Moses 2

The Creation in God's Own Words

The Lord tells Moses what He made, in the first person, and says who made it with Him.

Last revised October 6, 2026

Moses chaptersChapter 2 of 8

Received by Joseph Smith between June and October 1830. In the account, it follows the vision on the mountain, when the Lord “spake unto Moses” and told him to write. Also in Gen. 1:1–31 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Two settings meet here. In the account, Moses has just seen God face to face on “an exceedingly high mountain” (Moses 1:1–2), has been told that he will write what he hears, and…

Two settings meet here. In the account, Moses has just seen God face to face on “an exceedingly high mountain” (Moses 1:1–2), has been told that he will write what he hears, and now hears the Creation. The Lord says, “I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak” (Moses 2:1). In the history of the text, the chapter belongs to the revelation Joseph Smith dated June–October 1830, an extract from his translation of the Bible.

Genesis names no author. Whatever the history of its text, “Restoration scripture confirms Moses’s central involvement in these works of scripture,” and this verse is one of the passages named for it. The chapter runs verse for verse beside Gen. 1, and Abraham tells the same Creation again as the plan of the Gods (Abr. 4). So this chapter does not repeat what the Genesis notes already say about the Hebrew, the firmament, the days, or the image of God. It takes up what Moses adds: who is speaking, in what voice, and what the speaker says about Himself and about the Only Begotten.

The thread through the chapter

The chapter is the Creation told by the Creator, in the first person. Genesis says “God said”; here the Lord says “I, God, said.”

The chapter is the Creation told by the Creator, in the first person. Genesis says “God said”; here the Lord says “I, God, said.” The phrase carries the narrative through twenty-four of its thirty-one verses, and it does what the opening verse promises: Moses is not given a report about the Creation but a revelation from the One who did it, and he is told to write it.

Two things in the account are Moses' own. The first is that the Lord names Himself and then names another: “I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things.” The second is the purpose behind it, which Moses had just heard in Moses 1:39: this is God's work and His glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” That purpose “is the lens through which the creation accounts are viewed.” The earth is ordered, light is made, life is filled in, and at the end the Father speaks to the Only Begotten and makes man in the image of them both.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

The Lord reveals the Creation to Moses

In plain words

The Lord tells Moses He is revealing to him this heaven and earth, and that Moses must write what He says. The Lord is the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God, and He created all of this by His Only Begotten. At first the earth was unformed and empty. The Lord caused darkness to be upon the deep, and His Spirit moved upon the water, “for I am God.”

1 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest.

Context #

A revelation to Moses, and a command to write

The chapter presents itself as a revelation to Moses, with an instruction to record it.

The chapter presents itself as a revelation to Moses, with an instruction to record it. Genesis names no speaker and no author; this account names both. The command, “write the words which I speak,” repeats what the Lord told Moses on the mountain: “I will speak unto thee concerning this earth upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak” (Moses 1:40).

The verse says “I reveal,” which “clearly defines that this is a revelation to Moses.” If the revelation follows the pattern of the vision in Moses 1, “seeing” may have been part of how Moses received it. That is an inference, not something the text states; it says only that the Lord reveals and Moses writes.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: The Purpose and Logistics of Creation”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 107–30.

Language #

The Beginning and the End

The speaker's first titles place Him over time itself. “Beginning” and “End” used of God “help us see the close relationship between the Creator and his governance over the…

The speaker's first titles place Him over time itself. “Beginning” and “End” used of God “help us see the close relationship between the Creator and his governance over the entirety of creation and temporality”: the Creation is temporal, and it has its “beginning” and its “end” only in its Creator. Moses had already heard a related name on the mountain: “I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name” (Moses 1:3).

The verse then names two: “the Almighty God” and “mine Only Begotten.” The first title “seems to refer to the Father, while ‘Only Begotten’ refers to the Son,” so that the words are the Father's, and they name the Son as the one by whom He created. In verse 26 the same voice speaks to the Only Begotten directly, and there “Heavenly Father was speaking to Jesus Christ.”

The one who spoke with Moses on the mountain was “the premortal Jesus Christ,” who “sometimes speaks as if He were God the Father” (see the note on Moses 1:6). Read with that, the account of the Creation is the Father’s own words, given to Moses by the Son who speaks in His name.

Sources: Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: The Purpose and Logistics of Creation”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 107–30. Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Moses 1; Abraham 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Witness of Christ #

By mine Only Begotten

The Lord names the Only Begotten as the one by whom He created, and Moses already knows what the Creation is for.

