Moses 5
Adam and Eve’s Family, and Cain
Outside Eden, Adam and Eve hear the Lord’s voice, are taught by an angel what sacrifice stands for, and rejoice in the Fall, while Satan comes among their children, and Cain chooses him.
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Start reading Background
Moses 5 is the Lord’s own account, in the first person (“after I, the Lord God, had driven them out”), of life outside the garden. Its first fifteen verses have no counterpart in Genesis. From verse 16, where Eve names Cain, it runs beside Gen. 4, with much added, and it is the Genesis 4 notes that explain the shared story of Cain and Abel. These notes take up what Moses 5 adds.
What it adds comes in a clear order. Adam and Eve are shut out of God’s presence but still hear His voice (Moses 5:4). They are commanded to offer the firstlings of their flocks, and an angel then says what the offering means (Moses 5:5–7). The Holy Ghost bears record of the Father and the Son, and Adam and Eve each give thanks for the Fall (Moses 5:9–11). Then the story turns: “Satan came among them” (Moses 5:13), and from verse 18 the chapter follows one son who “loved Satan more than God.”
Genesis is silent on where sacrifice began, and it does not mention the devil. Moses 5 supplies both. It also adds to what Genesis tells of Cain’s line and Lamech a covenant with Satan and a “secret combination” (verses 42–55), and it ends by saying the gospel was preached “from the beginning.” The chapter before it is the Fall (Moses 4); the next begins with Seth and Enoch (Moses 6).
The thread through the chapter
The thread of the chapter is a gospel given first, and the contest over whether it will be believed. Before there is a murder there is a sermon: Adam and Eve are taught a commandment, an angel explains its meaning as “a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten,” the Holy Ghost testifies, and they “made all things known unto their sons and their daughters” (verse 12).
Then comes the opposition. Satan arrives with a claim (“I am also a son of God”) and a command (“Believe it not”). The Lord answers with His own call to repent “by the Holy Ghost everywhere,” and the result is a division: some “believed in the Son,” and others did not. Cain stands in that division, and the long story of his offering, his oath, and his line carries on from verse 16 what verses 13–15 began.
The end of the chapter returns to the beginning. The gospel was preached “by holy angels,” by God’s “own voice,” and “by the gift of the Holy Ghost,” the same three ways it had come to Adam and Eve in verses 4–9.
Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.
A family, a commandment, and a testimony
After the Lord drove them out, Adam worked the ground and ate his bread by the sweat of his brow, and Eve labored beside him. They had sons and daughters, and the children began to spread out, farm, and keep flocks. Adam and Eve called on the Lord and heard His voice from the direction of the garden, though they could not see Him, since they were shut out from His presence.
The Lord commanded them to worship Him and to offer the firstlings of their flocks, and Adam obeyed. After many days an angel asked why he offered sacrifices. Adam answered that he did not know, only that the Lord had commanded it. The angel said it was a likeness of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten, and that everything Adam did was to be done in the Son’s name. The Holy Ghost fell on Adam and testified of the Father and the Son. Adam blessed God, saying that through his transgression his eyes were opened, that he would have joy in this life, and that he would see God again in the flesh. Eve was glad and said that without the transgression they would never have had children, known good and evil, or known the joy of redemption and the eternal life God gives the obedient. They made all this known to their children.
Then Satan came among them and said he was also a son of God, and told them, “Believe it not.” They did not believe it, and they loved Satan more than God, and men began to be “carnal, sensual, and devilish.” The Lord called all by the Holy Ghost to repent, and decreed that those who believed in the Son and repented would be saved, and those who did not would be damned.
1 And it came to pass that after I, the Lord God, had driven them out, that Adam began to till the earth, and to have dominion over all the beasts of the field, and to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow, as I the Lord had commanded him. And Eve, also, his wife, did labor with him.
2 And Adam knew his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and they began to multiply and to replenish the earth.
3 And from that time forth, the sons and daughters of Adam began to divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks, and they also begat sons and daughters.
4 And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence.
5 And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord.
6 And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.
7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.
8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore.
9 And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.
10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.
11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.
13 And Satan came among them, saying: I am also a son of God; and he commanded them, saying: Believe it not; and they believed it not, and they loved Satan more than God. And men began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish.
14 And the Lord God called upon men by the Holy Ghost everywhere and commanded them that they should repent;
15 And as many as believed in the Son, and repented of their sins, should be saved; and as many as believed not and repented not, should be damned; and the words went forth out of the mouth of God in a firm decree; wherefore they must be fulfilled.
