Texts in Conversation
Exodus describes the Urim and Thummim in the high priest’s breast piece, used to learn God’s judgment. Sirach echoes this by speaking of God’s judgments being made clear, drawing on the same imagery of sacred objects used for discernment.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 28:30
Hebrew Bible
28 They are to tie the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod by blue cord, so that it may be above the waistband of the ephod, and so that the breastpiece will not be loose from the ephod. 29 Aaron will bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of decision over his heart when he goes into the Holy Place, for a memorial before the Lord continually. 30 “You are to put the Urim and the Thummim into the breastpiece of decision; and they are to be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. Aaron is to bear the decisions of the Israelites over his heart before the Lord continually. 31 “You are to make the robe of the ephod completely blue. 32 There is to be an opening in its top in the center of it, with an edge all around the opening, the work of a weaver, like the opening of a collar, so that it cannot be torn.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 33:3
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 No evil will happen to him who fears the Lord, but in trials once and again he will deliver him. 2 A wise man will not hate the law, but he who is a hypocrite about it is like a boat in a storm. 3 A man of understanding will put his trust in the law. And the law is faithful to him, as when one asks a divine oracle. 4 Prepare your speech, and so you will be heard. Bind up instruction, and make your answer. 5 The heart of a fool is like a cartwheel. His thoughts are like a rolling axle. A stallion horse is like a mocking friend.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Qumran version and the LXX are concerned to relate verse 10 to the Urim (אורים) and Thummim of verse 8. This is clear from the fact that it is God's judgements (משפטי) which Levi causes to shine, just as they are placed in the breastpiece οΐ judgement (חשן משפט, Exodus 28:15, 29-30). The verbal form in verse 10 picks up the nominal form of אור in verse 8. The connection is reflected in the Septuagint which says in Deuteronomy 33:10 that the Levites "make clear (δηλώσουσιν)" God's judgements, using language which picks up the giving to Levi of δήλους αύτοΰ ("his Urim") in verse 8 ... The language is typical of the LXX translation of instances of the Hebrew: Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 28:6, compare 1 Samuel 14:41; Hosea 3:4; 1 Esdras 5:40; Sirach 33:3; 45:10 ..."
Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, All the Glory of Adam: Liturgical Anthropology in the Dead Sea Scrolls, STDJ 42 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 228.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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