This revelation addressed the concern about where the believers emigrating from to would settle when they arrived. During the fall and winter of 1830–1831, revelations directed the New York believers to gather to Ohio, declared that a holy city known as or the was to be built “among the ,” and appointed as to the , all matters relevant to this question. Because “the Law,” an extensive revelation dated 9 February, declared that the bishop had the responsibility to oversee “the properties of my church” and “administer to the poor and needy,” the question was especially relevant to Partridge.

The immediate context for both this revelation and key parts of the 9 February revelation a month earlier was the anticipated arrival of more than one hundred church members from . In response to a question from believers, “What preperations we shall make for our Brethren from the East & when & how?” the 9 February revelation stated that individuals should be appointed to assist the bishop in “obtaining places” for the New York believers and advised that members cluster together, with “every Church . . . organized in as close bodies as they can be.” JS also requested that New York church member aid in the efforts to organize the settlement, telling Harris in a 22 February letter, “It is nec[e]ssary for you to come here as soon as you can in order to choose a place which may be best adapted to the circumstances of yourself and breatheren in the east to settle on.” By 10 March, Harris had not yet arrived and, according to , there had been “no preparation made for the reception of the Saints,” making “anxious to know something” about how places were to be obtained for the anticipated newcomers. Whitmer further explained that another purpose of the revelation was to provide clarification because “some had supposed that it [Ohio] was the place of gathering even the place of the New Jerusalam spoken of in the Book of Mormon. according to the visions and revelations received in the last days.”