Orson Hyde’s Dedicatory Prayer of the Holy Land

In 1840, in Nauvoo, Illinois, the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith sent Orson Hyde, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to Palestine to dedicate the Holy Land for the return of the Jews. The Jewish return to Palestine and latter-day restoration was a prominent theme in the Book of Mormon and in Joseph Smith’s divine revelations. Orson Hyde’s long and arduous journey from Nauvoo to Palestine included stops in Amsterdam and other European capitals, where he sought to persuade Jewish rabbis that the time had come for Jews to resettle their land.