Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 38:32
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
32. canst thou bring forth ] Rather, dost thou ? and similarly, dost thou guide? The meaning of Mazzaroth is uncertain. The word has been supposed to be another form of Mazzaloth, 2Ki 23:5, which is thought to mean the signs of the Zodiac. The connexion as well as the parallelism of the next clause suggests that some single star or constellation is meant. Others would render the bright stars; the planets, perhaps, or some of them being referred to.
Arcturus with his sons ] Or, the bear with her young. The reference is supposed to be to the constellation of the Great Bear. Her “young” are the stars that project from the square; or, taking the popular conception of the constellation as a “plough,” they are the bright stars that form the “beam.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? – Margin, the twelve signs; that is, the twelve signs of the zodiac. There has been much diversity of opinion about the meaning of this word. It occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, and of course it is not easy to determine its signification. The Septuagint retains the word maxsuroth, without attempting to translate it. Jerome renders it, Luciferum – Lucifer, the morning-star. The Chaldee, – the constellations of the planets. Coverdale, the morning-star; and so Luther renders it. Rosenmuller, signa celestia – the celestial signs, and so Herder, Umbreit, Gesenius, and Noyes, the zodiac. Gesenius regards the word mazzarah, as the same as mazzalah, properly lodgings, inns; and hence, the lodgings of the sun, or the places or houses in which he appears in the heavens, and thus as meaning the signs in the zodiac. Most of the Hebrew interpreters adopt this view, but it rests on no certain foundation, and as we are not certain as to the meaning of the word, the only safe way is to retain the original, as is done in our common version. I do not see how it is possible to determine its meaning with certainty, and probably it is to be regarded as a name given to some constellation or cluster of stars supposed to exert an influence over the seasons, or connected with some change in the seasons, which we cannot now accurately understand.
Or canst thou guide Arcturus? – On the constellation Arcturus ( ayish), see the notes at Job 9:9. The word rendered guide in the text, is in the margin guide them. The Hebrew is, and ayish upon (or near – al) her sons, canst thou lead them? Herder and Umbreit render it, And lead forth the Bear with her young, or her children. The reference is to the constellation Arcturus, or Ursa Major, in the northern sky. The sons referred to are the stars that accompany it, probably the stars that are now called the tail of the bear. Umbreit. Another interpretation is suggested by Herder, which is that this constellation is represented as a nightly wanderer – a mother, who is seeking her lost children, the stars that are no longer visible, and that thus revolves around the heavens. But the probable reference is to the constellation conducted round and round the pole as by some unseen hand, like a mother with her children, and the question is, whether Job had skill and power to do this? God appeals to it as a manifestation of his majesty and power, and as far above the skill of man. Who ever looked upon that beautiful constellation and marked its regular revolutions, without feeling that its position and movements were such as God only could produce?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 38:32
Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
The fourth canst
To perceive what we can do, on the one hand, and what we cannot do, on the other, is to hold the key of success. Canst thou? The oft-repeated question is introspective. Inward to the thoughts, backward to the source. It is well to add that the word canst runs through the whole of this penultimate section of the Book of Job. The word is not absent from the earlier chapters; but as you approach the end, this and kindred queries, such as Knowest thou? Hast thou? etc., appear with ever-increasing frequency. To put it somewhat plainer, it is God revealing job to himself–both in what he can and cannot be or do, and then leading him to find rest and refuge in another, grander fact: I know that Thou canst do everything (Job 42:2). Our Bible abounds in pronouns: the thou of this verse is a sample. Oh! star-crowded sky, full of messages, full of God! thou art speaking to me, and thy words go right down into my heart. From every corner of that celestial map Gods heralds proclaim His Word. High up in the northern heavens the Seven Stars, brightest of which shineth Alcyone, speaking for north and eastern sky, and regarded as the centre of the solar system, saith to man: Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades? Then, from the southern quarter, that large constellation, belted by three fixed stars, repeats Gods own question: Canst thou . . . loose the bands of Orion? The third canst is from the Zodiac, such it is believed we find in the Mazzaroth of the former clause of the text. Thus do we lead up to, and the better understand, the connection of the last of these cansts. Arcturus is a constellation familiar to us alike under the name of the Plough, or Charless Wain. Job makes reference to this along with the other groups in the ninth chapter. There he speaks of God as the Maker of these various luminaries, now that God is giving him further instruction on the very same matter. We may well ask the meaning of the words Arcturus with his sons. Mythology gives the answer. Arcturus is named from Arcas. Arcas had three sons. The constellation known as the Great Bear, and styled the glory of the northern hemisphere, has a star in the tail part called Arcturus, its very name meaning Bear Tail. It rises in the autumn, and is the precursor of tempest. The sons of Arcturus are placed in the group as three stars, somewhat similarly to Orions belt. Are you able to guide? That is what this fourth canst inquires. In doing so it reminds us of the regulative influences of life.
