Peake, Arthur S. (Arthur Samuel); Grieve, Alexander James (1920). A commentary on the Bible. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. London, England: T. C. & E. C. Jack. p. 191.
1 Samuel 28:3–6 mentions three methods of divine communication – dreams, prophets, and the Urim and Thummim; the first two of these are also mentioned copiously in Assyrian and Babylonian literature, and such literature also mentions a Tablet of Destinies, which is similar in some ways to the Urim and Thummim. The Tablet of Destinies had to rest on the breast of deities mediating between the other gods and mankind in order to function, while the Urim and Thummim had to rest within the breastplate of the priest mediating between God and mankind. Marduk was said to have put his seal on the Tablets of Destiny, while the Israelite breastplate had a jewelled stone upon it for each of the Israelite tribes, which may derive from the same principle.[4] Like the Urim and Thummim, the Tablet of Destinies came into use when the fate of king and nation was concerned. According to some archaeologists, the Israelites emerged as a subculture from within Canaanite society, not as an invading force from outside, and therefore it would be natural for them to have used similar religious practices to other Semitic nations;[5] such scholars suspect that the concept of Urim and Thummim was originally derived from the Tablet of Destinies.[4][2]