Joseph Smith's Second Attempt to Obtain the Plates
Published October 27, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Contributed by
Lucy Mack Smith History Research
On September 22, 1824, Joseph returned to the hill expecting to take the plates home. After taking them out, he laid them down to secure a potential treasure, causing the plates to vanish. When he tried to retrieve them again, he was knocked back by an unseen force.
In Their Own Words
“He immediately reached forth his hand to take them, but instead of getting them, as he anticipated, he was hurled back upon the ground with great violence. When he recovered, the angel was gone, and he arose and returned to the house, weeping for grief and disappointment. — Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, Chapter XIX”
Sources & References
Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother (Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith), first published 1853, Chapter XIX. https://archive.org/details/biographicalsket0000lucy (account extracted verbatim from the book's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high)
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