The Mysterious Urim and the Thummim of Exodus 28:30
Parshat Tetzaveh
28:30. In the breastpiece of judgment, you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord; thus, Aaron shall bear the judgment of the Israelites on his heart before the Lord continually. – Philo and the Septuagint rendered the הָאוּרִים וְהַתֻּמִּים as τὴν δήλωσιν καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν (tēn dēlōsin kai tēn alētheian), “revelation and Truth.”[1] ” The noun dylosis denotes a radiant light, manifestation, or explanation, and alytheia means divinely disclosed truth.
Historical information about the Urim and Thummim remains shrouded in mystery. But whatever they may have been, it was considered the most important item among the distinctive garments of the High Priest. The Septuagint referred to the Urim and Thummim as “the oracle of judgment" or as the "breastplate of judgment." Alternatively, "the breastplate of the oracular decision.”[2]
n Among the 19th century archeologists, Sir Gardner. J. Wilkinson saw a parallel between the breastplate worn by the Israelite High Priest and the golden chain filled with gems worn on the neck of the arch-judges of ancient Egypt.[3] The Egyptian chain contained two iconic figures of Re, the sun-deity which he believed corresponded to Urim, and Thmei, the goddess of truth and Thmei, which Wilkinson likened to the Hebrew noun תָּמִים (Thummim) signifying integrity and perfection.
Wilkinson pointed out that in Egyptian mythology, Thmei, better known as Maat, personified the qualities of justice and truth. The Egyptian Book of the Dead describes how the Maat weighs the hearts of those who died on a scale, against the weight of an ostrich feather that Themei wore in her headdress. Good deeds kept the heart light enough to enter the final field of peace. Wilkinson believed that the Egyptian symbols worn by the arch-judge became the ancestor of the High Priest’s Urim and Thummim.
While Wilkinson’s conjecture is fascinating, his main theory depends on the accuracy of the Septuagint’s definition—which should be considered a foregone conclusion by no stretch of the imagination. Moreover, it may have been the Egyptians who borrowed the idea from the Israelites, possibly when King Solomon made a political marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh. Another weakness in the theory is that nothing in the Egyptian golden-laced gem chain would indicate any oracular function. Any resemblance is only superficial at best.
Other scholars have also likened it to the Babylonian “Tablets of Destiny,” which, according to one legend, the god Zu stole the tablets of destiny hung like the Urim and Thummim on the breast of “father Bel.” While they were in his possession, he temporarily acquired the right and power to control the universe's fate.
Among the plethora of other expositions, these, in particular, are noteworthy:
n Josephus also alludes to the same story and, apparently identifying the Urim and Thummim with the sardonyxes on the shoulders of the ephod, says that they were bright before a victory, or when the sacrifice was acceptable, dark when any disaster was impending.[4] This passage from Josephus may have been the basis of the Talmudic legend that purports that some of these stones would literally “glow” whenever the High Priest received an answer to his question.[5]
In one description, of the Urim and Thummim, Josephus explained, “Yet will I mention what is still more wonderful than this: for God declared beforehand, by those twelve stones which the high priest bare on his breast, and which were inserted into his breastplate, when they should be victorious in battle; for so great a splendor shone forth from them before the army began to march, that all the people were sensible of God’s being present for their assistance.”[6]
Talmudic tradition identifies the Urim and Thummim with the twelve stones on the High Priest’s breastplate, upon which each tribal name was engraved (Exod. 28:17-21).[7]
M. M. Kalisch proposed that the Urim and Thummim, along with the breastplate containing the twelve tribal gems, ought to be explained by a hendiadys (light and perfection = perfect illumination). By concentrating his thoughts on the attributes they represented, Kalisch argued that the High Priest has divested himself of all selfishness and prejudice and has passed into a true prophetic state.[8] Kalisch’s theory is similar to the one I proposed at the end of the notes. The response used to obtain a “yes” or “no” answer on various matters had a decisive impact on the nation's fate. When the Torah later speaks of the High Priest “drawing lots,” a powerful argument can be drawn that he utilized the Urim and Thummim to determine which goat would eventually go to YHWH and which one would go to Azazel (Lev. 16:9-10).
