URIM and TUMMIM. — Mysterious objects used in ancient Israel for obtaining sacred oracles (I Sam. 28:6). The most probable meaning of the two names is “light” and “integrity,” but it remains uncertain what the two names referred to (the guilt or innocence of an individual? cf. I Sam. 14:41: Septuagint).
They were kept in a small pouch hanging from the breast of the high priest, who alone was entitled to use them (Ex. 28:30; Lev. 8:8; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8). They were considered part of the priestly garment, ephod (v.), indeed implicitly included in the latter name, although never explicitly mentioned by it (I Sam. 14:18, critical text; 23:9; 30:7). Their use, attested several times in the time of Saul and David, subsequently disappears, perhaps supplanted by prophecy; in the time of Ezra there is only the hope that God will raise up a priest who knows how to use them (Esd. 2:63). How the responses were obtained by means of the 'ä. and t. is stated only in I Sam. 14:41, Septuagint (a doubtful text, absent from the Masoretic text). Since the author of a transgression during a military campaign was unknown, Saul placed himself and his son Jonathan on one side, the army on the other, and said: “If this iniquity is in me or in my son, O Lord, God of Israel, give the 'ä.; but if it is in Israel your people, give the t.”; the lot fell upon Jonathan and Saul; when the test was repeated between father and son, the lot designated Jonathan. The episode suggests, apart from the fanciful interpretations of later Judaism, that the two objects were two small stones, differing in material, color, and shape, one called 'ä., the other t.; the high priest mixed them in the pouch and drew one, to which, by prior designation, the response had been entrusted.