Pleiades and Orion: two ancient Hebrew words - Creation

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Pleiades and Orion: two ancient 

Hebrew words 

Roarie Starbuck 

Two ancient Hebrew words, kesil and kimah, have been translated as Orion and Pleiades respectively. 

Unfortunately there are no labelled depictions of the kesil and kimah constellations found dating from ancient 

times. There are translations of these words into other languages, but these translations are not consistent in 

their treatment and do not date much beyond the times of Jesus. Historical reasons for why Orion and Pleiades 

have been chosen are given in this article. 

John Hartnett’s article on Pleiades and Orion1 brilliantly 

illustrated the dangers of poor exegesis. However it is 

also necessary to be certain of accuracy in translation from 

the biblical languages to English. Normally this accuracy 

can be very confidently accepted. On occasions the exact 

meaning of an ancient word has a translation given to it 

that has an interesting history. 

The following information may be of interest to those 

who wish to know how confidently the constellations 

cited in the relevant ancient Hebrew Scriptures can be 

considered as actually referring to Pleiades and Orion. I am 

not attempting to prove or disprove the correctness of the 

references to Orion and Pleiades, but provide information 

as to why these particular identifications were made. As 

no Jewish depictions of Orion and Pleiades with their 

Hebrew names ascribed to them have been discovered from 

before the time of Jesus, then their identification relies on 

other factors. Since 1918 some mosaics of constellations, 

namely those of the zodiac, have been found in ancient 

synagogues, but these art works do not appear to include 

labelled depictions of Orion or Pleiades. 2 

In a remarkable ‘little book’ published in 1905, author 

G. Schiaparelli—who was then director of the Brera 

observatory in Milan—discusses such issues in reasonable 

detail. This present article is based largely on his work. 

Orion 

Schiaparelli notes that the Hebrew word kesil is 

named along with other constellations twice in Job (9:9 

and 38:31), and once in Amos (5:8). 3 The name generally 

means foolish and is used this way frequently in the Bible. 

Referring to ‘Can you loose the cords of Orion?’ (NIV) 

in Job 38:31, Schiaparelli draws the conclusion that the 

Jews at the time of Job somehow envisaged in the kesil 

constellation an image of a man chained for his folly. 

Schiaparelli considered that only Orion could be regarded 

as a suitable candidate for depicting a man in the stars. 

Support for this notion that kesil refers to a man that is 

bound is found in the Jewish Encyclopaedia: 

‘The Aramaic and Syriac names of Orion have 

been connected with the ancient Oriental tradition 

that Nimrod, who is called in the Bible a hero and 

mighty hunter [Genesis 10:8–10; 1 Chronicles 

1:10; Micah 5:5], was fettered by God for his 

obstinacy in building the tower of Babel, and was 

set in the sky (Winer, “B.R.” ii. 157). It is possible 

that the ancient Hebrews saw in this constellation 

the figure of a man who was naturally regarded as 

extraordinarily tall and strong … .’ 4 

Schiaparelli supported his view that Orion was 

the correct interpretation by appealing to the renderings 

found in the Septuagint (LXX) in Job 38:31, Isaiah 

13:10, and in the Latin Vulgate in Job 9:9 and Amos 5:8. 

Similarly the Peshitta 5 in Job 9:9 and 38:31 translates it 

gabarra—‘a strong man’—which is the Syriac name for 

Orion. Interestingly the Peshitta translated it in Amos 5:8 

as ‘iyutha, which Schiaparelli considers is an error as he 

later convincingly indicates that normally ‘iyutha refers 

to Hyades. 6 However the Jewish Encylcopaedia states 

that the Peshitta translates kesil in Amos 5:8 as gabarra. 3 

Also kesil is not translated consistently by the LXX, which 

calls it Hesper in Job 9:9, nor by the Vulgate which calls 

it Arcturus in Job 38:31. 

