Josephus, who was born thirty-nine years after Christ, says that it was
then two hundred years since the stones of the ephod had given an answer
to consultations by their extraordinary lustre.
The Scriptures only inform us, that Urim and Thummim were something that
Moses had put in the high-priest's breast-plate. Some Rabbins by rash
conjectures, have believed that they were two small statues hidden
within the breast-plate; others, the ineffable name of God, graved in a
mysterious-manner. Without designing to discern what has not been
explained to us, we should understand by _Urim_ and _Thummim_, the
divine inspiration annexed to the consecrated breast-plate.
Several passages of Scripture leave room to believe, that an articulate
voice came forth from the propitiatory, or holy of holies, beyond the
veil of the tabernacle, and that this voice was heard by the
high-priest. If the Urim and Thummim did not make answer, it was a sign
of God's anger. Saul abandoned by the spirit of the Lord, consulted it
in vain, and obtained no sort of answer. It appears by some passages of
St.
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