I. The regulative influences of life affecting a deep-seated human desire. This last canst appeals to us even more forcibly than each or all of the other three. In some particulars it includes them, for to guide is more or less to bind and loose, check and restrain, while leading out and urging on. But even when we have no great desire to restrain influences that are operative, or to loose those that are imprisoned, and bring them into play–we have the wish to guide, arrange, and direct those already and at present in action. In its own domain such desire is quite legitimate. Its absence, indeed, would be a surprise and disappointment. Have you the guiding power? I am sure you want to say yes. I am sure you have the hope that, aided by Divine wisdom and supported by Divine grace, you can make your way through life, well and wisely. Lovers of change are ever idly busy, seeking to rearrange the plans of others, and have their fingers in and over all that they can. Here they have no scope. Arcturus and his three sons have found place, and use, and movement in the seven lights of the Plough; guided by a Higher than thou, they can guide thee, but thou canst not guide nor interfere with them. Thou canst not guide Arcturus, but, high privilege! thou canst guide thyself, if, in the first instance, you submit to the over-guidance, overruling of God. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps (Jer 10:23). The Lord of Arcturus is the Lord of His people, the Guide of His servants as well as the guide of His stars. God helps us that we may help ourselves, and that we may help others. He awakens in us those powers and faculties, crushed and stifled by sin. How then, through Him, in what way shall we guide ourselves? Training ourselves, and our powers. It is ruling our spirit, bridling our tongue, mortifying our desires (evil), etc. All these culminate in the one thought of self-control. Canst thou then guide thyself, and, in guiding, so strengthen and enrich that better selfhood that it may become a lodestar of influence? Guide myself, but not by narrow aims that end in self. Canst thou guide Arcturus and his sons? No. The world is all the better that you cant. Canst thou help some poor family of earths sons to gain a footing or earn a living? Yes. The world is all the worse if you dont. But if you do, if you help a brother up any rugged steep of trial or duty, or steer him onward through the cross currents of temptation, then not only do you benefit others, but you also fairly and fully gratify that altruistic longing, so inwrought as to be a part of our human nature and heritage.
II. The regulative influences of life viewed in their operation. We have noticed the fact that the stars we cannot guide are nevertheless guided–always, swiftly and surely, silently and well. Each fills its place or goes on its way. It requires great skill and accurate system in order to manage our railways. What far greater skill and more perfect system are required to guide the constellations–to protect from and to avert all the terrible collision and combustion that would otherwise occur! The fact is one, call it Providence, or let it be known as the gigantic machinery of life, or if you will–the age-long balancings, or pause over this phrase–the Eternal Thought. The ever-living, vigorous thought. Thought that thinks into effort, plans, purposes, leads and arranges, makes and moulds the universe, counts and carries the stars, creates and continues the life of man, rules and regulates by guiding, governing, and directing to its final goal–all that is, and all that is to be.
