"Now, after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them." The reply was: "Yehuda Yangaleh" or "Judah shall go up;" for as soon as the question was propounded, the priest looked into the breast-plate, and seeing the name of Judah appear prominent, he was assured that Judah was the tribe. The priest looked again, and beheld the Yod shine, the Ngain from the name of Simeon; then the Lamed from another name, and the Heh from another; these four letters being put together made the word "Yangaleh" which signifies, "He shall go up." When the priest found that no more letters glistened, he knew immediately that the answer was completed. Hence the reason why they are called Ureem, which signifies Light, from the shining of the letters; and Thumeem, or perfection, as the answer was thus complete and perfected.
This fact distinguished the Jewish oracles from the pretended heathen oracles, which were always delivered in an enigmatical and ambiguous manner. The Jewish oracles were always clear and explicit, never falling short of perfection, either in the manifestation or the certainty of the truth thereof.
During the existence of the second temple, the Ureem and Thumeem were not consulted; for when the ark and coverlid, the cherubim and the two tables of stone, disappeared at the destruction of the first temple, the breast-plate with the Ureem and Thumeem shared the same fate. Notwithstanding that on the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, they had the pontifical robes, with the breast-plate with four rows of stones, engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel; yet no question was ever asked, and consequently no communication ever received from the Ureem and Thumeem. Two reasons are assigned for this.
First.—Because the said Ureem and Thumeem were instituted to ask counsel of the Lord of such things which concerned all the tribes of Israel, and the common interest of the whole nation. Now, there being at that time the tribes of Judah and Benjamin only, these oracles could not be consulted, the common interest of the nation having then ceased.
Secondly—And possibly the principal reason, was, that the Tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of the Deity, which Moses put between the folds of the breast-plate, was wanting. This being the most important part, and the very essence of the whole—when the cause ceased, the effect also ceased.