Moses 8

Noah’s Day, and the Gospel He Preached

Methuselah’s line carries the covenant to Noah, who is ordained, preaches Christ’s gospel to a people who seek his life, and hears the Lord’s decree of the Flood.

Last revised October 6, 2026

Moses chaptersChapter 8 of 8

Inside the text, from the end of Enoch’s life to the eve of the Flood. The chapter is dated February 1831. Also in Gen. 6 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Moses 8 is the last chapter of the book, and it is a bridge. After Enoch and his city are taken up, it traces the line through Methuselah and Lamech to Noah, and then follows…

Moses 8 is the last chapter of the book, and it is a bridge. After Enoch and his city are taken up, it traces the line through Methuselah and Lamech to Noah, and then follows Noah’s ministry to the moment the Lord decrees the Flood. It “links the narratives of Enoch and Noah in ways absent from the Bible.” The Church’s edition dates it to February 1831.

The chapter runs beside Genesis 5:25–6:13 and stops where that passage does: the footnote on its last verse points to Gen. 6:13. Much of what a reader would ask about the shared verses is already on the Genesis pages, and this chapter does not repeat it: Methuselah’s age and why he was left behind are in the note on Gen. 5:27, the meaning of Noah’s name in Gen. 5:29, and the “sons of God,” the hundred and twenty years, the giants, and God’s “repenting” in the notes on Gen. 6:2, Gen. 6:3, Gen. 6:4 and Gen. 6:6. What Moses 8 has that Genesis does not is Noah’s ordination, his preaching, and the reason the Lord gives for the Flood. The notes here are on those.

The thread through the chapter

The chapter has one argument: the Flood comes only after the gospel has been preached.

The chapter has one argument: the Flood comes only after the gospel has been preached. Noah is ordained “after his own order” and sent to “declare his Gospel… even as it was given unto Enoch” (Moses 8:19). What he preaches is belief, repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (Moses 8:23–24). The response is the opposite of Enoch’s day, when “the Holy Ghost fell on many” (Moses 7:27): here the people “hearkened not,” and some sought his life. Only then does the Lord decree the end (Moses 8:26–30).

The decree is therefore not the first word. It is the last, spoken to the man who had grieved over the people.

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

Verses 1–12

From Enoch to Noah

In plain words

Enoch’s days total four hundred and thirty years. Methuselah is not taken up, so that the Lord’s covenant with Enoch, that Noah would come from his loins, could be fulfilled, and Methuselah prophesies that all the kingdoms of the earth will spring from his loins through Noah. A great famine comes and many die. The generations of Methuselah and Lamech are listed with their ages. Lamech names his son Noah, saying he will comfort them in their toil because of the cursed ground. Noah has three sons.

1 And all the days of Enoch were four hundred and thirty years.

2 And it came to pass that Methuselah, the son of Enoch, was not taken, that the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to Enoch; for he truly covenanted with Enoch that Noah should be of the fruit of his loins.

3 And it came to pass that Methuselah prophesied that from his loins should spring all the kingdoms of the earth (through Noah), and he took glory unto himself.

4 And there came forth a great famine into the land, and the Lord cursed the earth with a sore curse, and many of the inhabitants thereof died.

Context #

A famine behind Lamech’s words

The famine in verse 4 gives Lamech’s hope in verse 9 something concrete to answer.

The famine in verse 4 gives Lamech’s hope in verse 9 something concrete to answer. The verse says that “the Lord cursed the earth with a sore curse, and many of the inhabitants thereof died.” A few verses later Lamech names his son Noah because he “shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed” (Moses 8:9). Genesis has the naming but not the famine, so there Lamech’s words can sound like a general sigh about farming.

The curse on the ground has a history in the book: it fell on Adam (Moses 4:23) and on Cain (Moses 5:37), and verse 4 renews it. On that reading the famine “highlights the immediacy and severity of the curse mentioned by Lamech,” and “the people needed comfort, and Noah would be that source.” It has also been suggested that the Book of Moses has this “more immediate and serious ‘cursing’ of the land in view” rather than only the curse of Eden. That is a proposal about how the verses fit; the text does not say that Lamech was thinking of the famine. For the wordplay on Noah’s name, see the note on Gen. 5:29.

Sources: Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 8: Noah and the Flood”, 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), 363–80. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

5 And it came to pass that Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begat Lamech;

6 And Methuselah lived, after he begat Lamech, seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begat sons and daughters;

7 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.

8 And Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and begat a son,

9 And he called his name Noah, saying: This son shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.

10 And Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred and ninety-five years, and begat sons and daughters;

11 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died.

12 And Noah was four hundred and fifty years old, and begat Japheth; and forty-two years afterward he begat Shem of her who was the mother of Japheth, and when he was five hundred years old he begat Ham.