According to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, the Talmud 

also regards kesil as denoting Orion, stating: 

‘The Babylonian scribe and physician Samuel 

(d. 257), who was celebrated also as an astronomer, 

said: “If a comet should pass over Orion the world 

would perish” (Bab. Ber. 58b; Yer. Ber. 13c), and 

in the same passage of the Babylonian Talmud 

further declares that “if it were not for the heat of 

Orion, the world could not exist on account of the 

cold of the Pleiades, and if it were not for the cold 

of Pleiades, the world could not exist on account 

of the heat of Orion”.’ 3 

In the view of Schiaparelli there is only one 

brilliant constellation that fits the description of a man, 

namely that of Orion with its seven stars of first and second 

degrees of magnitude. Orion is its Greek name; the Arabs 

called it Al-gabbar, Egyptians Sahu, and old Indian myths 

Trisanku. 

JOURNAL OF CREATION 20(2) 2006

Pleiades 

Next Schiaparelli discusses kimah, which also is named 

along with other constellations twice in Job (9:9 and 38:31), 

and once in Amos (5:8). 7 The LXX apparently consistently 

refers to the singular of this as Pleiad. Aquila in Job 38:31 

does likewise in his Greek version. The Peshitta in all three 

instances does not translate it, but merely has it in the form 

kima. However the Vulgate translates kimah differently in 

each of its three occurrences, rendering it Hyades, Pleiades 

and Arcturus. 

The Peshitta is interesting in that all other Hebrew 

constellations are translated into their Syriac equivalents. 

The only possible reasons for the Peshitta to make an 

exception with kimah by not translating it are: 

1) they did not know what constellation it referred to, 

or; 

2) kima in Syriac was the same name as kimah in 

Hebrew. 

The latter is more likely as numerous Syriac 

quotations referring to kima clearly do represent Pleiades, 

according to a list of such references made by Payne 

Smith. 8 

Professor Stern of Göttingen (1864–5) 9 wrote on 

the naming of the constellations in the book of Job. 

Schiaparelli refers to this in his Appendix II (pp. 163–175) 

and notes the following: 

‘Rabbi Joshua [in the Talmud, Rosh 

Hashshanah, p. 11], in speaking of the Flood, 

says that the rain began on the seventeenth day of 

the month Iyar, on which Kimar is accustomed to 

rise in the morning, and the springs begin to dry 

up. In consequence of the perverse behaviour of 

men, God also changed the order of the universe: 

in place of its morning rising, He caused Kimah 

to set in the morning, and removed two stars from 

it: the springs swelled and the Flood took place. 

According to Rabbi Eliezer, these changes took 

place on the seventeenth day of the month 

Marheshvan, when Kimah is accustomed to set 

in the morning, and the springs increase. God 

reversed the order of the universe: Kimah rose on 

the morning of that day, and lost two stars. The 

springs continued to increase and the Flood took 

place.’ 10 

Apparently Professor Stern then applied these 

Jewish calendar dates to the Julian calendar and showed 

that they correspond to the morning rising and setting of 

Pleiades. He thus concluded that at the time of these two 

Rabbis, namely the beginning of the second century ad, 

kimah referred to Pleiades. The two stars taken from kimar 

were said by the Rabbis to have been given to ‘ayish, which 

then caused the rains to diminish. This is used to validate 

the interpretation of ‘ayish by these Rabbis as Hyades. It is 

important to note that the Talmudic account above is based 

on Stern’s interpretation after applying two corrections to 

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The Pleiades is a cluster of seven stars that the Greeks called the 

Seven Sisters. They are also part of Taurus the bull constellation, 

where they lie on the shoulder of the bull. 

the story to make it intelligible and coherent. The following 

is an English translation of this Talmudic account: 

‘R. Joshua and R Eliezer are herein consistent 

[with views expressed by them elsewhere], 

as it has been taught: “In the sixth hundredth 

year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 

seventeenth day of the month [Genesis 7:11]. R 

Joshua said: That day was the seventeenth day 

of Iyar, when the constellation of Pleiades sets at 

daybreak and the fountains begin to dry up, and 

because they [mankind] perverted their ways, the 

Holy One, blessed be He, changed for them the 

work of creation and made the constellation of 

Pleiades rise at daybreak and took two stars from 

the Pleiades and brought a flood on the world. 

