably need no explanation, except for, perhaps, the Scripture Comparisons link. This compares how various topics are treated in the scriptures. But be sure to notice the images of the books in the lower right. These are books that I have published, with links to the SAB bookstore where the books are for sale. There is also a link to our Patreon page below the links to the SAB bookstore.
The Bible homepage includes links to the books of the Bible, as well as the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical books. Under the header on the left side is a drop-down table that allows quick access to the books and chapters of the Bible.
As on the SAB homepage the links are fairly self-explanatory. However I would like to mention a few that seem most important.
The Mormon Scriptures includes the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Each of these is presented in a similar manner as discussed for the Bible homepage.
The Quran consists of 114 chapters or surahs. Each surah is presented in a way that is similar to the way the chapters are presented in the books of the Bible and in the Mormon Scriptures.
The Gita is the shortest of the four scriptures. It consists of 700 verses in 18 chapters. The chapters are presented in the same way as in the other scriptures.
Each book in the Bible has an outline page that includes a list of the chapters of the book, along with the sections within each chapter, with links to the chapters and sections. The left panel includes links to an introduction to the book, selected verses, Drunk With Blood killings, trivia questions, and Bible in Fewer Words episodes. Category links are shown below, ordered by the number of items in each list, with the number shown in parentheses.
In the header of every chapter page you'll find a "Bible Books" drop-down menu that displays the books in the Bible, with links to the chapters in each book of the Bible and Apocrypha. This allows you to go to any chapter in the Bible from any chapter page. And there are forward and back arrows at the top and bottom of every chapter page that will take you to the next chapter of the book.
There is also a small scripture book icon on the upper right corner of each chapter page. Clicking that will open a pop-up that provides links to all the chapters in that chapter's book. Clicking on the book icon again will close the pop-up.
Each chapter includes one or more section headings on the left, with category icons on the right. Clicking on these icons displays a list of category items in that section. (I am currently working on this feature, so some of the chapter pages will display the category items for the entire chapter, rather than for the section alone.)