Cain loves Satan more than God
Eve bore Cain and said she had gotten a man from the Lord, so that he might not reject the Lord’s words. But Cain would not listen and said, “Who is the Lord that I should know him?” Abel, his brother, listened. Abel kept sheep and Cain farmed. Cain loved Satan more than God, and Satan told him to make an offering. Abel brought the firstlings and their fat, and the Lord accepted him and his offering, but not Cain’s, which pleased Satan. Cain was angry.
The Lord asked why, and told Cain that if he did well he would be accepted, but that if he did not, sin lay at the door and Satan wanted him. He would be delivered to Satan’s desire unless he listened, and Cain was to rule over him. Cain would be the father of Satan’s lies, called Perdition, and a curse would come unless he repented. Cain stopped listening to the Lord or to Abel, who walked in holiness. Adam and Eve mourned for Cain and his brothers. Cain married one of his brothers’ daughters, and they loved Satan more than God. Satan had Cain swear an oath of secrecy, and promised to put Abel in his hands. Cain declared himself Mahan, “the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain.”
16 And Adam and Eve, his wife, ceased not to call upon God. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words. But behold, Cain hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him?
17 And she again conceived and bare his brother Abel. And Abel hearkened unto the voice of the Lord. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
18 And Cain loved Satan more than God. And Satan commanded him, saying: Make an offering unto the Lord.
19 And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
20 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering;
21 But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. Now Satan knew this, and it pleased him. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
22 And the Lord said unto Cain: Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen?
23 If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be unto thee according to his desire. And thou shalt rule over him;
24 For from this time forth thou shalt be the father of his lies; thou shalt be called Perdition; for thou wast also before the world.
25 And it shall be said in time to come—That these abominations were had from Cain; for he rejected the greater counsel which was had from God; and this is a cursing which I will put upon thee, except thou repent.
26 And Cain was wroth, and listened not any more to the voice of the Lord, neither to Abel, his brother, who walked in holiness before the Lord.
27 And Adam and his wife mourned before the Lord, because of Cain and his brethren.
28 And it came to pass that Cain took one of his brothers’ daughters to wife, and they loved Satan more than God.
29 And Satan said unto Cain: Swear unto me by thy throat, and if thou tell it thou shalt die; and swear thy brethren by their heads, and by the living God, that they tell it not; for if they tell it, they shall surely die; and this that thy father may not know it; and this day I will deliver thy brother Abel into thine hands.
30 And Satan sware unto Cain that he would do according to his commands. And all these things were done in secret.
31 And Cain said: Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain. Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan, and he gloried in his wickedness.
The murder and the curse
Cain killed Abel in the field and boasted that he was free and that the flocks were now his. The Lord asked where Abel was, and Cain said he did not know, and asked if he was his brother’s keeper. The Lord said Abel’s blood cried to Him from the ground, and that Cain was now cursed from the earth. The ground would not yield its strength to him, and he would be a fugitive and a vagabond.
Cain said Satan tempted him and that his punishment was more than he could bear. He feared that whoever found him would kill him. The Lord promised sevenfold vengeance on anyone who killed him, and set a mark on Cain so that no one finding him would. Cain was shut out from the Lord’s presence and went with his wife and many of his brothers to the land of Nod, east of Eden.
32 And Cain went into the field, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother. And it came to pass that while they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him.
33 And Cain gloried in that which he had done, saying: I am free; surely the flocks of my brother falleth into my hands.
34 And the Lord said unto Cain: Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said: I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?
35 And the Lord said: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood cries unto me from the ground.
36 And now thou shalt be cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand.
37 When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
38 And Cain said unto the Lord: Satan tempted me because of my brother’s flocks. And I was wroth also; for his offering thou didst accept and not mine; my punishment is greater than I can bear.
39 Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the Lord, and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that he that findeth me will slay me, because of mine iniquities, for these things are not hid from the Lord.
40 And I the Lord said unto him: Whosoever slayeth thee, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And I the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
41 And Cain was shut out from the presence of the Lord, and with his wife and many of his brethren dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Cain’s line, Lamech, and the secret
Cain’s son Enoch was born, and Cain built a city and named it for him. The line runs through Irad, Mahujael, and Methusael to Lamech, who took two wives, Adah and Zillah, whose children were the fathers of tent-dwellers and herders, of harp and organ players, and of metalworkers. Lamech told his wives he had slain a man and boasted of being avenged seventy and seven fold.
The reason is given: Lamech had made a covenant with Satan after Cain’s manner and become Master Mahan. When Irad began to reveal the secret to the sons of Adam, Lamech killed him for the oath’s sake. There had been a secret combination from the days of Cain. The Lord cursed Lamech and all who covenanted with Satan, and their works spread among the sons of men. Lamech’s wives rebelled and made the secret known, and he was despised and driven out. The works of darkness prevailed. God cursed the earth, because people would not hear Him or believe on His Only Begotten Son. And so the gospel began to be preached from the beginning, by holy angels, by God’s own voice, and by the Holy Ghost, and all things were confirmed to Adam by an holy ordinance, with a decree that the gospel would be in the world to the end.
