urim and thummim Summary and Overview

(light and perfection). When the Jewish exiles were met on their return from Babylon by a question which they had no data for answering, they agreed to postpone the settlement of the difficulty till there should rise up "a priest with Urim and Thummim." #Ezr 2:63; Ne 7:65| The inquiry what those Urim and Thummim themselves were seems likely to wait as long for a final and satisfying answer. On every side we meet with confessions of ignorance. Urim means "light," and Thummim "perfection." Scriptural statements. --The mysterious words meet us for the first time, as if they needed no explanation, in the description of the high Priest's apparel. Over the ephod there is to be a "breastplate of judgment" of gold, scarlet, purple and fine linen, folded square and doubled, a "span" in length and width. In it are to be set four rows of precious stones, each stone with the name of a tribe of Israel engraved on it, that Aaron "may bear them on his heart." Then comes a further order. In side the breastplate, as the tables of the covenant were placed inside the ark, #Ex 25:16; 28:30| are to be placed "the Urim and the Thummim," the light and the perfection; and they too are to be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. #Ex 28:15-30| Not a word describes them. They are mentioned as things-already familiar both to Moses and the people, connected naturally with the functions of the high priest as mediating between Jehovah and his people. The command is fulfilled. #Le 8:8| They pass from Aaron to Eleazar with the sacred ephod and other pontificalia. #Nu 20:28| When Joshua is solemnly appointed to succeed the great hero-law-giver he is bidden to stand before Eleazar, the priest, "who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim," and this counsel is to determine the movements of the host of Israel. #Nu 27:21| In the blessings of Moses they appear as the crowning glory of the tribe of Levi: "thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy Holy One." #De 33:8,9| In what way the Urim and Thummim were consulted is quite uncertain. Josephus and the rabbins supposed that the stones gave out the oracular answer by preternatural illumination; but it seems to be far simpler and more in agreement with the different accounts of inquiries made by Urim and Thummim, #1Sa 14:3,18,19; 23:2,4,9,11,12; 28:6; Jud 20:28; 2Sa 5:23| etc., to suppose that the answer was given simply by the word of the Lord to the high priest comp. #Joh 11:51| when, clothed with the ephod and the breastplate, he had inquired of the Lord. Such a view agrees with the true notion of the breastplate.

U'RIM and THUM'MIM (light and perfection) denote some part of the high priest's apparel. In Ex 28:15-30 it is prescribed that the Urim and Thummim shall be placed beneath the breastplate, in order to be on the high priest's heart when he goes in before the Lord; and when Aaron was arrayed, Moses himself put the Urim and Thummim into the breastplate. Lev 8:8. In the blessings of Moses he speaks of the Urim and Thummim as the crowning glory of the Levite tribe; and when Joshua is solemnly appointed to succeed him. Num 27:21, the high priest, Eleazar, is said to ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim. But nowhere in Scripture are the Urim and Thummim described, and, as Jewish tradition can give no information, we do not know what they really were.

(See HIGH PRIEST; EPHOD.) ("lights and perfections".) The article "the" before each shows their distinctness. In Deuteronomy 33:8 the order is reversed "thy Thummim and thy Urim." Urim is alone in Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 28:6 Saul is answered neither by dreams nor by Urim. Thummim is never by itself. Inside the high priest's breast-plate were placed the Urim and Thummim when he went in before the Lord (Exodus 28:15-30; Leviticus 8:8). Mentioned as already familiar to Moses and the people. Joshua, when desiring counsel to guide Israel, was to "stand before Eleazar the priest, who should ask it for him after the judgment of Urim before Jehovah" (Numbers 27:21). Levi's glory was "thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy Holy One," i.e. with Levi as representing, the whole priestly and Levitical stock sprung from him (Deuteronomy 33:8-9). In Ezra 2:63 finally those who could not prove their priestly descent were excluded from the priesthood "till there should stand up a priest with Urim and Thummim." Theteraphim apparently were in Hosea 3:4; Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14; Judges 18:20; Judges 18:30, the unlawful substitute for Urim (compare 1 Samuel 15:23 "idolatry," Hebrew teraphim; and 2 Kings 23:24, margin). Speaker's Commentary thinks that lots were the mode of consultation, as in Acts 1:26; Proverbs 16:33. More probably stones with Jehovah's name and attributes, "lights" and "perfections," engraven on them were folded within the ephod. By gazing at them the high priest with ephod on, before the Lord, was absorbed in heavenly ecstatic contemplation and by God was enabled to declare the divine will. The Urim and Thummim were distinct from the 12 stones, and were placed within the folds of the double choshen. Philo says that the high priest's breast-plate was made strong in order that he might wear as an image the two virtues which his office needed. So the Egyptian judge used to wear the two figures of Thmei (corresponding to Thummim), truth and justice; over the heart of mummies of priests too was a symbol of light (answering to Urim). No image was tolerated on the Hebrew high priest; but in his choshen the white diamond or rock crystal engraven with "Jehovah," to which in Revelation 2:17 the "white stone" with the "new name written" corresponds, belonging to all believers, the New Testament king-priests. Compare Genesis 44:5; Genesis 44:15; Psalm 43:5, "send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me." Also 1 Samuel 14:19. Never after David are the ephod and its Urim and Thummim and breast-plate used in consulting Jehovah. Abiathar is the last priest who uses it (1 Samuel 23:6-9; 1 Samuel 28:6; 2 Samuel 21:1). The higher revelation by prophets superseded the Urim and Thummim. Music then, instead of visions, became the help to the state of prayer and praise in which prophets revealed God's will (1 Samuel 9:9).