The Voice of Warning

A revelation calls itself a preface to a book of commandments, addresses the whole earth rather than a congregation, and concedes in its own words that the commandments it prefaces were given in the weakness of the men who wrote them.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. D&C 1 is a first-person divine address whose speaker is identified inside its own verse text — “saith the voice of him who dwells on high” (D&C 1:1), “I am God and have spoken it” (D&C 1:24). It names one servant, “my servant Joseph Smith, Jun.” (D&C 1:17), and this page names him on that basis and imports nothing from the excluded section headnotes. The occasion, date and place of the revelation are outside this wiki’s source text. This page additionally hosts the warning-voice material of D&C 63 — verses 1–6, 32–34, 37, 57–59, and 65 — which is likewise a first-person divine address (“I, the Lord, utter my voice”, D&C 63:5) and which names two servants in its verse text (D&C 63:65). That section’s remaining verses are hosted on Sign-Seeking, The Day of Transfiguration, Taking the Name in Vain, and Governments and Laws.

Standing disclosure — KJV-overlap material. This page reports verbal correspondence with the King James text as textual fact, including where the correspondence follows the KJV’s English translation. What that correspondence implies about the origin of the Doctrine and Covenants text — in any direction — is an external question outside this wiki’s scope.

Account

A preface that says so

The section describes itself, twice, in terms of a book. It calls itself “my preface unto the book of my commandments” (D&C 1:6), and it tells its hearers what to do with what it prefaces: “Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.” (D&C 1:37). The address is not to a congregation but to a hemisphere — “Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together.” (D&C 1:1) — and the reason given is reach rather than warning alone: “the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape” (D&C 1:2).

The phrase this page takes its name from is the section’s own: “And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days.” (D&C 1:4). The four-word run stands at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus — this one — counting distinct frozen verses across the whole corpus, matched case-insensitively.

The concession

The most unusual sentence in the section is one that limits it. Having declared the commandments to be his, the voice concedes the medium: “these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.” (D&C 1:24). What follows is a four-clause ladder that treats error as a working condition rather than a scandal — “And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known” (D&C 1:25); “And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed” (D&C 1:26); “And inasmuch as they sinned they might be chastened, that they might repent” (D&C 1:27); “And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.” (D&C 1:28).

The section then closes the same circle from the other side, asserting that the word is not subject to the weakness of the voices carrying it: “though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C 1:38). That two are held together in one section — commandments given in human weakness, and a word that will not pass away — is a textual fact of this section, and this page does not attempt to reconcile them for the reader.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:38: “and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled” - Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Divergences: the discourse has “Heaven and earth”, the revelation “the heavens and the earth”; the discourse “my words”, the revelation “my word”, singular. The revelation adds a clause the discourse does not carry at this point — that the word stands whether spoken by his own voice or by his servants’ (D&C 1:38) — which is the point the section is making with the borrowed sentence. A third carrier reads the saying differently again: “Although, the days will come, that heaven and earth shall pass away; yet my words shall not pass away, but all shall be fulfilled.” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:35). Disclosed, not ranked.

Two verses of one prophecy, forty-three verses apart

The section reaches for the same short chapter of Isaiah twice, at its beginning and near its end, and takes a different half of one verse each time.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:13: “And the anger of the Lord is kindled, and his sword is bathed in heaven, and it shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth.” - Isaiah 34:5: “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.”

“bathed in heaven” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, these two. Divergences: the prophecy speaks in the first person of “my sword” and the revelation in the third of “his sword”; the prophecy’s tense is future, the revelation’s present. What the sword falls upon differs too, and that difference is the subject of the next record.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:36: “and shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world.” - Isaiah 34:5: “behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.”

“Idumea” stands at exactly five distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Isaiah 34:5, Isaiah 34:6, Ezekiel 35:15, Ezekiel 36:5, and D&C 1:36. The revelation is the only one of the five that supplies a gloss for the name, and the gloss is two words: “or the world” (D&C 1:36). Whether the prophecy’s Idumea and the revelation’s are the same referent is exactly what the gloss decides for the revelation and leaves open for the prophecy; this page reports the gloss and does not extend it backwards.

The other borrowed sentences

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:14: “And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord… shall be cut off from among the people” - Isaiah 53:1: “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?”

