28:30 the Urim and the Thummim. Lit. “lights and perfections.” These two Hebrew words begin with the first and last letters of the alphabet (cf. the “the first and the last” of Rev. 1:17). There is no hint of how they functioned or what they were—perhaps stones of different colors, or two small objects engraved with symbols or letters of the alphabet. Whatever the Urim and Thummim were, they were used to receive oracles from God (Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8; 1 Sam. 23:6–13; 28:6; Ezra 2:63).