Cassuto, Sarna, and other modern commentators suggest they were used like a sacred lottery and may have been something like dice or coins. In the early formative years of Israel up to the time of the death of King Saul, only the national leaders and the priests were allowed to utilize the Urim and Thummim – and only during times of national crisis and uncertainty.
Only the priests and the nation’s leaders were allowed to use them, and only for the nation's good in times of national emergency or importance. The Urim and Thummim are not mentioned between the early monarchy and postexilic times. Their eventual disappearance as an oracular device may have been in part to the expansive role of the prophets.[9] When the Jewish exiles were met on their return from Babylon, there were technical questions they could not answer. The leaders decided to postpone solving the problem until a High Priest with the Urim and Thummim would decide (Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65).
A Jungian Exposition on the Urim and Thummim
In an age when the prophecy was not always readily available
NOTES:
[1] This construction is what grammarians describe as a hendiadys, which is a figure of speech used for emphasis; it involves two words connected by a conjunction (usually and), for example nice and easy, good and ready. A figure of speech in which two words connected by a conjunction are used to express a single notion that would normally be expressed by an adjective and a substantive, such as “grace and favor” instead of “gracious favor.” The basic idea is to use two words linked by a conjunction to express a single complex idea. Thus, in Macbeth Act V, Scene 5, we find: “sound and fury” instead of than “furious sound.” In the Tanakh, there are a plethora of such examples: וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ– the earth was “formless and void” instead of “a formless void” (Gen. 1:2); פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ (Pürû ûrübû ûmil´û), “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill. . .” (Gen. 1:22) נָע וָנָד (nä` wänäd) “a fugitive and a stranger” (Gen. 4:12).
[2] Other forms of oracular devices used in the Tanakh included the consultation of the terafim (Jgs. 17:5, 18:14; Hos. 3:4; Ezek. 21:26; Zec. 10:2), the use of goblets (Gn. 44:5), arrows (Ezek. 21:26), spoken words (Gen. 24:14, 1 Sam. 14:9-10, cf. v. 12), and the interpretation of the liver (Ezek. 21:26), stars (Isa. 47:13, Jer. 10:2), and dreams (1 Sam. 28:6). The hold diviners had over the people is best illustrated by the story about King Saul: he "cut them off the land," but when in trouble sought out one of those who remained (1 Sam. 28:3-25)
[3] See Gardner J. Wilkinson’s Mannets and Customs of Ancient Egypt. (New York: Scribner and Welford, 1837, repr. 1878.) Wilkinson based his theory in part on the historical wrings of the Roman historian Aelianus Tacitus (Var. Hist. l. 14. Chapter 34) and Diodorus Siculus (i. 48, 75) of whom the latter writes, that the chief-magistrate the president in the Egyptian courts, used to wear a golden chain, containing an image of precious stones, which they called truth:
[4] Antiquities 3:7:5
[5] Yalkut Sifie, Zohar in Exodus. 105; Maimonides, R. ben-Nachmaln, in Buxtorf, loc. cit.; Drusius, in Crit. Sac. on Ex 28; Chrysostom, Grotius, et al.
[6] Antiq. 3:7:5
[7] BT Yoma 73b.
[8] A. Kaplan gives an almost identical explanation: “The Urim and Thummim would be consulted like an oracle; the High Priest would meditate on the stones until he reached a level of divine inspiration. He would see the breastplate with inspired vision, and the letters containing the answer would appear to light up or stand out. With his divine inspiration, the High Priest would then be able to combine the letters to spell out the answer (Yoma 73b; Ramban; Bahya on Num. 28:21 cf. [Aryeh Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought 6:36)”
[9] Cf. 1 Kgs. 22:6; 2 Kgs. 3:11.