Urim and Thummim

So it is.

Would it not anger a stoic, a coward, yea, a martyr? to see a pursuivant come in and call all his clothes copes books primmers and all his plate chalices and mistake them away and ask a fee for coming o ne'er may fair laws white reverend name be strumpeted to warrant thefts she is established recorded to destiny on earth and she speaks fates words and but tells us who must be rich who poor who in chairs who in jales she is all fair but yet hath foul long nails with which she scratcheth suitors in bodies of men so in law nails are th extremities so officers stretch to more than law can doe as our nails reach what no else part comes to why bearest thou to yon officer fool hath he got those goods for which erst men beared to thee fool twice thrice thou hast bought wrong and now hungerly begg'st right but that dole comes not till these die thou hadst much and laws urim and thumim try thou wouldst for more and for all hast paper enough to clothe all the great carrick's pepper sell that and by that thou much more shalt lees than haman when he sold his antiquities o wretch that thy fortune should moralize aesop's fables and make tales prophecies thou'rt the swimming dog whom shadows and dives near drowning for what's vanishd.

o to what height will love of greatness drive thy leaven'd spirit sesquicent perditue venice vast lake thou hadst seen and wouldst seek then some vaster thing and foundst a curtisan that inland sea having discover'd well a cellar gulf where one might sail to hell from heidelberg thou long'st to see and thou this book greater than all producest now infinite work which doth so far extend that none can study it to any end tis no one thing it is not fruit nor root nor poorly limited with head or foot if man be therefore man because he can reason and laugh thy book doth half make man one half being made thy modesty was such that thou on th'other half wouldst never touch when wilt thou be at full great lunatic not till thou exceed the world canst thou be like a prosperous nose borne wen which sometimes grows to be far greater than the mother knows go then and as to thee when thou didst go munster did towns and gesner authors show mount now to gallo belgicus appear as deep a statesman as a gazetteer homely and familiarly when thou com'st back talk of will conqueror and prester jack go bashful man lest here thou blush to look upon the progress of thy glorious book to which both indies sacrifices send the west send gold which thou didst freely spend meaning to seek no more upon the press the east sends hither her deliciousness and thy leaves must embrace what comes from thence the myrrh the pepper and the frankincense this magnifies thy leaves but if they stoop to neighbour wares when merchants to unhoop voluminous barrels if thy leaves do then convey these wares in parcels unto men if for vast tons of currants of figs of medicinal and aromatic twigs thy leaves a better method do provide divide to pounds and ounces subdivide if they stoop lower yet and vent our wares home manufactures to thick popular fairs if omnipregnant there upon warm stalls they hatch all wares for which the buyer calls then thus thy leaves we justly may commend, that they all kind of matter comprehend.

Thus thou, by means which the ancients never took, a pandect mak'st, and universal book.

You take the leap.

The king gives Santiago these two divination stones, Urim and Thummim, to help him read omens.

The black and white stones, yeah.

Yeah.

Each stone had some hieroglyphic scratched upon its surface.

You have heard, Mr Jackson, of the Urim and Thummim.

I had heard the term, but my idea of its meaning was exceedingly vague.

The Urim and Thummim was a name given to the jewelled plate which lay upon the breast of the high priest of the Jews.

They had a very special feeling of reverence for it, something of the feeling which an ancient Roman might have had for the Sibylline books in the Capitol.

They are, as you see, twelve magnificent stones inscribed with mystical characters.

Has the breastplate any particular history? I asked.

It is of great age and of immense value, said Professor Andreas.

They searched for their names in the genealogical records, but they were not found, so they were disqualified from serving as priests.

The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until the priests could consult the Lord about the matter by using Urim and Thummim, the sacred lots.

So a total of forty-two thousand three hundred sixty people returned to Judah.

In addition to the 7,337 servants and 200 singers, both men and women, they took with them 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

And he took the ephod of the priest, the high priest, with him.

And in that was the Urim and the Thummim, and that's how God would... give discernment and direction.

So David is asking for that because David wants to know what to do.

And that's a good thing to apply to our life that when the trial, the circumstance, whatever it is, is like it is here in this story, what does David do? He consults God.

No, it was that people's singular privilege, a favor which God vouchsafed them above the rest of the world, that in the affairs of their estate which were not determinable one way or other by the Scripture, Himself gave them extraordinary direction and counsel as oft as they sought it at His hands.

Thus God did first by speech unto Moses, after by Urim and Thummim unto priests, lastly by dreams and visions unto prophets, from whom in such cases they were to receive the answer of God.

Concerning Joshua, therefore, thus spake the Lord unto Moses, saying, He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him by the judgment of Urim before the Lord.

Whereof had Joshua been mindful, the fraud of the Gibeonites could not so smoothly have passed unespied till there was no help.