Being confined in Liberty Jail was among the most severe trials faced by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Constructed in 1833, Liberty Jail served as the Clay County jail until 1856. The jail was constructed of rough-hewn limestone exterior walls that were two feet thick, with thick interior walls made of oak. In between the stone and wooden walls, there was a one-foot void filled with loose rocks to discourage escape attempts.¹

During their time in Liberty Jail, the prisoners received several visits from their families. Hyrum Smith first met his infant son, Joseph F. Smith, when his wife, Mary, brought the newborn to the jail. Emma Smith visited the jail three times, on one occasion bringing along Joseph Smith III, Joseph and Emma’s oldest son.² Seeing Joseph and the other prisoners confined in the prison was deeply distressing for Emma. She wrote to Joseph, “No one but God, knows the reflections of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home, and almost all of everything that we possessed excepting our little children, and took my journey out of the State of Missouri, leaving you shut up in that lonesome prison.”³ Emma continued, “The recollection is more than human nature ought to bear, and if God does not record our sufferings and avenge our wrongs on them that are guilty, I shall be sadly mistaken.”⁴

Joseph’s pleas in verses 1–6 should not be interpreted as stemming from a lack of faith in God. Earlier in the letter he wrote, “Our circumstances are calculated to awaken our spirits to a sacred remembrance of everything, and we think that yours are also and that nothing therefore can separate us from the love of God.”⁵ Thus, in verses 1–3 Joseph is not questioning the power or goodness of God. Instead, his question is not if God would help the Saints, but when. A pavilion (D&C 121:1, 4) is a large movable tent, similar to the tabernacle used by the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness. In the Old Testament, King David uses similar imagery in his pleas to God (Psalm 18:11; 27:5). God’s “hiding place” (D&C 121:1, 4) may refer to the fact that the Prophet and the Saints did not yet know the purpose of their suffering. God was there, but they had yet to pierce the veil and know His greater plan.

1. “Liberty Jail,” Church History Topics, accessed June 8, 2021, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

2. “Liberty Jail,” Church History Topics, accessed June 8, 2021, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

3. Letter from Emma Smith, 7 March 1839, p. 1, JSP.

4. Letter from Emma Smith, 7 March 1839, p. 1, JSP.

5. Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839, pp. 1–2, JSP.

Doctrine and Covenants 121:7–33 is an excerpt from the first part of Joseph’s letter. Joseph introduced it as a revelation, writing, “When the heart is sufficiently contrite, then the voice of inspiration steals along and whispers, ‘My son, peace be unto thy soul’” (D&C 121:7).⁶ In the original letter, the Lord’s answer did not directly follow Joseph’s earlier pleas. However, Orson Pratt arranged the two excerpts in section 121 so that they would be next to each other.

The Lord teaches two important principles in his initial answer to the Prophet (D&C 121:7–10). First, our sufferings on earth are only a small moment in the scale of eternity. Even a months-long stay in the terrible circumstances of Liberty Jail was but a short period in the Lord’s view of time. We may be asked to endure months- or even years-long struggles, but this suffering is only a small part of our existence. All suffering eventually comes to an end. In the full measure of our existence, the suffering we endure in this life is only a blip in the story of our real eternal life. The intent of this teaching is not to belittle or diminish the sufferings we endure; it is meant to provide us with hope that suffering is not endless. There is peace waiting for us at the end of our suffering.

Second, the Lord teaches Joseph that if he endures suffering “well, God shall exalt thee on high” (D&C 121:8). Suffering is part of our mortal existence here on earth. We cannot choose to completely avoid suffering in our earth life, but we can choose whether we endure it well or not. The time the Prophet spent in Liberty Jail was a sanctifying experience for him. In a letter to Presendia Huntington Buell, Joseph spoke of how his experiences in Liberty Jail ultimately affected him, “No tongue can tell what inexpressible Joy it gives a man to see the face of one who has been a friend after having been enclosed in the walls of a prison for five months[;] it seems to me that my heart will always be more tender after this than ever it was before.”⁷ Near the end of the letter, Joseph added, “for my part I think I never could have felt as I now do if I had not suffered the wrongs that I have suffered[;] all things shall work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28).⁸

6. Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839, p. 12, JSP.

7. Letter to Presendia Huntington Buell, 15 March 1839, p. 1, JSP.

8. Letter to Presendia Huntington Buell, 15 March 1839, p. 1, JSP.

In Doctrine and Covenants 121:11–16, the Lord directly addresses the fate of the Saints’ persecutors. For example, the Lord compares their prospects to “hoar frost” (verse 11). Hoar is an Old English word that simply means “white,” and the term hoar frost refers to the morning frost that is quickly swept away by the sun’s light and warmth.⁹ The Lord places many curses upon the Saints’ persecutors in verses 11–16. These curses are direct, but appropriate for the crimes these persecutors committed against the Saints in Missouri. Even though the Lord discourages contention (3 Nephi 11:27), some actions, such as the robbery, sexual assault, and outright murder some Saints suffered in Missouri, call for a stern rebuke.

