{"id":43019,"date":"2018-10-30T00:20:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T22:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43019"},"modified":"2022-05-23T16:39:53","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T13:39:53","slug":"urim-and-thummim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/urim-and-thummim\/","title":{"rendered":"Urim And Thummim"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[576,631],"acf":{"old_id":"43019","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":41606,"related_cahpter":"78","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Divine oracle - or something else?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The High Priest\u2019s elaborate uniform included a \u201cbreastpiece of judgment,\u201d called the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>hoshen mishpat<\/em> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Exodus 28:15). Inside the breastpiece were the \u201cUrim and Thummim\u201d (UT; sometimes just called \u201cUrim\u201d), The UT are mentioned few times in the Bible (including Num 27:21; Deut 33:8; 1 Sam 28:6; Ez 2:63; Neh 7:65) and never in great detail. From these references, we can glean that the UT were involved in a form of divination \u2013 i.e., seeking knowledge from God \u2013 that the priest could practice. (In contrast with other such forbidden practices (listed in Deut 18:9-14), the UT were sanctioned).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what exactly are the UT?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ancient Greek, Aramaic, and Latin versions of the Bible render the UT in various ways: translations of \u201cUrim\u201d suggest \u201crevelation,\u201d \u201cmanifestations,\u201d or \u201clight\u201d; and of \u201cThummim\u201d suggest \u201ctruth,\u201d \u201cperfections,\u201d \u201choliness,\u201d and \u201cdoctrine.\u201d But this does not shed light on what the object is, nor on its function.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most detailed illustration of the UT is in the Septuagint\u2019s Greek version of 1 Samuel 14:23-46, which is distinctly different from the Hebrew Masoretic text. To discover who had violated a royal ban, King Saul sets up a choice between \u201cUrim\u201d &#8211; representing himself and his son Jonathan on one side \u2013 and \u201cThummim,\u201d representing the rest of his officers on the other side. The lot chooses Saul and Jonathan and then just Jonathan. This version of the story presents the UT as lots that the priest could cast to decide between two options. Other incidences of lot-casting (though not explicitly via the UT) in the Hebrew Bible include uses to find the guilty party who illicitly took spoils of war from Jericho (Joshua 7); to divide the land of Israel among the tribes (Josh 14-21); and to determine who would be Israel\u2019s first king (1 Sam 10).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To clarify the function of the UT, modern scholars Wayne Horowitz and Victor Hurowitz have proposed a parallel with a Mesopotamian lot-casting practice, where one would take black and white stones, draw gods in rectangles on the ground, ask questions, and cast lots. Possibly, as the Septuagint indicates and these scholars suggest, the UT also were lot-stones, kept inside the breastpiece for the priest to use in divination. Without methods of divining answers to our otherwise irresolvable questions, we may remain in the dark.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":43020,"id":43020,"title":"ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg","filename":"ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/urim-and-thummim\/ex28-yale_university_shield_1-svg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ex28-yale_university_shield_1-svg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":43019,"date":"2018-10-29 22:20:12","modified":"2022-05-23 13:38:35","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":220,"height":231,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","medium-width":220,"medium-height":231,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","medium_large-width":220,"medium_large-height":231,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","large-width":220,"large-height":231,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","1536x1536-width":220,"1536x1536-height":231,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","2048x2048-width":220,"2048x2048-height":231,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","post_full_size-width":220,"post_full_size-height":231,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex28-Yale_University_Shield_1.svg_.png","home_baner-width":220,"home_baner-height":231}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Urim And Thummim","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Divine oracle - 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