Verses 13–21

The sons of God, and Noah’s calling

In plain words

Noah and his sons listen to the Lord and are called the sons of God. As men multiply, the sons of men take wives as they choose, and the Lord tells Noah that the daughters of his sons have sold themselves and that His anger is kindled. Noah prophesies. The Lord says His Spirit will not always strive with man, gives a hundred and twenty years, and warns of floods. Giants seek Noah’s life, but the Lord is with him. The Lord ordains Noah and sends him to preach. The people refuse, and answer that they are the sons of God.

13 And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed, and they were called the sons of God.

14 And when these men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of men saw that those daughters were fair, and they took them wives, even as they chose.

15 And the Lord said unto Noah: The daughters of thy sons have sold themselves; for behold mine anger is kindled against the sons of men, for they will not hearken to my voice.

16 And it came to pass that Noah prophesied, and taught the things of God, even as it was in the beginning.

17 And the Lord said unto Noah: My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for he shall know that all flesh shall die; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years; and if men do not repent, I will send in the floods upon them.

18 And in those days there were giants on the earth, and they sought Noah to take away his life; but the Lord was with Noah, and the power of the Lord was upon him.

19 And the Lord ordained Noah after his own order, and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his Gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch.

Related Scriptures #

Ordained after his own order

“After his own order” means the priesthood “after the Order of the Son of God,” which was its name “before his day,” before Melchizedek (D&C 107:3).

“After his own order” means the priesthood “after the Order of the Son of God,” which was its name “before his day,” before Melchizedek (D&C 107:3). So verse 19 has the Lord Himself ordain Noah to what is now called the Melchizedek Priesthood and commission him to preach, “just as he had commissioned Enoch.” Enoch’s call is in Moses 6:26–34. The revelation on the priesthood also records an earlier ordination: “Noah was ten years old when he was ordained under the hand of Methuselah” (D&C 107:52). Neither passage says how the two fit together.

Joseph Smith said what that priesthood gave Noah. Commenting in 1840 on God’s word to Noah in Gen. 6:13, he taught that “the keys of this priesthood consisted in obtaining the voice of Jehovah that he talked with him in a familiare and friendly manner, that he continued to him the keys, the covenants, the power and the glory with which he blessed Adam at the beginning.” Noah’s preaching in verses 20–24 follows from this commission, and the Lord’s “direct, personal involvement in Noah’s ordination and prophetic commission to save souls speaks volumes about his concern for Noah’s generation.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith, Instruction on Priesthood, circa 5 October 1840, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 8. Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 8: Noah and the Flood”, 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), 363–80.

20 And it came to pass that Noah called upon the children of men that they should repent; but they hearkened not unto his words;

21 And also, after that they had heard him, they came up before him, saying: Behold, we are the sons of God; have we not taken unto ourselves the daughters of men? And are we not eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage? And our wives bear unto us children, and the same are mighty men, which are like unto men of old, men of great renown. And they hearkened not unto the words of Noah.

Verses 22–24

Noah’s sermon

In plain words

God sees that the wickedness of men is great and that every heart is only evil continually. Noah goes on preaching: believe, repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, receive the Holy Ghost, or the floods will come. They do not listen.

22 And God saw that the wickedness of men had become great in the earth; and every man was lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart, being only evil continually.

Related Scriptures #

When God sees again

“God saw” in verse 22 are the words of the Creation account, and here they bring the opposite verdict.

“God saw” in verse 22 are the words of the Creation account, and here they bring the opposite verdict. Then it was, “And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things which I had made were very good” (Moses 2:31). Now God sees that wickedness “had become great” and that every heart is “only evil continually.” What God had declared good in the Creation was “being reversed and undone through wickedness.”

Verse 26 carries the thought on in creation words (“man whom I have created… I have made them”). The people’s conduct “might suggest” that they “had undone creation” and its purpose, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). That is a suggestion, not the text’s own statement, though it agrees with a view “commonly accepted in biblical studies”: that the Flood was “a re-creation of life,” told in the language of the Creation. So the chapter’s last verses are not only an ending. They also hold out “a new creation with Noah and his family at its head.”

23 And it came to pass that Noah continued his preaching unto the people, saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words;

24 Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not.

Witness of Christ #

The same gospel, in the same name

Noah preaches baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and says that the fathers had received it.

Noah preaches baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and says that the fathers had received it. The book has already shown this of the first father. The Lord told Adam, “be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ” (Moses 6:52), and Adam was baptized (Moses 6:64–65). Noah’s sermon names belief, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost: his teaching “emphasized the doctrine of Christ in all its essentials.”

Genesis has none of this. Joseph Smith reasoned to it from the Bible alone, which calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5): the gospel “has always been the same; the ordinances to fulfil its requirements, the same; and the officers to officiate, the same… therefore, as Noah was a preacher of righteousness he must have been baptised and ordained to the priesthood.” Verse 16 says as much in a phrase: Noah “taught the things of God, even as it was in the beginning.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Times and Seasons, 1 September 1842, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 904. Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, “Moses 8: Noah and the Flood”, 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), 363–80.