Before the Prophet and his cohort were taken to Liberty Jail, they spent some time in the Richmond jail. Parley P. Pratt, who was present at the jail, recorded this exchange between Joseph Smith and their guards in Richmond:

In one of those tedious night we had lain as if in sleep, till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies, and filthy language of our guards, Col. Price at their head, as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed among the “Mormons,” while at Far West, and vicinity. They even boasted of defiling by force, wives, daughters, and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women, and children.

I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice, that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards, but had said nothing to Joseph, or any one else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:

SILENCE—Ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute, and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS MINUTE.

He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon, —calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked down upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.¹⁰

As a coda to this striking exchange, Parley reflected on what true majesty was in the face of persecution: “I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended upon a breath, in the courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones, and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms, but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon, in an obscure village of Missouri.”

9. Stephen E. Robinson and H. Dean Garrett, A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, 2005, 4:153.

10. Parley P. Pratt to Willard Richards, November 7, 1853, published in the Deseret News, November 12, 1853, 3, quoted in Alexander L. Baugh, “‘Silence, Ye Fiends of the Infernal Pit!’: Joseph Smith’s Incarceration in Richmond, Missouri, November 1838,” Mormon Historical Studies, vol. 12, nos. 1–2 (Spring/Fall 2012), 144, emphasis in original.

Doctrine and Covenants 121:17–25 appears to be addressed to “those who swear falsely against my servants” (D&C 121:18), or apostates who turned against Joseph Smith and the Saints during the persecutions in Missouri. Those who could be included in this group are Apostles Thomas B. Marsh, Orson Hyde, and William McLellin, as well as close associates like William W. Phelps. Thomas B. Marsh actually swore out an affidavit claiming that “the plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this State; and he professes to his people to intend taking the United States, and ultimately the whole world . . . that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.”¹¹ Orson Hyde swore out a similar affidavit against the Prophet. In response to this group’s apostasy, the Lord declares they are cut off from the “ordinances of mine house” (D&C 121:19) and lose their right and that of their posterity to the power of the priesthood (D&C 121:21).

In an 1834 letter sent to the Church, Joseph Smith and other leaders reflected on the persecutions inflicted on the faithful by former members of the faith:

From apostates the faithful have received the severest persecutions: Judas was rebuked, and immediately betrayed his Lord into the hands of his enemies, because Satan entered into him. There is a supreme intelligence bestowed upon such as obey the gospel with full purpose of heart, which, if sinned against, the apostate is left naked and destitute of the Spirit of God, and they are in truth, nigh unto cursing, and their end is to be burned. When once that light which was in them is taken from them, they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened. And then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors!¹²

We must remember that many of those who apostatized in Missouri, such as Orson Hyde, William W. Phelps, and Thomas B. Marsh, later repented and returned to the faith. Sadly, others, such as William McLellin, Sampson Avard, and George Hinkle, never returned.

11. Affidavits of Apostles Thomas B. Marsh and Orson Hyde accessed June 8, 2021, http://www.mormonismi.net/jamesdavid/swornaff.htm.

12. Letter to the Church, circa April 1834, p. 152, JSP, emphasis in original.

While enduring tribulation, we may not always know the reasons behind our suffering, but we can hope to receive greater light and knowledge from God. From the confines of Liberty Jail, Joseph longed to be with the Saints again, not only to enjoy their fellowship but to share what was revealed to him. In another letter from the jail, he wrote, “I want the blessing once more to lift my voice in the midst of the Saints[,] I would pour out my soul to God for their instruction[;] it has been the plan of the Devil to hamper me and distress me from the beginning to keep me from explaining myself to them and I never have had opportunity to give them the plan that God has revealed to me.”¹³

After he escaped from Liberty Jail, Joseph was able to fulfill his desire to teach the Saints about God and His plan. During his time with Saints in Nauvoo, Joseph shared his experiences and knowledge more freely with the Saints than ever before. For instance, Joseph points toward the pre-earth life when he writes about “the Council of the Eternal God of all other gods before this world was” (D&C 121:32). The concept of “gods” in the plural sense was a common thread of the Restoration, starting with the First Vision and leading to the last day of Joseph’s mortal life. His understanding of this teaching was undoubtedly linked to the Book of Abraham, but it also extended to his knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