The Lord names the Only Begotten as the one by whom He created, and Moses already knows what the Creation is for. For who made the earth and what “by” means, see the note on Gen. 1:1. What Moses adds is the purpose. On the mountain the Lord had told him both things: “by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son” (Moses 1:32), and “this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). That vision, with its “focal point on God’s purposes to bring to pass our eternal life and salvation,” “is the lens through which the creation accounts are viewed.”

Elder Marion G. Romney put the two together: “Jesus Christ, through whom God created the universe, was chosen to put into operation throughout the universe Elohim’s great plan ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’” The Creator and the one who carries out the plan are the same person, and Moses 2 “makes it clear that Christ was the main figure responsible for the Creation.”

Sources: Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: The Purpose and Logistics of Creation”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 107–30. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture Central, “Why Do We Have Three Different Accounts of the Creation?”, KnoWhy #400, Aug. 21, 2019.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and I caused darkness to come up upon the face of the deep; and my Spirit moved upon the face of the water; for I am God.

Imagery #

Darkness that God caused

In Moses the Lord says that He caused the darkness, where Genesis says only that “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2).

In Moses the Lord says that He caused the darkness, where Genesis says only that “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2). The verse ends, “for I am God,” and the power of God is what it puts forward: in the Creation as it was revealed to Moses, “God is in total control, has never lacked that control, and is never in danger of losing his power.”

Moses had met darkness himself. In the vision before this one (Moses 1:12–26) it had become something “with which he had become frighteningly familiar,” and there calling upon God “had delivered him from that darkness and brought him to receive more light.” Here, hearing that the darkness over the deep came at God's word, Moses “will begin to understand God’s power over the darkness.” That is a reading of what the verse taught Moses. No source read says why this account attributes the darkness to God where Genesis does not, and the text does not say what the darkness is.

Sources: Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: The Purpose and Logistics of Creation”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 107–30. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 3–5

The first day

In plain words

The Lord speaks, and there is light. He sees that it is good, divides the light from the darkness, and names them Day and Night. He does this by the word of His power, and it is done as He speaks. The evening and the morning are the first day.

3 And I, God, said: Let there be light; and there was light.

Language #

The voice of I, God

Moses 2 tells the Creation in the Creator's own voice. “I, God” occurs in twenty-four of this chapter's thirty-one verses (and in four verses of Moses 3), where Genesis 1 says…

Moses 2 tells the Creation in the Creator's own voice. “I, God” occurs in twenty-four of this chapter's thirty-one verses (and in four verses of Moses 3), where Genesis 1 says only “God said.” The count is from a search of the text. Each act is the same: “I, God, said”; “I, God, saw the light”; “I, God, called the light Day.”

The repetition “emphasizes its firsthand nature,” and an account in God's own voice “must have been personal and inspiring to the Lord’s new prophet.” The speaker is the Lord who opened the chapter with “I reveal unto you” (Moses 2:1). For what the Father and the Son each do in the chapter, see the notes on verses 1 and 27.

4 And I, God, saw the light; and that light was good. And I, God, divided the light from the darkness.

5 And I, God, called the light Day; and the darkness, I called Night; and this I did by the word of my power, and it was done as I spake; and the evening and the morning were the first day.

Related Scriptures #

By the word of my power

The Lord says the work of the first day was done “by the word of my power, and it was done as I spake,” and Restoration sources say both who that word is and how God works by it.

The Lord says the work of the first day was done “by the word of my power, and it was done as I spake,” and Restoration sources say both who that word is and how God works by it. The word is the Only Begotten (Moses 1:32); the note on Gen. 1:3 sets that out.

How God works by a word is the subject of a passage in the Lectures on Faith, which takes this very act as its example: “When a man works by faith he works by mental exertion instead of physical force. … God said, ‘Let there be light: and there was light.’” And “Faith, then, works by words.” As Moses hears “Let there be light,” he “comprehends the power of divine speech.”

Sources: Moses 2:1–31, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: The Purpose and Logistics of Creation”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 107–30.

Verses 6–8

The second day

In plain words

The Lord commands a firmament in the midst of the water and makes it. It divides the waters beneath it from the waters above it. He calls the firmament Heaven. The evening and the morning are the second day.

6 And again, I, God, said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and it was so, even as I spake; and I said: Let it divide the waters from the waters; and it was done;

7 And I, God, made the firmament and divided the waters, yea, the great waters under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so even as I spake.

8 And I, God, called the firmament Heaven; and the evening and the morning were the second day.

Verses 9–13

The third day

In plain words

The waters under heaven are gathered into one place and dry land appears. The Lord names the land Earth and the gathered waters Sea, and sees that all He has made is good. The earth brings forth grass, herbs, and fruit trees, each after its kind, with seed in itself. The evening and the morning are the third day.

