The Urim and Thummim — Oracle of God
From Exodus through Revelation, God provided instruments of revelation to His prophets
What Are the Urim and Thummim?
The Urim and Thummim appear without fanfare in the Mosaic code. They are never fully explained in the Old Testament. They are simply commanded — placed in the breastplate of judgment worn by the high priest of Israel — and their function is referenced repeatedly without any description of what they looked like or exactly how they worked.
The names are Hebrew. Urim means lights. Thummim means perfections or completeness. Together they describe an instrument of divine illumination and completeness of revelation — a means by which the high priest could receive answers from God on behalf of the people.
Exodus 28:30
“And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.”
The breastplate of judgment was worn over the high priest's heart — the seat of decision-making in ancient Hebrew thought. The Urim and Thummim sat within it: the instrument of divine answer placed at the center of the instrument of priestly authority. This was not accidental symbolism. The divine word and the priestly office were to be inseparable.
Their Function in Ancient Israel
The Urim and Thummim were the official mechanism by which Israel's priests sought divine guidance on matters of national importance. When Joshua succeeded Moses, God told Moses to present him before Eleazar the priest so that Eleazar could inquire for him “after the judgment of Urim before the Lord” — the Urim and Thummim were to function as the conduit of divine direction for the nation's leadership (Numbers 27:21).
Deuteronomy 33:8 — Moses' blessing on Levi — speaks of the Thummim and Urim as belonging to God's holy one. 1 Samuel records their use in seeking divine guidance in battle. Their presence (or absence) was an indicator of divine favor: when Saul inquired and received no answer from Urim or dreams or prophets, the silence itself was the message.
When Israel returned from Babylonian captivity, there was a problem: some priests could not prove their priestly lineage. The decision was that they would be excluded from the priesthood “till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim” who could settle the question (Ezra 2:63). They were waiting for a restoration — not a new invention, but a return of the original instrument of priestly decision.
Were They Ever Used?
The honest answer is that scholars do not know exactly what the Urim and Thummim were or precisely how they functioned. Some have proposed they were sacred lots — stones drawn from a pouch to give yes/no answers. Others propose they were precious stones that somehow responded to divine influence. The text does not explain.
What the text does make clear is that they were physical objects associated with the high priestly office, that they were used to receive divine communication, and that their loss or absence was understood as a loss of direct access to divine guidance. By the time of the Second Temple period, the Urim and Thummim appear to have been absent — their restoration was awaited as part of the eventual messianic restoration.
This is the context in which the Latter-day Saint restoration of oracular instruments makes theological sense. If the ancient high priesthood used physical instruments of revelation, a restored high priesthood would logically restore them as well.
The Nephite Interpreters
In the Book of Mormon, the brother of Jared received two transparent stones that God touched with His finger. These stones were passed down through the Jaredite nation and eventually came to Mosiah, a Nephite king who used them to translate the Jaredite record. Ammon, in describing them to Limhi, called the person who used them a seer:
Mosiah 8:13–14
“Now Ammon said unto him: I cannot tell; but this much I can tell thee, that these are interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded… And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.”
These Nephite interpreters were the same instruments Moroni buried with the plates, and D&C 17:1 refers to them explicitly as the Urim and Thummim. The instrument of revelation used by Moses' high priest, the stones touched by the finger of God in Ether 3, and the interpreters deposited with the golden plates are all expressions of the same doctrinal pattern: God provides physical instruments to mediate divine communication to authorized prophets.
Joseph Smith’s Seer Stone
Joseph Smith used both the Nephite interpreters and a separate seer stone — a brown oval stone he had found years before — in the translation process. The use of a seer stone is sometimes presented as a faith crisis topic, as if it contradicts the story of the Nephite interpreters. It does not. It expands it.
The Church has published photographs of the seer stone and acknowledged its use openly. The point is not which instrument was used. The point is that God used instruments — physical objects — in the same way He had used the Urim and Thummim with Israel's high priests. The prophet using a physical object to receive revelation is not an LDS novelty. It is a consistent pattern in biblical religion.
Aaron had the breastplate. The high priest had the Urim and Thummim. The brother of Jared had the stones. Joseph Smith had both the Nephite interpreters and his own seer stone. The God who communicated through Urim and Thummim in Exodus communicated through stones in Ether and through Joseph Smith. The mechanism is consistent; the doctrine is continuous.
The Continuity of Oracle Doctrine
The broader principle at work is one the Bible repeats consistently: God uses physical things as instruments of His power and revelation. Staffs. Altars. Arks. Temples. Bread and wine. Water in baptism. Oil in anointing. The theological tradition that insists God communicates only through pure spirit, bypassing all physical means, is not the biblical tradition. It is the Greek philosophical tradition — Platonic, Gnostic — imported into Christianity during the early centuries.
Latter-day Saint theology restores the biblical pattern: embodied prophets, physical ordinances, physical instruments of revelation. This is not primitive or unsophisticated. It is the consistent testimony of both the Old and New Testaments that God is not averse to the physical. He created it. He uses it. He inhabited it in Jesus Christ.
Revelation 2:17 — A White Stone for Every Exalted Being
Revelation 2:17
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”
D&C 130:10–11 interprets this passage: the white stone is a Urim and Thummim given to each exalted being in the celestial kingdom, through which all things pertaining to their order of glory will be revealed. The new name — known only to the recipient — is part of the divine identity sealed to that person at exaltation.
The doctrine extends from Moses to eternity: in the world to come, every exalted person will not merely receive information about God — they will each receive an instrument of ongoing divine communication, a personal oracle. The God who gave Urim and Thummim to Aaron's breastplate intends to give a stone of revelation to every one of His children who inherits the highest glory.
What This Doctrine Reveals About How God Communicates
The doctrine of the Urim and Thummim — from Exodus through the Restoration and into the celestial kingdom — teaches something essential about God's character and method: He communicates. Not vaguely. Not spiritually in some untestable way. He communicates through prophets, through instruments, through a system of revelation that leaves a record.
Key Scriptures on the Urim and Thummim
- Exodus 28:30 — The Urim and Thummim placed in the high priest's breastplate
- Ether 3:23–24 — The two stones given to the brother of Jared for future translation
- D&C 17:1 — The Nephite interpreters called Urim and Thummim
- Revelation 2:17 — A white stone and new name for every exalted being
A religion whose God communicates this consistently — through specific prophets, through specific instruments, with records that can be examined — is a religion whose God is not hiding. The Urim and Thummim is a sign that God wants to be known. The celestial white stone is the promise that, for those who persist in covenant, the communication will never end.