In a discourse given only a few days before his martyrdom, Joseph Smith declared:

I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this text for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always, and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been preached by the Elders fifteen years. I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage, and a Spirit, and these three constitute three distinct personages, and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold, we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural; and who can contradict it. Our text says, ‘And hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father.’ The Apostles have discovered that there were Gods above; for Paul says God was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. My object was to preach the Scriptures, and preach the doctrine they contain, there being a God above the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am bold to declare I have taught all the strong doctrines publicly, and always teach stronger doctrines in public than in private.¹⁴

The suggestion of other gods does not imply a lesser status for our Father in Heaven. Instead, it teaches that just as God has instructed His children to work in councils, He does so Himself. In the King Follett discourse, Joseph Smith explained, “In the beginning the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people [in] it. When we begin to learn in this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship.”¹⁵

13. Letter to Presendia Huntington Buell, 15 March 1839, p. 1, JSP.

14. JS History, vol. F-1, p. 102, JSP; see also Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock, pp. 1–2, JSP.

15. JS History, vol. E-1, p. 1972, JSP; see also Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock, p. 2, JSP, and Discourse, 7 April 1844, as Reported by Willard Richards, p. 68, JSP.

Doctrine and Covenants 121:33–40 explains the origins of the true power of the priesthood. Priesthood offices and priesthood authority are bestowed on Church members through the laying on of hands by one with the proper authorization. But the power to use that authority comes from personal righteousness. Using the priesthood to cover our sins, to gratify our pride, or to exercise unrighteous dominion all diminish the power of the priesthood holder to do good and carry out God’s work. When Joseph Smith declares that these teachings about the priesthood came though “sad experience” (D&C 121:39), he is drawing on the events of the previous few months. Joseph and his companions were in Liberty Jail precisely because their enemies inside and outside the Church were guilty of these same sins.

The warning against seeking to gratify our own pride (D&C 121:37) is particularly important. President Ezra Taft Benson taught, “The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: ‘Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. . . . It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.’ In the pre-earthly council, Lucifer placed his proposal in competition with the Father’s plan as advocated by Jesus Christ. (See Moses 4:1–3.)”¹⁶

When we seek the authority of God for our own personal gratification or for the purpose of dominating someone else, we lose the power to use that authority in any way. The priesthood essentially comes with its own safety protocols: the moment a person attempts to use it for the wrong purpose, it ceases to function for them. Anyone who seeks to use the priesthood for the wrong reasons is essentially “kicking against the pricks” (D&C 121:38). This phrase, spoken by the Savior to Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–5), is taken from the image of an animal kicking against a sharp stick meant to goad it in the right direction. It suggests that those who misuse the priesthood in the ways described here will spiritually die of self-inflicted wounds.

16. Ezra Taft Benson, “Beware of Pride,” April 1989 General Conference.

The world often views powerful leadership as springing from those with domineering and overbearing personalities who seek to bend people around them to their will. In contrast to this, the leadership model explained in verses 41–46 follows the way of the gospel: serving others in meekness and humility. Instead of dominating others, the Savior taught that “whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be the servant of all” (Mark 10:43–44). Leaders who act in the Lord’s way are like mighty rivers that multiple smaller streams flow into. The river places itself in a lower position than its tributaries, which flow into the river and increase its power and flow. The Savior never placed himself above His disciples; instead, he loved and served them. In one of His final acts, Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles and then taught, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).

When we serve as leaders, it may be necessary to reprove others “betimes with sharpness” (D&C 121:43). Betimes means “at the right time” or “before it is too late,” suggesting the time of the reproof must be carefully considered.¹⁷ Leaders must reprove in the spirit of love and follow up with an increase of love afterward toward the person they have reproved. In an uncanonized part of the letter from which the text of Doctrine and Covenants 121 was taken, Joseph Smith taught, “A frank and open rebuke provoketh a good man to Emulation[,] and in the hour of trouble he will be your best friend, but on the other-hand it will draw out all the corruption of a corrupt heart.”¹⁸

In an 1861 discourse, Brigham Young shared a similar principle, advising:

Never try to destroy a man. It is our mission to save the people, not to destroy them. The least, the most inferior spirit now upon the earth, in our capacity, is worth worlds . . . If you are ever called upon to chasten a person, never chasten beyond the balm you have within you to bind up. I might call some of you to witness that I chasten you, but there is not a soul that I chasten but what I feel as though I could take them and put them in my bosom and carry them with me day by day.¹⁹

17. Stephen E. Robinson and H. Dean Garrett, A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, 2005, 4:165.

18. Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839, p. 12, JSP.

19. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 9:124–25.