The remainder of the revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, April 1829, when they inquired through the Urim and Thummim as to whether John the beloved disciple had tarried in the flesh or passed away. The revelation is a translated version of a record made on parchment by John and hidden up by himself.

All previous editions of the Doctrine & Covenants had only included up to verse 8; the remainder of the revelation had somehow become separated from the written draft for section 7 and lost in a shuffle of Palmyra-era meeting-notes and memorandum. The Prophet had evidently either forgotten these extra verses existed or willfully excluded them from the first edition of the Book of Commandments, for unknown reasons upon which we can only speculate. Fortunately, the new verses were recently recovered by the Joseph Smith Papers project while they were combing through and comparing recent historical acquisitions from the Community of Christ.

In any case, the translation of the remainder of the verses on the parchment is at last presented here, beginning at verse 9.

1 And the Lord said unto me: John, my beloved, what desirest thou? For if you shall ask what you will, it shall be granted unto you.

2 And I said unto him: Lord, give unto me power over death, that I may live and bring souls unto thee.

3 And the Lord said unto me: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, because thou desirest this thou shalt tarry until I come in my glory, and shalt prophesy before nations, kindreds, tongues and people.

4 And for this cause the Lord said unto Peter: If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? For he desired of me that he might bring souls unto me, but thou desiredst that thou mightest speedily come unto me in my kingdom.

5 I say unto thee, Peter, this was a good desire; but my beloved has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what he has before done.

6 Yea, he has undertaken a greater work; therefore I will make him as flaming fire and a ministering angel; he shall minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation who dwell on the earth.

7 And I will make thee to minister for him and for thy brother James; and unto you three I will give this power and the keys of this ministry until I come.

8 Verily I say unto you, ye shall both have according to your desires, for ye both joy in that which ye have desired.

9 …And it came to pass that centuries had their say, and I became laden down with much sorrow and woe, and began to plead with the Lord to at last let me die and enter speedily into his rest, for I now considered that Peter had been the wiser.

10 And I cried out in the anguish of my soul: O Lord, for lo these 2,000 years I have wasted and wearied my body and my spirit in the secret places of the world, that I might bring souls unto thee;

11 I have done many things the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written–yet it has all been for naught.

12 I had desired to tarry for a little season that I might help lay the foundation for a marvelous work and a wonder to come forth among the children of men, to make ready their hearts for the establishment of ZION and the Second Coming of the LORD, so that the Church of the First Born could at last come forth in glory, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.

13 But I did not yet understand just how long a little season can last for the Almighty.

14 I have instead beheld kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, one after another in monotonous succession, as each in turn has vanished from all human memory.

15 I have witnessed entire languages pass out of all common usage, cultures of great antiquity and deep tradition disappear without a trace, and astonishing works of art and literature lost irredeemably to the ravages of time.

16 I have seen countless philosophers fill the air with their words, endless preachers of righteousness rail against the rising tide of wickedness in their generation, and wise men make great advances in the sciences that have revolutionized the world, all without ever adding one cubit to man’s goodness or understanding.

17 I have witnessed great multitudes of peoples slaughtered, massacred, and cut down, whether by famine or plague or the sword or the cannon-ball or the bomb or the gas-chamber, and my soul was vexed as to why the Lord didst continually stay his hand in judgment, and left me only to serve as a mute and impotent witness to all of this blood and horror upon the earth.

18 Thou didst warn us at the Last Supper, O Lord, that the day would come when whomsoever killed us would think he did God a favor;

19 But behold, I wander the world entire and observe that the children of men do nothing but kill each other and think they do God a favor.

20 O Lord! Thou hast given commandment, that these thy children should love one another, and that they should choose thee, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;

21 Insomuch that they kill, and steal, and bare false witness, and lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, and grind upon the face of the poor, and in fine commit all manner of iniquity and abominations, in Thy name and their own.

22 And for every momentary progress we make in guiding the children of men to be more wise, charitable, kind, patient, long-suffering, and full of love and mercy one towards another, behold, we are then beset with derision and obstruction at the hands of sinful men.

23 We repeatedly see our best works crumble into dust and ashes, all while the wicked wax ever bolder in iniquity.

24 And like my fellow-cursed disciples the Three Nephites, I long grow weary of merely assisting some odd stranger on the way-side in small acts of meaningless kindness, all while the world goes about destroying itself in fires of its own making, with none to restrain them.

25 For I have even been cursed to live long enough to see mine own most awful prophecies from the isle of Patmos come to pass before my very eyes:

26 To see one third of the earth become burned with with fire, one third of all the sea creatures destroyed, one third of all the rivers polluted, and one third of the sky darkened, and more–and that not by the hand of God or even Satan, but by the hands of wicked and adulterous men, whom the Lord also hath not restrained, nor permitted me to restrain.

27 Yea verily, in all ages and in all nations, I have beheld that the wealthy are protected from their crimes because of their money; that spiritual darkness remains enthroned in high places; and that everyone everywhere calls the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

28 And even when the Restoration of all things did at last come to pass after all these long centuries, behold O Lord, their numbers and dominions have remained small upon the earth, and their influence weak, and their love one for another neither greater nor lesser than that of the gentiles.

29 O Lord, remember these thy servants! How long must we wait? Until a third millennium passeth? A fourth? A fifth? Until the earth be removed, the mountains be carried into the sea, and the stars of heaven fall from the sky?

30 Stretch forth thy hand, O Lord; delay no longer thy Coming; let thine eye pierce; let thy pavilion be removed; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.

31 And it came to pass that the Lord did speak peace to my mind, if not my soul, in reminding me that compared to the infinite expanse of eternity, mine adversity and mine afflictions shall be but a small moment.

32 And that that only those who come out of tribulation shall have their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb; for all is only as only one day unto God, and time is measured only unto man, and the course of the Lord is one eternal round–