R. Eliezer said: That day was the seventeenth of 

Marheshvan, a day on which the constellation of 

Pleiades rises at daybreak, and [the season] when 

the fountains begin to fill [12a], and because they 

perverted their ways, the Holy One, blessed be 

He, changed for them the work of creation, and 

caused the constellation of Pleiades to rise at 

daybreak and took away two stars [from it] and 

brought a flood on the world” … on R. Joshua’s 

view we see what change there was in the work 

of creation; but on R. Elieaer’s view what change 

was there? [Emphasis and insertions are found in 

the English version].’ 11 

The English translators also add a footnote at 

the end of this quote, which states at the bottom of that 

page: 

‘There seems to be some confusion in the 

text here. To make it astronomically correct we 

should read (with the Seder Olam) in the dictum 

JOURNAL OF CREATION 20(2) 2006 101 

Image by Robert Gendler

Photo by NASA-GSFC 

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[ie. statement] of R. Joshua, “When Pleiades rises 

at daybreak”, and in the dictum of R. Eliezer, “sets 

at daybreak” [emphasis is in the original].’ 

Surprisingly, Professor Stern was led to believe 

from other considerations that these Rabbis were actually 

in error, and that originally kimah referred to Sirius (the 

dog), ‘ayish as Pleiades, mazzaroth as Hyades’, but 

maintained kesil was indeed Orion. Schiaparelli disputed 

the aberrant conclusions in a quite convincing manner. 

Referring to ‘Can you bind the beautiful/chains of 

Pleiades?’ (NIV) in Job 38:31, Schiaparelli notes that the 

LXX, Aquila and the Vulgate render it this way from the 

Hebrew ma’anaddoth for chains, though the Masoretic 

(Hebrew) text has ma’adannoth which means delicate/ 

beautiful. Some more freely interpret this as ‘sweet 

influences’. The interpretation of ‘sweet influences’ 

once led the famous oceanographer Maury 12 to make a 

connection between this biblical text and the hypothesis of 

Johann von Maedler. In 1846 Maedler, from the Estonian 

Dorpat Observatory, considered the Pleiades as the centre 

of the galaxy, and that one of its stars, Alcyone, was the 

centre of the universe. 13 The ‘sweet influences’ were thus 

considered as the force that bound the galaxy in orbit 

around it. 

Orion is often found by locating the three belt stars. Hanging from 

Orion’s belt is the sword consisting of the Trapezium (pictured here 

with it’s five massive stars) within the Orion Nebula (M42). Orion’s 

left knee is represented by one of the brightest stars in the night sky, 

Rigel. Left and right shoulders are made of the stars Bellatrix and 

Betelgeuse, respectively. 

Translations 

To appreciate the importance of the various translations 

of the scriptures quoted above, the following brief details 

on their origins are given. The information is sourced from 

F. F. Bruce’s brilliant book The Books and the Parchments: 

Some chapters on the transmission of the Bible. 14 

• The Christians east of the Euphrates river, who were 

controlled largely by the Parthian empire at the time 

of Christ, needed translations of the Bible in their own 

language. This Syriac language is called Christian 

Aramaic, as it is written in a distinctive variation of 

the Aramaic alphabet. At first there were non-standard 

translations into Syriac, but later an official translation 

was instigated by Rabbulah, bishop of Edessa in ad 

411 to ad 435. He used the Byzantine Greek text. 

The Old Testament (OT) and New Testament (NT) 

parts combined are called the Peshitta. The Byzantine 

Greek text came from Constantinople (formerly called 

Byzantium) in the fourth century. 

• The Old Testament portion of the Latin Vulgate was 

translated by Jerome (his full name was Eusebius 

Sofronius Hieronymus) from about ad 386 to ad 405. 

Originally he used the LXX for his translation, but 

later regarded this as unsatisfactory. He then did the 

entire OT translation from the Hebrew Scriptures as 

apparently he regarded the LXX at that time as being 

too full of errors. 15 

• The Septuagint (LXX) was a translation of the Hebrew 

OT for Greek speaking Jews, probably begun in the 

third century bc in Alexandria. An official Jewish 

version of the first five books was probably written 

about a hundred years later, and quite possibly there 

were no official versions of the other books. 

