Exodus 28:15-30

THE BREASTPLATE

"And thou shalt make a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skillfull workman; like the work of the ephod thou shalt make it of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, shalt thou make it. Four-square it shall be and double; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, four rows of stone a row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row; and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amythest; and the fourth row a beryl, and onyx, and a jasper; they shall be enclosed in gold in their settings. And the stones shall be according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, every one according to his name, they shall be for the twelve tribes. And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains like cords, of wreathen work of pure gold. And thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. And thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod in the forepart thereof And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate, upon the edge thereof which is toward the side of the ephod inward. And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod underneath, in the forepart thereof, close by the coupling thereof, above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before Jehovah continually. And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummin; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before Jehovah: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before Jehovah continually."

There is a great deal of repetition here with a view to making it virtually impossible for the workmen to miss any important part of the design. It is clear that the breastplate was to form an integral part of the ephod.

"The breastplate of judgment ..." is mentioned three times and was apparently given this name because of the presence, in the "pouch" of the breastplate, of the Urim and Thummin, by which God's judgments in certain matters were given to the children of Israel.

"Breastplate ..." The current meaning of this word is "a piece of armor fitted over the breast." "The meaning of the Hebrew word here rendered breastplate appears to be simply an ornament. The term breastplate relates merely to its place in the dress."[16]

The twelve precious stones mentioned here are, in a number of instances at least, exactly the same as those in John's vision of the Celestial City, where they were indicated as being the "twelve foundations" of it. Due to the uncertainty with reference to some of the designations, Robert Jamieson affirmed that, "The precious stones enumerated here are the same as the apocalyptic seer has represented as being the foundations of the Celestial City."[17] It is also of great interest that the Twelve Sons of Israel were engraved upon the stones here, and that the names of the Twelve Apostles of Christ are engraved upon the foundations of the Eternal City. The typical nature of the First Israel as it relates to the New Israel is inherent in such a fact as this, and a hundred others witnessing the same thing.

See my comments at Revelation 21:20 regarding the use of these stones in connection with the signs of the Zodiac.

"The Urim and Thummin ..." We do not know what these were. They appear to have been two objects already widely known, and apparently having been used to determine in some manner God's will regarding certain questions that could have been answered by some system of inquiry suggesting, to some at least, the casting of lots, or dice. It is thought that only that type of question capable of being answered "Yes" or "No." could have been resolved by their use. Fields gives this example of a Scriptural account of their use:

The function of the Urim and Thummin is illustrated by Numbers 27:21, where Joshua was instructed to inquire (seek God for unrevealed information) before the priest Eleazar through the Urim and Thummin. (This does not indicate that the Urim and Thummin had magical power in themselves, but only that God used these items as a vehicle of his truth).[18]

"It is impossible to know what the Urim and Thummin looked like, but there is little doubt that they were used as sacred lots to determine the divine will in some way."[19] Esses' opinion that, "They were eight-sided (octahedral) stones in which semi-precious stones were set,"[20] is evidently a Jewish tradition, but without proof. "They could apparently give only yes or no answers."[21] Honeycutt based his conclusion upon 1 Samuel 14:38ff. Their use in Israel declined, and there is no instance of their use after the times of David.[22] Even the meaning of these two enigmatic words is lost. The Septuagint (LXX) rendered them as the equivalent of "Manifestation and Truth"; the Vulgate translates it as the equivalent of "Doctrine and Truth"; and "Lights and Perfections" is another learned guess. However, "The truth seems to be that no theory on the subject can be more than a theory, quite arbitrary and conjectural. Neither Scripture nor tradition furnishes any hint on the matter."[23]

Despite the near unanimous opinion of scholars that the Urim and Thummin were actually objects of some kind, the following quotation from John Newton in the 18th century must be viewed as having some merit:

"They were something in Aaron's breastplate, but what, critics and commentators are by no means agreed. It is most probable that they were only names given to signify the clearness and certainty of Divine answers which were obtained by the High Priest consulting God with his breastplate on, in contradistinction to the obscure, enigmatical, uncertain, and imperfect answers of the heathen oracles."[24]