42 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he also begat many sons and daughters. And he builded a city, and he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
43 And unto Enoch was born Irad, and other sons and daughters. And Irad begat Mahujael, and other sons and daughters. And Mahujael begat Methusael, and other sons and daughters. And Methusael begat Lamech.
44 And Lamech took unto himself two wives; the name of one being Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah.
45 And Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and they were keepers of cattle; and his brother’s name was Jubal, who was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
46 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. And the sister of Tubal Cain was called Naamah.
47 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah: Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
48 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech shall be seventy and seven fold;
49 For Lamech having entered into a covenant with Satan, after the manner of Cain, wherein he became Master Mahan, master of that great secret which was administered unto Cain by Satan; and Irad, the son of Enoch, having known their secret, began to reveal it unto the sons of Adam;
50 Wherefore Lamech, being angry, slew him, not like unto Cain, his brother Abel, for the sake of getting gain, but he slew him for the oath’s sake.
51 For, from the days of Cain, there was a secret combination, and their works were in the dark, and they knew every man his brother.
52 Wherefore the Lord cursed Lamech, and his house, and all them that had covenanted with Satan; for they kept not the commandments of God, and it displeased God, and he ministered not unto them, and their works were abominations, and began to spread among all the sons of men. And it was among the sons of men.
53 And among the daughters of men these things were not spoken, because that Lamech had spoken the secret unto his wives, and they rebelled against him, and declared these things abroad, and had not compassion;
54 Wherefore Lamech was despised, and cast out, and came not among the sons of men, lest he should die.
55 And thus the works of darkness began to prevail among all the sons of men.
56 And God cursed the earth with a sore curse, and was angry with the wicked, with all the sons of men whom he had made;
57 For they would not hearken unto his voice, nor believe on his Only Begotten Son, even him whom he declared should come in the meridian of time, who was prepared from before the foundation of the world.
58 And thus the Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost.
59 And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam, by an holy ordinance, and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth, that it should be in the world, until the end thereof; and thus it was. Amen.
Seeing Christ in Moses 5
The Only Begotten is named in verses 7, 9, and 57. An angel says the offering is “a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth” (Moses 5:7), and the Holy Ghost’s record of the Father and the Son carries the promise of redemption: “as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will” (Moses 5:9). The law of sacrifice “symbolized the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ,” and “Adam and Eve rejoiced in Christ.”
Adam was to do all that he did “in the name of the Son,” and to repent and call upon God in that name (Moses 5:8). At the end of the chapter He is “his Only Begotten Son, even him whom he declared should come in the meridian of time, who was prepared from before the foundation of the world” (Moses 5:57). The chapter’s division is over Him, between “as many as believed in the Son, and repented of their sins,” and “as many as believed not and repented not” (Moses 5:15).
Worth exploring next
- Sacrifice in the Book of Mormon. Alma 34:10–16 has Amulek’s teaching in full, and in 2 Ne. 2:6–7 Lehi says the Messiah “offereth himself a sacrifice for sin.”
- The gospel from the beginning. Moses 6 carries the teaching on into the next generations.
- The chapter beside it. The Gospel Library’s Scripture Helps: Old Testament chapter on Genesis 3–4 and Moses 4–5 has a section on Moses 5:9–11 and one on Cain’s offering and curse.
This chapter elsewhere in scripture
- Gen. 4 — Moses 5:16–59 runs beside Genesis 4, with Satan, Cain’s oath, and Lamech’s covenant added. Moses 5:1–15 has no counterpart in Genesis.
- Alma 34:14 — Amulek says the law points to “that great and last sacrifice,” the meaning the angel gives in Moses 5:7.
- 2 Ne. 2:25 — “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” stands beside Eve’s words in Moses 5:11.
- Ether 8:22 — Secret combinations “to get power and gain” echo Cain’s “that I may murder and get gain” (Moses 5:31).
Sources & further reading
- 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 5: The Family of Adam and Eve and the Law of Sacrifice”, In The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2021).
- Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 5: Cain’s Offering and the Curse”, 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, 2021), 229–54.
- Old Testament Revision 1, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- Doctrine and Covenants, 1835, The Joseph Smith Papers (p. 17 read).
- Moses 5:1–15, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2018).
- Moses 5:16–59, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2018).
- Scripture Central, “How the Law of Moses Teaches about the Atonement”, KnoWhy #424, Aug. 21, 2019.
- Scripture Central, “Why Are Secret Combinations Associated with Cain and Getting Gain?”, KnoWhy #585, Nov. 18, 2020.
- Genesis 3–4; Moses 4–5, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).