9:9 he makes the Bear, 1 Orion, 2 and the Pleiades, 3
and the constellations of the southern sky; 4
5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;
he can turn the darkness into morning
and daylight 5 into night.
He summons the water of the seas
and pours it out on the earth’s surface.
The Lord is his name!
1 sn The Hebrew has עָשׁ (’ash), although in 38:32 it is עַיִשׁ (’ayish). This has been suggested to be Aldebaran, a star in the constellation Taurus, but there have been many other suggestions put forward by the commentaries.
2 sn There is more certainty for the understanding of this word as Orion, even though there is some overlap of the usage of the words in the Bible. In classical literature we have the same stereotypical reference to these three (see E. Dhorme, Job, 131).
3 sn The identification of this as the Pleiades is accepted by most (the Vulgate has “Hyades”). In classical Greek mythology, the seven Pleiades were seven sisters of the Hyades who were pursued by Orion until they were changed into stars by Zeus. The Greek myth is probably derived from an older Semitic myth.
4 tn Heb “and the chambers of the south.”
5 tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”