By summer 1833, agents for the had purchased several large parcels of land in , Ohio. In the months before this 2 August revelation was dictated, church leaders planned for and began construction on a , or temple, on this newly acquired land, which was to serve as both a chapel and a schoolhouse. The was assigned to “obtain a draft or construction” for the interior of the building. Three weeks after the presidency received their assignment to create a design for the Kirtland temple, they sent to church leaders the architectural plans for another , similar in style and purpose, to be built in , Jackson County, Missouri. They also sent a plat for an expansive “” to be built in Independence. wrote, “The plot for the City and the size form and dime[n]sions of the house were given us of the Lord.” On 2 August, the revelation featured here called for a similar “laying out” of Kirtland as the “city of the stake of Zion” and specified the construction of two additional buildings—a “house” for the presidency and one for a printing operation—to be built in the city’s center.

Four days after JS dictated this revelation, the presidency copied it, along with two other recent revelations, into a letter they sent to . The revelation, the presidency stated, “is also binding on you that is you at have to build two houses as well as the one of which we have sent the pattern.” In other words, they instructed that, following the construction of the in , the Missouri church members should build an administrative house for church business and one for their printing establishment “as soon . . . as means can be obtaind so to do.” These plans, however, were disrupted by events that had already begun to unfold in . In late July 1833, unbeknownst to the presidency in , opponents to the church had razed the church’s Independence , threatened local leaders, and forced them to sign an agreement that they and their fellow religionists would leave Jackson County. Amid escalating tension, violent encounters drove the Mormons from the county in November 1833.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1833, members of the church in were having their own difficulties fulfilling the to build a . Construction in Kirtland temporarily halted because of a lack of building materials and the new priority to provide relief to church members in . Completing the Kirtland House of the Lord consumed most of the church’s available resources for the next few years. After printing operations moved to Kirtland, they were first housed at the and later at the . The two structures meant for the presidency and for printing were never built in either Kirtland or Jackson County.

In early published compilations of JS’s revelations, this 2 August revelation has been incorrectly dated to 6 May 1833. In the 6 August 1833 letter from the presidency of the high priesthood to church leaders, this revelation, though not specifically dated 2 August 1833, immediately follows, without any commentary or introduction, another revelation dated 2 August 1833. The letter indicated that the revelations were two separate texts by referring to them as “revelations,” in the plural. Several days later, when wrote his own letter to church leaders in , he was explicit: “Our brethren here have sent you three revelations concerning Zion two of them dated the second of Aug.” When this revelation was recorded in Revelation Book 2, it was given its own heading and again placed immediately after the other revelation that bears the date 2 August 1833. When it was later copied into Revelation Book 1, it was recorded as in the 6 August letter, without a separate introduction or date. Revelation Book 1 was used when creating the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, the first canonized volume in which this revelation appeared. The printers included an introduction to the revelation, which read, “Revelation given same date,” which probably referred to the same date as the revelation that preceded it in the manuscript revelation book—that is, 2 August 1833. However, when preparing the 1835 volume for printing, the compositor apparently mistakenly inserted the 6 May 1833 revelation between the first 2 August revelation and the one featured here. Thus, in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, the phrase “given the same date” in the revelation’s heading seems to refer to 6 May rather than 2 August 1833. The 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants maintained the same heading as the 1835 edition. For the 1876 edition, a new heading was written and explicitly dates this revelation to 6 May 1833. This error was perpetuated in all subsequent editions of the Doctrine and Covenants until the 2013 edition published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Several early copies of this revelation were made, one of which was included in the body of the aforementioned letter sent to on 6 August 1833 and one of which appears in Revelation Book 2. Insufficient evidence exists to determine which is the earliest extant copy. Because the 6 August letter, including the three revelations inscribed in it, is published in its entirety later in this volume, the version here is from the manuscript revelation book. Significant differences between the two versions are noted.