• Aquila was a Jewish proselyte originally from the coast 

of the Black Sea, who lived in the first half of the first 

century ad. He translated the OT into Greek from a 

newly established Hebrew text. 

• The Masoretic (Hebrew) text referred to by Schiaparelli 

most likely referred to copies based on an 

edition printed in Hebrew by Jacob Ben Chayyim in 

1524–1525. This was based on Hebrew manuscripts 

not earlier than the 14th century. It was only from 

1937 that editions were printed based on more accurate 

manuscripts from the late tenth and early eleventh 

centuries. 

Conclusion 

Reasons for ascribing kesil and kimah to Orion and 

Pleiades have been outlined above. Some will no doubt 

consider that these reasons are quite adequate. It is my 

opinion that it is not possible to be adamant about the 

identifications, given that the ancient translations were not 

consistent in their translations for kesil and kimah, and that 

the translations were made hundreds of years after Job, 

Isaiah, and Amos were first written. 

JOURNAL OF CREATION 20(2) 2006

References 

1. Hartnett, J., Pleiades and Orion: bound, unbound, or … ? Journal of 

Creation 18(2):44–48, 2004. 

2. Ness, L., Astrology and Judaism in Late Antiquity, Doctoral Thesis, 

Miami University, 1990, , 23 February 

2006. 

3. Schiaparelli, G., Astronomy in the Old Testament, Clarendon Press, 

Oxford, p. 60, 1905. This is an authorized English translation with many 

corrections and additions by the author. The original book was first 

published in Italian in 1903. 

4. Orion, Jewish Encyclopaedia, Blau L. (Ed.), Wynnewood, PA, 2002, 

, 11 February 2006. Winer, “B.R.” ii. 157 

refers to: Winer, G.B., Biblisches Realwörterbuch, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1820, 

1833, 1847. 

5. Refer to the section on translations in this article. 

6. Schiaparelli, ref. 3, pp. 161–163. 

7. Schiaparelli, ref. 3, p. 62. 

8. Smith, R.P., Thesaurus Syriacus, Oxonii: e typographeo Clarendoniano, 

Oxford Press, Clarendon, p. 1723, 1879–1901. It can only be presumed 

that Schiaparelli was citing from this particular edition. 

9. Stern, M.A., die Sternbilder in Hiob xxxviii. 31–32; in: Gieger’s Judische 

Zeitschrift iii, pp. 258–276, 1864–1865. 

10. Schiaparelli, ref. 3, p. 164. 

11. Simon, M., Rosh Hashanah; in: Epstein I. (Ed.), The Babylonian Talmud: 

Seder Mo‘ed, English translation, Soncino Press, London, vol. IV, p. 

42–43, 1961. 

12. Maury, M.F., Maury Sailing Directions, Washington, vol. i, p. 17, 

1858. This citation by Schiaparelli most likely refers to: Maury, M.F., 

Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current 

Charts, W.A. Harris, Washington, D.C., 1858–1859. First published 

in 1851, the updated two-volume edition of 1858–1859 provided a 

greatly enlarged text. Refer to: , September 2004. Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine 

Maury was an incredible oceanographer, born on 14 January 1806 near 

Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1868 he moved to Lexington, Virginia, where 

he was appointed a professor of meteorology at the Virginia Military 

Institute. Refer to , September 

2004. 

13. , September 2004. 

14. Bruce, F.F., The Books and the Parchments: Some Chapters on the 

Transmission of the Bible, Pickering and Inglis, London, 1978. 

15. Bruce, ref. 14, p. 205. 

Roarie Starbuck has a B.Sc (Hons) in the biological sciences 

and a B.Phty (physiotherapy), both from the University 

of Queensland, Australia. He and his wife operate a 

busy physiotherapy practice. 

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2 0 0 8 I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O N F E R E N C E 

on 

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Call for Papers 

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Pleiades and Orion: two ancient Hebrew words - Creation

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