* "The Hebrew words are generally considered to be plurales
excellentoe, denoting light (that is, revelation) and truth....
There are two principal opinions respecting the Urim and Thummim.
One is that these words simply denote the four rows of precious
stones in the breastplate of the high priest, and are so called
from their brilliancy and perfection; which stones, in answer to
an appeal to God in difficult cases, indicated His mind and will
by some supernatural appearance.... The other principal opinion
is that the Urim and Thummim were two small oracular images
similar to the Teraphim, personifying revelation and truth, which
were placed in the cavity or pouch formed by the folds of the
breastplate, and which uttered oracles by a voice.... We incline
to Mr. Mede's opinion that the Urim and Thummim were 'things well
known to the patriarchs' as divinely appointed means of inquiries
of the Lord, suited to an infantile state of religion.
"Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," Kitto and Alexander,
editors.


Joe says that while the plates were in his possession
"multitudes" tried to get them away from him, but that he
succeeded in keeping them until they were translated, and then
delivered them again to the messenger, who still retains them.
Mother Smith tells a graphic story of attempts to get the plates
away from her son, and says that when he first received them he
hid them until the next day in a rotten birch log, bringing them
home wrapped in his linen frock under his arm.* Later, she says,
he hid them in a hole dug in the hearth of their house, and again
in a pile of flax in a cooper shop; Willard Chase's daughter