The prophecy asks the question; the revelation answers it as an event. “the arm of the Lord” stands at seven distinct frozen verses in the corpus, counted case-insensitively: Isaiah 53:1, Mosiah 14:1, John 12:38, D&C 1:14, D&C 45:45, D&C 45:47, and D&C 90:10. The omission marked above skips the verse’s middle clause about the voice of the servants and the words of the prophets.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:19: “The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh—” - 1 Corinthians 1:27: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;”

The four-word run stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: 1 Corinthians 1:27, D&C 1:19, and D&C 35:13, the last of which is registered on Servants Named in the Calls with the same letter. Divergences: the letter’s weak things confound, the revelation’s break down; the letter’s purpose clause ends there, and the revelation continues into two clauses about counsel and the arm of flesh that the letter does not carry.

A term-fact carried from the record, disclosed here and ruled on Covenant of Israel: “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” (D&C 1:31) repeats Alma 45:16’s clause word for word — the phrase’s only two corpus carriers. That page notes it as a term-fact, not a registered connection, and this page follows that ruling.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 1:33: “for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts.” - Genesis 6:3: “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

Eight consecutive words match without variation apart from capitalisation. The run stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two and Moses 8:17. Two further carriers state the same principle in different words and are therefore not in that count — “the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with man” (2 Nephi 26:11) and “my Spirit will not always strive with man” (Ether 2:15) — both reading “will” where the three counted carriers read “shall”. The looser three-word probe “strive with man” returns five verses, those three plus these two; both figures are given so the reader can see which boundary is doing the work.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 1:35: “For I am no respecter of persons, and will that all men shall know that the day speedily cometh” - Acts 10:34: “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:”

The narrative reports a man’s inference about God; the revelation is God’s own first-person statement of the same predicate. The four-word run stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two and D&C 38:16.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:35: “when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion.” - Revelation 6:4: “power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another”

Five words in common across a voice change: the vision has an agent taking peace, the revelation a passive in which peace is taken. Neither exact string recurs — “peace shall be taken from the earth” stands at one frozen verse, D&C 1:35, and “take peace from the earth” at one, Revelation 6:4. Both then name a consequence, and the consequences differ: killing one another in the vision, the devil’s power over his own dominion in the revelation.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:16: “which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.” - Revelation 18:2: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils”

“Babylon the great” stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Revelation 17:5, Revelation 18:2, and D&C 1:16. Divergence of tense is the whole difference of posture: the vision announces a fall already accomplished and doubles the verb, the revelation states one still to come and does not. What the name denotes in the revelation is given in the same verse and is not a city — the man who “walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god” (D&C 1:16) is the one whose substance perishes there. The corpus’s other doubled falling has a different subject and is not linked here (D&C 88:105; Revelation 14:8).

The one saying with no counterpart

One image in the section is, by corpus-wide search, its own. “spoken upon the housetops” stands at exactly one frozen verse, D&C 1:3; the nearest carrier reads “proclaimed upon the housetops” and stands at exactly one, Luke 12:3.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 1:3: “for their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their secret acts shall be revealed.” - Luke 12:3: “and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”

Divergences: the verb (“spoken” for “proclaimed”), and the thing published — the discourse publishes what was said in secret, the revelation publishes iniquities and secret acts. The discourse frames the saying as a general rule about concealment; the revelation frames it as a judgment on “the rebellious” (D&C 1:3).

The warning voice given as an assignment

The phrase this page is named for is the preface’s (D&C 1:4). A later section turns the same idea from a description into a duty laid on individuals, and states the shape of the day it is to be spoken into. “warning voice” stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus — D&C 38:41, D&C 63:37, and D&C 112:5 — and the phrase this page is named for, “the voice of warning”, at exactly one, D&C 1:4. The two forms are distinct strings and the wiki does not merge them.

The assignment verse is the section’s most compressed: “And that every man should take righteousness in his hands and faithfulness upon his loins, and lift a warning voice unto the inhabitants of the earth; and declare both by word and by flight that desolation shall come upon the wicked.” (D&C 63:37). Three of its clauses stand at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus each — “take righteousness”, “faithfulness upon”, and “desolation shall come upon the wicked” — and its middle image is older.

[Textual] — paraphrase / allusion. () - D&C 63:37: “And that every man should take righteousness in his hands and faithfulness upon his loins, and lift a warning voice unto the inhabitants of the earth” - Isaiah 11:5: “And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.”

The shared material is a pairing rather than a run: the same two abstract nouns, righteousness and faithfulness, distributed over the same two garments-of-the-body figure, with loins named in both. That is why this is registered as allusion and not as shared phrasing — the longest verbatim run common to the two verses is one word. Divergences: the prophecy dresses one figure it has been describing since Isaiah 11:1 and gives each noun a girdle, and this verse makes the wearing a duty of “every man” and moves righteousness from the loins to the hands. The prophecy’s wording stands at three distinct frozen verses in the corpus — Isaiah 11:5, 2 Nephi 21:5, and 2 Nephi 30:11 — the two later carriers reproducing it as part of the record’s Isaiah blocks; this verse is the only one of the four that re-aims it.

