Urim and Thummim

Noun

Urim and Thummim pl (plural only)

1. (plural, plural-only) Certain sacred objects (whose precise form and nature is unknown) that were worn on the breastplate of the Jewish high priest, as described in the Bible, and used in divination or casting lots.
   • Should Kings and Nations from thy mouth conſult, / Thy Counſel would be as the Oracle / Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems / On Aaron’s breaſt: or tongue of Seers old / Infallible; […]1671, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 55, lines 12–16
   • If the description of the ephod and of the ‘breast-plate’ of the high priest in Ex 28: 6-30 comes (basically) from the last years of the monarchy, it was no longer an instrument for giving oracles; it is significant that the Urim and Thummim are mentioned there, but not described in minute detail...
   • Esd 2:63=Ne 7:65 says that after the Exile there was no priest to handle the Urim and Thummim; this is confirmed by the Jewish tradition which often repeats that there was neither Urim nor Thummim in the second Temple. One text of the Talmud (Sota 48a) even asserts that there had been no Urim and...1961, Roland de Vaux, “The Priestly Office”, in Ancient Israel, volume 2, McGraw-Hill Book Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 353
2. (Mormonism, plural, plural-only) Instruments by which divine revelation can be understood; often specifically the tools that Joseph Smith, Jr. said he had found on the hill Cumorah and used to interpret the golden plates.