The divine presence rested on him, and he spoke by the holy spirit, that is, he delivered his answers with the assistance of the holy inspiration. According to this opinion, it was but one degree below the spirit of prophecy. All the learned and eminent men among the Jews say, that the manner of asking counsel, and receiving the answer thereto, was as follows. The person who inquired did not make the request in an audible tone; but in such a way as one who is at his devotion pronounces the words, sufficiently loud to be heard by none but himself. The question being made, the priest looked into the breast-plate, and on perceiving some letters on the stone of the same glistening, he, by combining them together, obtained the answer. We shall best exemplify the foregoing by the following passage from the book of Judges. "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.