Indeed most scholars would go further, and miiintain tliat in a number of otlier places, where the same phrase 'to inquire of J" ("$ hK'i')' is em- ployed, and where tlie use of the sacred lot ' before J"' is stated, recourse to Urim and Thummim is implied in every case. Tlie most important of siu'li passages are Jos 7'''"'* Aclian's trespass, Jg I"- 1'\f\ 1 S 1U'»--- the election of Saul, 2 S 2' S'"-^.
To say that the Urim and Tliummim of the earlier historians must have been intimately con- nected with tlio portable images to w-hicli they gave tlie name of epliod in the casting of the sacred lot, does not help us to discover the real nature of the objects in question. Tlie etymology, as we have seen, is equally of no avail. The Greek trans- lators in rendering Urim by STfKoi [\l0oi.'] ap])arentl3' iilentitied it with the jewels of the breastplate. We are therefore left to conjeclure that, on the analogy of the sortcs of classical antiquity, they may have been two stones, either in the sh.apo of dice or in tablet form, perhaps also of difVerent colours. Some support is given to this view, which is that of most modern writers {see Litera- ture at end of article), by the fact tliat the Heli. word for 'lot,' gordl, as is inferred from its Arabic congeners, originally signitied a stone (cf. Gr. \j'rjipos, 'a pebble used in voting,' and the Bab. purtt, 'a stone,' whence, according to Jensen, quoted by Wihleboer in Kiirzer Hanihom., D'TS Est 3', eynonymuus with ^"yn, is derived).
With the growth of more spiritual conceptions
* Not 08 EV *to wear,' a 8t-nse which K^j nowben haa io Hebrew
of the Divine character and of His relation to mundane aft'airs, recourse to the lot as a means of ascertaining the mind of J" gradually fell into abeyance. It cannot be a mere coincidence that the use of Urim and Thummim is never mentioned in the historical narratives after the time of David. The rise of the prophetic order in Israel provided the nation with a worthier channel for the revela- tion of tlie Divine wUl, and with more trustworthy counsellors in the crises of the individual and national life. The further we descend the .stream of history the more conspicuous is this displace- ment of the priestly lot by the prophetic voice (contrast Ezr 2«3=Neh 7" with 1 Mac 4-"' 14-"). That the Urim and Thummim should reappear in the scheme of the Priestly Code is not surprising. It is part of its ideal reconstruction of the theocracy that the high priest should be at all points fully equipped for his office as the Divine vicegerent in the tlieocracy. For this end he is provided with the already mysterious Urim and "Thummim, the manipulation of which was one of the most prized of the ancient prerogatives of the priestly caste. Their early association with the now long tabooed ephod-image, and the fact that the bosom-folds of the upper garment was a common receptacle for the ' lot ' as used in everyday aliairs (see Pr IG*" ' the lot is shaken in the bosom-fold, but the whole dis- posing thereof is of J" '),* may have suggested to the authors of the Priestly Code the placing of the Urim and Thummim in the jewelled pouch of the high priest's ephod. In any case it is clear from the principal passage. Ex 2^^, that it is rather a symbolical than a practical significance that is attached to the mysterious contents of the ' pouch of judgment (or decision).' Israel, in the person of Aaron its representative, is here presented as the continual recipient of J"'s ' decisions ' and guidance, and the position of the symbols 'upon his heart' betokens the readiness of Israel at all times to j'ield obedience to these Divine commands.
After the exhaustive presentation of the earlier biblical data as to the use and associations of the Urim and Thummim, little need be said of the views of older scholars, whose method of research was vitiated by their taking the representations of the Priests' Code as decisive for the nature and use of these objects in the historical period. Thus, probably, few will be found to maintain the once widely accepted theory that found the prototype of the Urim and Thummim in the jewelled image of Tme, the goddess of truth and patron of justice, which the Chief Justice (6 d/jxiSixaaT-ijs, .iFlian, Var. Hist. xiv. 34 ; cf. Diod. Sic. i. 48) of Egypt wore on his breast ; still less to defend an Egyptian etymology for Urim and Thummim (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians [1878], voL iii. p. 183, with figure of judge's breastplate). t The same comjiarative ignoring of the evidence of our oldest sources as to the nature of the ancient lot is fatal to the acceiitanee of the thesis recently brouglit for- ward by an American scholar (Muss-Arnolt, see below), that the Urim and Thummim are a re- flexion of the ' Tablets of Destiny ' of the Baby- lonian mythology.^
Nor need we dwell on the many absurd specula- tions as to the nature of Urim and Thummim, and as to the mode in which their guidance was su|>- plied, which are to be found in the works of Jewish and Christian writers from Pliilo and Josephus