III. The regulative influences of life glorifying God in redeeming man. They are Christocentric–God incarnate. That is the first of a series of clearer explanations: their first translation into the mother tongue of human understanding and heart need. All that was anterior, and there was much, received its value from this nascent light; whether ornate ritual or inspired oracle, sacred bard or mystic seer. To economise, and at the same time best utilise our words, let us say that Blessed Life was the great antidote and corrective of all sin and selfishness, of all folly and meanness, all distortion and dishonour; while it furthered and fostered, guided, regulated, developed all that was worth being, because it had originally come from the Father. The Cross is in the sky, illumined and illumining. Illumined by the clear, silver starlight of the Eternal Providence, of that Providence its most comprehensive range, its farthest sweep, its largest provision. Of Gods mind the highest and deepest conception; of Gods thought the most sublime idea–this is the fight on the Cross. There is also the light from the Cross. It is the guide of the wandering. Our present purpose forbids the further tracing out in the Resurrection and post-Resurrection work of the Redeemer the almighty and regulative influences, the more advanced stages, through which the earth rolls onward into this ever-increasing light. Putting it all together, this is the conclusion of the matter. It is a great work to guide Arcturus, to support as well as to suspend Charless Wain, to regulate and maintain the sidereal system, to bind, or loose, or bring forth one, or any, of the heavenly bodies; but God has performed a greater work. Gods great work is this, to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luk 1:79). (H. B. Aldridge.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 32. Mazzaroth in his season?] This is generally understood to mean the signs of the zodiac. Mazzaroth, according to Parkhurst, comes from mazar, to corrupt; and he supposes it to mean that pestilential wind in Arabia, called simoom, the season of which is the summer heats.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Canst thou bring forth to wit, into view? canst thou make him to arise and appear in thy hemisphere?
Mazzaroth; by which he designs either,
1. All the constellations, and especially the twelve sign of the zodiac; or rather
2. Some particular constellation, as all the rest here mentioned are understood. But whether this be that which is called the chambers of the south, Job 9:9, or the Dog Star, or some other visible in Jobs country, but not in ours we may be safely and contentedly ignorant, seeing even the Hebrew doctors are not agreed therein.
Arcturus; a northern constellation, of which See Poole “Job 9:9“.
With his sons, to wit, the lesser stars which belong to it, and are placed round about it, and attend upon it, as children upon their parents.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. Canst thou bring forthfrom their places or houses (Mazzaloth, 2Ki23:5, Margin; to which Mazzaroth here isequivalent) into the sky the signs of the Zodiac at their respectiveseasonsthe twelve lodgings in which the sun successively stays, orappears, in the sky?
ArcturusUrsa Major.
his sons?the threestars in his tail. Canst thou make them appear in the sky? (Job9:9). The great and less Bear are called by the Arabs “Daughtersof the Bier,” the quadrangle being the bier, the three othersthe mourners.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?…. Which are thought to be the same with “the chambers of the south”, Job 9:9; the southern pole m with its stars, signified by chambers, because hidden from our sight in this part of the globe; and here by Mazzaroth, from, “nazar”, to separate, because separated and at a distance from us; some think n the twelve signs of the Zodiac are meant, each of which are brought forth in their season, not by men, but by the Lord; see
Isa 40:26;
or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? a constellation of many stars called its sons, of which see Job 9:9. Schmidt conjectures that Jupiter and his satellites are meant; but rather what we call the greater and lesser Bear, in the tail of which is the north pole star, the guide of mariners, said o to be found out by Thales, by which the Phoenicians sailed, but is not to be guided by men; this, constellation is fancied to be in the form of a wain or wagon, and is called Charles’s wain; could this be admitted, there might be thought to be an allusion to it p, and the sense be, canst thou guide and lead this constellation, as a wagon or team of horses can be guided and led? stars have their courses, Jud 5:20; but are not steered, guided, and directed by men, but by the Lord himself.
