Urim and Thummim

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah both contain a cryptic reference to an object that facilitates revelation. Some people who claimed priestly lineage were not listed in the official register.

And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.

Ezra 2:63; compare Nehemiah 7:65

What is this Urim and Thummim? Or is it more than one thing? Urim (“lights”) and thummim (“perfections”) are both plural in Hebrew. Ezra and Nehemiah expected their readers to already be familiar with it. So we must look elsewhere for explanations.

The object appears multiple times in the Old Testament but is never described:

• Aaron’s ceremonial clothing as the high priest included a breastplate, into which the Urim and Thummim were inserted. (See Exodus 28:30, Leviticus 8:8.)
• When the Lord selected Joshua as Moses’s successor, He specifically instructed Joshua to consult with Eleazar the priest, “who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord” (Numbers 27:21).
• Moses referenced it obliquely at the end of his life as he blessed the Levites. “Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one,” he prayed, meaning with Levi and by extension with his descendants (Deuteronomy 33:8).
• Finally, when King Saul fell out of favor with God, he was unable to receive the revelation he expected. “And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets” (1 Samuel 28:6).

From these passages alone, a faithful reader can deduce that there was an object (or set of objects) called the Urim and Thummim, that it was worn by the high priest, and that it was used by authorized priests to receive revelation from God.

Within the Book of Mormon, there is a story about an object used to obtain revelation. When King Limhi asks Ammon if he knows anyone who can translate writings in an unknown language, Ammon replies:

I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.

Mosiah 8:13

These objects are not labeled as Urim and Thummim, but the resemblance is strong. They are used by an authorized individual to receive revelation. In the Old Testament, the tool answers questions; in the Book of Mormon, it unlocks new knowledge by empowering its user to translate ancient records. Ammon goes on to say, “Things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known. Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings” (Mosiah 8:17-18).

Joseph Smith’s account of receiving the gold plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon includes a reference to a similar object. After describing the plates, the angel Moroni who appeared to him said “that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted ‘seers’ in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book” (“The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith“).

Joseph’s scribe, Oliver Cowdery, equated the “interpreters” described in the Book of Mormon with the Urim and Thummim that Joseph used to translate (see Joseph Smith—History, footnote paragraph 1).

So the Book of Mormon not only provides a more expansive explanation of the Urim and Thummim; it is itself a product of the Urim and Thummim in action.

Today I will be grateful for aids to revelation. I will remember that God provides tools to enable His children to receive knowledge from Him.