Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 28:30

"And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron`s heart, when he goeth in before Jehovah: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before Jehovah continually." — Exodus 28:30 (ASV)

You shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim. —Compare to Leviticus 8:8. The expression used is identical with that employed in Exodus 25:15; Exodus 25:21 with respect to putting the Two Tables into the Ark of the Covenant, and can scarcely have any other meaning than the literal placing of one thing inside another. It has already been shown (see Note on Exodus 28:16) that the breastplate was a bag, and so capable of being used as a receptacle. The words “Urim and Thummim” mean literally, “lights and perfections,” or, if the plural is one of dignity, “light and perfection” (Aquila and Symmachus translate by φωτισμοὶ καὶ τελειότητες; the Septuagint, by ἡ δήλωσις καὶ ἡ φανέρωσις; the Vulgate by doctrina et veritas). The question arises, what do these two words, as used here, designate?

Do they designate material objects? If so, what objects? Several points favour their designating material objects:

1. The expressions, “You shall put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim,” “they shall be upon Aaron’s heart,” and “he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim” (Leviticus 8:8).

2. The fact that the words are accompanied by the article on this, their first mention, as if they were familiar objects, well known at the time to the people generally.

3. The explanations of Philo and Josephus, which, while they differ in all other respects, agree in this: that material objects are intended.

But, if so, what objects? The two sides of the breastplate, says Philo (De Monarch., ii. 5). But these were not “put in” the breastplate after it was complete, as implied in Exodus 28:30 and Leviticus 8:8.

The twelve jewels, says Josephus; but the present passage, taken in conjunction with Exodus 28:17-21, distinguishes the Urim and Thummim from them. Some small objects which the bag of the breastplate could hold, and with which the people had long been familiar, can alone answer the requirements of the case. Most modern critics are so far agreed; but when the further question is asked, what were these objects? The greatest difference appears. Diamonds, cut and uncut; slips of metal, marked with “yes” and “no”; lots, of some kind or other; and small images, like the teraphim (Genesis 31:19), are among the suggestions. A very slight examination of the arguments by which these various views are supported is sufficient to show that certainty on the subject is unattainable.

Probability, however, seems on the whole to be in favour of a connection between divination by teraphim and consultation of God by Urim and Thummim (Judges 17:5; Judges 18:14; Judges 18:17; Judges 18:20; Hosea 3:4), from which it is reasonable to conclude that the Urim and Thummim were small images, by which God had been consulted in the past, and by which Moses was now authorised to state that He would be consulted in the future.

How the consultation was made, and the decision given, is a question still more obscure than that which has been just considered, and one which seems to the present writer to admit of no solution. The reader who is curious on this point may be referred to Dean Plumptre’s article on “Urim and Thummim,” in Dr. W. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, where the views proposed are ingenious, if not altogether satisfactory.