A second verse states who may be set apart to do it, and makes willingness the qualification: “And again, verily I say unto you, those who desire in their hearts, in meekness, to warn sinners to repentance, let them be ordained unto this power.” (D&C 63:57). “warn sinners to repentance” stands at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, this one.

And a third states why the speaking is to be brief: “For this is a day of warning, and not a day of many words. For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in the last days.” (D&C 63:58). Both halves of the first sentence stand at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus — “a day of warning” and “day of many words”. The second sentence is a term-fact rather than a connection: the corpus’s other carrier of “not to be mocked” is D&C 104:6, “For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in these things—”, and the nearest counterpart outside the Doctrine and Covenants states the predicate of God rather than in his own voice and in different words, “God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). The shared wording is one word, which is below this wiki’s bar for a registered connection; it is disclosed here and not paired.

The oath, and the wars decreed under it

The verses immediately before the assignment give the condition of the earth the warning is to be lifted in, and they open with a withdrawal: “I, the Lord, am angry with the wicked; I am holding my Spirit from the inhabitants of the earth.” (D&C 63:32).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 63:33: “I have sworn in my wrath, and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon every man;” - Hebrews 4:3: “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

The six-word run “I have sworn in my wrath” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, these two. What is sworn is where they part, and they part completely: the letter’s oath is a refusal of entry into rest, and this verse’s is a decree of wars. The letter is itself quoting — “as he said” (Hebrews 4:3) — and the corpus carries the sentence it is quoting in two further places, both in a different verb form that this count therefore excludes: “So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)” (Hebrews 3:11) and “Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.” (Psalms 95:11). The looser probe “in my wrath” returns seven distinct frozen verses in the corpus, those four plus Alma 12:35, Hosea 13:11, and Isaiah 60:10; both figures are given so a reader can see which boundary is doing the work. Three clauses of this verse (D&C 63:33) stand at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus each: “decreed wars”, “the wicked shall slay the wicked”, and “fear shall come upon every man”.

The next verse withholds the exemption a reader might expect at that point: “And the saints also shall hardly escape; nevertheless, I, the Lord, am with them, and will come down in heaven from the presence of my Father and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire.” (D&C 63:34). “the saints also shall hardly escape” stands at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, this one. “unquenchable fire” is by contrast a stock term of the corpus, standing at eight distinct frozen verses — Matthew 3:12, Mosiah 2:38, Alma 5:52, Mormon 9:5, D&C 43:33, D&C 63:34, D&C 63:54, and D&C 101:66 — and is disclosed rather than paired, since no one of those stands nearer than the rest. The whole decree is then given a timing that declines to be a timing: “And behold, this is not yet, but by and by.” (D&C 63:35), a clause already treated on The Day of Transfiguration.

The section’s opening, and its closing predications

The section opens on the same double address the preface uses — a call outward and a call to a people who have named themselves: “Hearken, O ye people, and open your hearts and give ear from afar; and listen, you that call yourselves the people of the Lord, and hear the word of the Lord and his will concerning you.” (D&C 63:1). “give ear from afar” stands at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, this one; the preface’s comparable clause is “Hearken ye people from afar” (D&C 1:1), a string standing at four distinct frozen verses when the opening two words are counted alone — D&C 1:1, Isaiah 34:1, Isaiah 49:1, and 1 Nephi 21:1. The two D&C openings share a posture and not a run, and this page reports them side by side without registering a pairing.

The four verses that follow describe the speaker by what he does rather than by name — one who “willeth to take even them whom he will take, and preserveth in life them whom he will preserve” (D&C 63:3), who “buildeth up at his own will and pleasure; and destroyeth when he pleases, and is able to cast the soul down to hell” (D&C 63:4) — and then state the sufficiency of the voice alone: “Behold, I, the Lord, utter my voice, and it shall be obeyed.” (D&C 63:5). “utter my voice” stands at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, this one. The warning proper follows, with a figure the corpus uses widely: “let the unbelieving hold their lips, for the day of wrath shall come upon them as a whirlwind, and all flesh shall know that I am God.” (D&C 63:6). “hold their lips” and “all flesh shall know that I am God” each stand at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, this one; “as a whirlwind” stands at five — Proverbs 1:27, Jeremiah 4:13, Habakkuk 3:14, D&C 63:6, and D&C 112:24 — and is disclosed, not paired.