9 And I, God, said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and it was so; and I, God, said: Let there be dry land; and it was so.

10 And I, God, called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, called I the Sea; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good.

11 And I, God, said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed should be in itself upon the earth, and it was so even as I spake.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, every herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed should be in itself, after his kind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good;

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Verses 14–19

The fourth day

In plain words

The Lord makes lights in the firmament, to divide day from night and to serve as signs, seasons, days, and years. He makes the greater light, the sun, to rule the day, the lesser light, the moon, to rule the night, and the stars also. He sets them in the firmament to give light upon the earth, and sees that all He made is good. The evening and the morning are the fourth day.

14 And I, God, said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years;

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.

16 And I, God, made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the greater light was the sun, and the lesser light was the moon; and the stars also were made even according to my word.

17 And I, God, set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And the sun to rule over the day, and the moon to rule over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good;

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Verses 20–25

The fifth day and the animals

In plain words

The Lord calls the waters to bring forth moving creatures and the air to carry birds. He creates the great sea creatures and every living thing, each after its kind, and blesses them to be fruitful and multiply. The evening and the morning are the fifth day. Then the earth brings forth cattle, creeping things, and beasts, each after its kind, and He sees that they are good.

20 And I, God, said: Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl which may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And I, God, created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had created were good.

22 And I, God, blessed them, saying: Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea; and let fowl multiply in the earth;

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And I, God, said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind, and it was so;

25 And I, God, made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything which creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and I, God, saw that all these things were good.

Verses 26–31

Man and woman in the image of the Only Begotten

In plain words

Heavenly Father speaks to His Only Begotten, who was with Him from the beginning: let us make man in our image, after our likeness. He gives them dominion over the fish, the birds, the cattle, the earth, and every creeping thing. He creates man in His own image, in the image of His Only Begotten, male and female. He blesses them to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the earth, and to subdue it. He gives them every seed-bearing herb and fruit tree for food, and every clean herb to every beast, bird, and creeping thing to which He grants life. He sees everything He has made, and it is very good. The evening and the morning are the sixth day.

26 And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so. And I, God, said: Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them.

Witness of Christ #

In the image of the Only Begotten

The Lord says that man is made in His own image and in the image of the Only Begotten, so the likeness is to the Father and to the Son.

The Lord says that man is made in His own image and in the image of the Only Begotten, so the likeness is to the Father and to the Son. In the verse before, He speaks to the Son: “I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image.” The Genesis notes on Gen. 1:26 have the council and the meaning of “image”; the note on verse 1 here has who is speaking.

Moses' wording also marks a change at this point in the account. Until now the commands have been “let there be”; now the speaker says “Let us make,” “indicating multiple beings involved in creation,” and the first-person telling is “strikingly personal as we see the Father immediately involved in this stage of creation.” On this reading the Father's “personal involvement in the creation of humankind gives us some idea of the worth that we, his children, have in his sight.” The verses themselves say only that God spoke to the Only Begotten and made man in the image of both; how the work was shared between Them they do not say.

Sources: Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: Image and Likeness”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 131–44. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

28 And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And I, God, said unto man: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which shall be the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein I grant life, there shall be given every clean herb for meat; and it was so, even as I spake.

31 And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things which I had made were very good; and the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Seeing Christ in Moses 2

Moses learns in the first verse that the Creation was done “by mine Only Begotten.” The word the Lord speaks is the Son: “by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth” (Moses 1:32). The vision before this chapter had already named what the work is for, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39), and that purpose “is the lens through which the creation accounts are viewed.” Near the end of the account the Father turns to “mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning,” and man is made in the image of both.

Worth exploring next

Read Moses 1, the vision that prepares Moses to receive this account, and Moses 3, which tells of the spiritual creation and the garden. The Genesis chapter beside this one is Gen. 1, and Abr. 4 tells the same Creation as the plan of the Gods. Abr. 3:22–28 tells of the council before the Creation. John 1:1–3 and Col. 1:16 speak of what the Son did.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Gen. 1:1–31 — The same Creation, verse for verse, in the words of Genesis.
Abr. 4:1–31 — The same Creation as the plan of the Gods, with each day called a “time.”

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Moses 2:1–31, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017).
Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: The Purpose and Logistics of Creation”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 107–30.
Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 2: Image and Likeness”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 131–44.
Scripture Central, “Why Do We Have Three Different Accounts of the Creation?”, KnoWhy #400, Aug. 21, 2019.