Job 9:9

9. Arcturus עשׁ , ‘ hash. Furst derives it from ‘ housh, to group together. Probably the constellation of the Great Bear, ( Ursa Major,) which the Jews of Bagdad and the Arabs of the Persian Gulf still call by the name of Ash. In the days of Homer it was called the wagon, or wain, from its fancied resemblance to a wagon with its three horses in line a notion still preserved in England in the name it bears of Charles’ wain, (wagon.) The Romans called its seven bright stars the septentriones the seven ploughing oxen an idea we still keep in our name, THE PLOUGH. Of these seven stars, constituting the plough, two ( α and β ) are known as the pointers, from their use in pointing out the pole star.

Orion כסיל , kesil; the strong one; (Furst;) the foolish, (Gesenius.) This cluster of stars was conceived to be a giant walking along the vault of heaven. The Arabs thus designate it. Other Orientals appear to have regarded the constellation as an impious giant fastened to the sky. According to the Persian mythology, this giant was Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, whose name they gave to this constellation. (See GESENIUS, Thesaurus, 2:701.) Some suppose these traditions look back to the revolt of the angels, and embody the supposed fate of their leader. “Orion stands far aloft, the pre-eminent glory and wonder of the starry universe. Judged by the only criterion applicable, it is perhaps so remote that its light does not reach us in less than fifty or sixty thousand years; and as, at the same time, it occupies so large an apparent portion of the heavens, how stupendous must be the extent of the nebula! It would seem almost that if all other clusters hitherto gaged were collected and compressed into one, they would not surpass this mighty group, in which every wisp, every winkle, is a SAND HEAP of stars.” NICHOL, Architecture of the Heavens, p. 147. Pleiades כימה , kimah, a little crowd, or group. (Furst.) The Arabs give this constellation a name signifying knot of stars, because of the number of closely united stars. In like manner the idea of close union appears in the various names this strikingly beautiful constellation bears among all eastern nations. The name ordinarily given to it of “the seven stars,” is recognized by Ovid, who says,

Quae septem dici, sex tamen esse solent.

Fasti, 4:1 70.

indicating, though they were called seven, there were but six. The Greek mythology hands us down touching legends over this supposed lost star. According to some, it had been smitten by lightning; according to others, the seventh hid herself from shame that she alone had married a mortal, while her sisters were the wives of different deities. The Persian poets compare the seven stars to a bouquet formed of jewels. Hafiz says, “The heavens bear up thy poems the pearly rosette of the Pleiades as the seal of immortality.” Beigel. Dr. Good thus renders a citation from Hafiz:

Now the bright Pleiades the concave gem,

As lucid pearls the garment’s glittering hem.

See Job 38:31. Chambers of the south That is, the veiled regions of the southern hemisphere. (Furst.) The constellations mentioned are chiefly to be seen in the northern hemisphere, and, therefore, the poet adds a reference to “stars which never come into our view, but which lie hid, as it were, in chambers and secret recesses.” Schultens.