Near the section’s end the speaker states his own extent in a chain of prepositions.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 63:59: “Behold, I am from above, and my power lieth beneath. I am over all, and in all, and through all, and search all things, and the day cometh that all things shall be subject unto me.” - Ephesians 4:6: “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

The same three prepositions govern the same word in both, and the letter’s order is inverted in the middle: the letter runs above / through / in, this verse over / in / through. Divergences: the letter’s first term is “above all” and this verse’s is “over all”; the letter’s third phrase is “in you all”, naming the hearers as the thing indwelt, and this verse’s is “in all” with no such object; and the letter states the predicates of “One God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:6) in the third person where this verse states them in the first. The run “in all, and through all” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus — this verse and D&C 88:6, “that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth” — and “over all, and in all” at exactly one, this verse. This verse then continues into two clauses the letter does not carry, “search all things” and “all things shall be subject unto me” (D&C 63:59), each standing at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus.

The section’s last verse in this page’s material is administrative and short: “Let my servants, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, seek them a home, as they are taught through prayer by the Spirit.” (D&C 63:65). Both of its distinctive clauses — “seek them a home” and “as they are taught through prayer” — stand at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, this one. It is hosted here because it is the last unhosted verse of the section and because the two men it names are the two the section has been addressing since D&C 63:55; nothing further about either man is stated on this page, and the servants themselves are treated on Servants Named in the Calls.

Significance

Two features of this section are worth stating plainly because they govern how everything else in the Doctrine and Covenants can be read against it.

The first is that the section is about a book, and says so in its own words: a preface (D&C 1:6), commandments to be searched (D&C 1:37), a record already received and a translation already accomplished (D&C 1:29). A reader coming to the collection from its first page is told what kind of thing they are holding before they are told anything else.

The second is the concession at D&C 1:24. Most of the verbal correspondences catalogued above run to the King James text, and the section itself supplies the only comment the wiki will make on that: the commandments were given “after the manner of their language” (D&C 1:24). That sentence is a textual fact about what the section claims. It is not an explanation of the correspondences, and this wiki does not turn it into one — the parallels are these, the variants are these, and the origin of the correspondence is an external question, out of scope in both directions.

Key references

D&C 1:1–6 — the address to the whole earth; the section’s self-description as a preface
D&C 1:13–16 — the bathed sword, the revealed arm, Babylon the great
D&C 1:17–23 — the servant named; the weak things; the purposes of the calling
D&C 1:24–28 — the concession, and the four-clause ladder
D&C 1:34–39 — no respecter of persons; Idumea; the word that will not pass away
Isaiah 34:5, Isaiah 53:1, Genesis 6:3, Matthew 24:35, Acts 10:34, 1 Corinthians 1:27, Luke 12:3, Revelation 6:4, Revelation 18:2 — the passages the section’s language tracks
D&C 63:1–6, 63:32–37, 63:57–59, 63:65 — the warning voice as an assignment; the oath and the wars decreed under it
Isaiah 11:5, Hebrews 4:3, Ephesians 4:6 — the passages section 63’s language tracks

The Signs of the Coming · The Day of the Lord · The Order of Revelation · The Missionary Charge · Coming Forth of Scripture · Joseph Smith · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants section 1 throughout, and section 63 verses 1–6, 32–34, 37, 57–59, and 65 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Section 63’s cross-references are quoted from Isaiah 11, Hebrews 4, and Ephesians 4; Hebrews 3, Psalms 95, Alma 12, Hosea 13, Isaiah 60, 2 Nephi 21, 2 Nephi 30, Galatians 6, Proverbs 1, Jeremiah 4, Habakkuk 3, Matthew 3, Mosiah 2, Alma 5, Mormon 9, Isaiah 49, 1 Nephi 21, and D&C 38 / 43 / 88 / 101 / 104 / 112 are cited inside disclosures rather than registered. Cross-references quoted from Genesis 6, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 53, Matthew 24, Luke 12, Acts 10, 1 Corinthians 1, Revelation 6, and Revelation 18. Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:35, Moses 8:17, 2 Nephi 26:11, Ether 2:15, Mosiah 14:1, John 12:38, Revelation 14:8, Revelation 17:5, and D&C 35:13 / 38:16 / 88:105 / 90:10 are quoted or cited inside disclosures rather than registered as connections of this page.

Every quote is verbatim from the frozen source text, cited to its exact reference and checked character-for-character; no quote crosses a verse boundary. Thirteen connection records are registered here, all [textual] and all asserted_by: wiki — neither section names a source for any of the language tabled above. Distribution figures are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing.