The decoded entry for the journal was taken by Todd Compton to read: "I was taken in to the lodge J Smith w[ed] a[nd] s[ealed] Agness." See Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 153-54. See also Andrew F. Ehat, "Deciphering the code in the Brigham Young Diary entry for January 6, 1842," unpublished research report, 21 December 2021, Joseph Smith Institute.

While the interpretation of the first part of the cipher ("I was taken in to the lodge") is generally accepted, Ronald K. Esplin and Dean Jessee argue against this reading. See Ronald K. Esplin and Dean Jessee, 6 January 1842 footnote 505, The Brigham Young Journals: Volume I: April 1832 – February 1846, (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center and BYU Press, 2023), 125.