Verses 25–30

Grief and the decree

In plain words

Noah is pained at heart. The Lord says He will destroy man and beast from the earth, because Noah has called upon Him and the people have sought his life. Noah finds grace; he is just, perfect in his generation, and walks with God, as do his three sons. The earth is corrupt and filled with violence, and God tells Noah that the end of all flesh has come.

25 And it repented Noah, and his heart was pained that the Lord had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at the heart.

26 And the Lord said: I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Noah that I have created them, and that I have made them; and he hath called upon me; for they have sought his life.

Context #

“He hath called upon me”

Verse 26 gives the decree reasons that Genesis does not: Noah’s grief, his calling on the Lord, and the attempt on his life.

Verse 26 gives the decree reasons that Genesis does not: Noah’s grief, his calling on the Lord, and the attempt on his life. In Genesis the Lord says, “it repenteth me that I have made them” (Gen. 6:7). Here He says, “it repenteth Noah that I have created them… and he hath called upon me; for they have sought his life.” The verse looks back to Noah’s sorrow (Moses 8:25) and to those who “sought Noah to take away his life” (Moses 8:18). The Lord “appears to have taken Noah’s reaction to the human corruption and violence very seriously.”

Enoch’s preaching had ended differently. In his day “the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion” (Moses 7:27); the response to Noah “was almost universally negative.” That “appears to have broken Noah’s heart,” and he “may have felt as the Lord did when Enoch saw him lamenting” over the same people: “in my hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them” (Moses 7:34). The comparison is a suggestion; the text does not make it. For God’s weeping, see Moses 7:28–40; for why the “repenting” is Noah’s here, and for the Hebrew word behind it, see the note on Gen. 6:6.

27 And thus Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; for Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generation; and he walked with God, as did also his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

28 The earth was corrupt before God, and it was filled with violence.

29 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.

30 And God said unto Noah: The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence, and behold I will destroy all flesh from off the earth.

Latter-day Prophets #

Those who perished in the Flood

The Flood did not come without warning, and it was not the end of those who died in it.

The Flood did not come without warning, and it was not the end of those who died in it. Twice in this chapter the people are told beforehand: “if men do not repent, I will send in the floods upon them” (Moses 8:17), and, from Noah, “if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you” (Moses 8:24). The account is of a God who “forewarned the people and then used the flood to punish humanity for their pervasive sinfulness.”

Enoch had already been shown what would become of them. The Lord said, “these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them” (Moses 7:38), and that His Chosen would suffer for their sins, “inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my Chosen shall return unto me” (Moses 7:39). That is, they “would go to the spirit world,” where “they would have the opportunity to be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and repent of their sins.” Peter writes that Christ “preached unto the spirits in prison,” who “sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Pet. 3:19–20). In April 1842 the Times and Seasons reasoned from Peter’s words that all who died without the gospel “will be visited by this priesthood, and come out of their prison, upon the same principle as those who were disobedient in the days of Noah, were visited by our Saviour.” Joseph F. Smith was shown how it was done: the Lord “went not in person among the wicked” but sent messengers “clothed with power and authority,” and “thus was the gospel preached to the dead” (D&C 138:29–30).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture Central, “Why is the Story of the Great Flood in Genesis Similar in Certain Ways to Other Ancient Flood Stories?”, KnoWhy #837, Feb. 3, 2026. Genesis 6–11; Moses 8, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 760.

Seeing Christ in Moses 8

Jesus Christ is named in Noah’s sermon. Noah is ordained “after the Order of the Son of God” (Moses 8:19; D&C 107:3), and what he preaches is repentance and baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Moses 8:24), the name given to Adam (Moses 6:52). Those who refused him were not left outside the Atonement. In Enoch’s vision the Lord weeps over them (Moses 7:28–37) and says that His Chosen “suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my Chosen shall return unto me” (Moses 7:39). How the gospel reached them is in the note on Moses 8:30.

Worth exploring next

Enoch’s vision of the Flood and the weeping of God. Moses 7:28–40, where the Lord tells Enoch why the heavens weep over those who will die in the Flood.
What Genesis does with Noah’s day. Gen. 6, and the Flood itself in Gen. 7 and Gen. 8.
The spirits in prison. 1 Pet. 3:18–20 and D&C 138:28–34.
Noah’s ordination in the order of priesthood. D&C 107:41–53.
Possible reasons God sent the Flood. What latter-day prophets have suggested is gathered in Scripture Helps: Old Testament, beside these verses in the Gospel Library.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Gen. 6 — Genesis 5:25–6:13 runs beside Moses 8:1–30; Noah’s ordination and preaching are not in Genesis.
D&C 107:52 — Noah’s ordination under Methuselah, in the revelation on the priesthood.

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 8: Noah and the Flood”, 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), 363–80.
Genesis 6–11; Moses 8, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Scripture Central, “Why is the Story of the Great Flood in Genesis Similar in Certain Ways to Other Ancient Flood Stories?”, KnoWhy #837, Feb. 3, 2026.
Joseph Smith, Instruction on Priesthood, circa 5 October 1840, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 8.
Times and Seasons, 1 September 1842, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 904.
Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 760.