m David de Pomis, Lexic. fol. 77. 3. n Vatablus, Codurcus, Schultens; so Suidas in voce . o Callimachus apud Laert. Vit. Thalet. p. 16. p Vid. Hinckelman. Praefat. ad Alkoran. p. 29, 30.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(32) Mazzaroth is commonly understood to mean the signs of the Zodiac, and by the children of Arc-turus the three stars in the tail of Ursa Major.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. Mazzaroth Even at the time of the translation made by the Seventy, the meaning of this word was uncertain. It is now generally supposed to be the same as Mazzaloth, (“the planets,” 2Ki 23:5,) or a mere variant form, and to stand for the (twelve) signs of the zodiac. The supposition that Mazzaloth and Mazzaroth are one word may be argued from the like termination, which is both plural and feminine, and from the interchangeableness of the liquids l and r in most languages; for instance, the Latin Parilia for Palilia, “the festival of Pales;” the Hebrew Tsahar and Tsahal, “to shine;” the Arabic Kalban and the Hebrew Kereb, “heart.” The division of the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun) into twelve equal signs or constellations, called signs of the zodiac, is generally understood to be of great antiquity. The porticoes of the temples at Denderah and Esne bear representations of the zodiac which so markedly resemble the zodiacal figures of the ancient Hindus, Persians, Chinese, and Japanese, as to indicate that they had one common origin. The Greeks, however, evidently derived their ideas and arrangements of the zodiac from the Chaldees.
Other commentators, for instance Zockler (in Lange) and Dillmann, are led by a supposed etymology of the word (Mazzaroth) to fix upon some pre-eminently bright stars (for example, the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars) which were conspicuous for their change of place in the sky. Canon Cook ( Speaker’s Com.) points to a very ancient word Masarati, probably derived from a similar hieroglyphic word, signifying the course or march of the Sun-god indicating “the milky way,” which was thought by the ancients to have “represented the course of the sun at a remote period the traces, so to speak, of his footsteps.” (See Rawlinson’s Ancient Mon., 2:574, sec. ed.: Layard’s Nineveh, 2:440; Greswell’s Fasti, 3:252-326; Maurice’s Hindostan, 1:272-359.)
Arcturus See note on Job 9:9. The pregnant question, Canst thou guide? may possibly contain an occult allusion, which none but Jehovah could make, to the diverging movement of these stars, according to which the nearest of “the Pointers” is swiftly approaching our earth, while the other is rapidly receding, in which motion the other five participate a supposed discovery that science has recently made. Proctor, Expanse, etc.. p. 295.
With his sons The three bright stars that form the tail of the Bear, which in some languages are fancifully deemed to be children following “the bier,” for such was the name the Arabs gave to the four leading stars of this constellation, which constitute a square. “The expression,” ( ‘hayish or ‘hash,) says Ideler, in his treatise on the names of the stars, “denotes particularly the bier on which the dead are borne, and, taken in this sense, each of the two biers (in the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) is accompanied by three mourning women. The biers and the mourning women together are called Benat-n’ash, literally, daughters of the bier, that is, those who pertain to the bier.” Hitzig devotes a learned but exceedingly unsatisfactory note to his view that Mazzaroth is the morning star, and ‘hayish, Arcturus, is the evening star, thus adopting the rendering of the Septuagint, for .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 38:32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Ver. 32. Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth? ] Or, the twelve signs; or the southern stars that bring in summer. Lucifer, some render it; others, the Hyades, and others again every one of the stars or signs. It is like it was some one star very well known in those days, as were likewise the rest here mentioned, and put for the four seasons of the year.
Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mazzarotli = the twelve signs of the Zodiac marking the path of the sun in the heavens. App-12. Arcturus. Hebrew. ‘ayishthe greater sheepfold: known to day as “the great bear”. See App-12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mazzaroth: or, the twelve signs, Probably the same as mazzaloth. 2Ki 23:5
guide Arcturus: Heb. guide them, Job 9:9
Reciprocal: Gen 1:14 – and let Amo 5:8 – maketh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 38:32-33. Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth? Namely, into view? Canst thou make the stars in the southern signs arise and appear? Or canst thou guide Arcturus? A northern constellation; with his sons? The lesser stars which belong to it, which are placed round about it, and attend upon it as children upon their parents. Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? The laws which are firmly established concerning their order, motion or rest, and their powerful influences upon this lower world. Didst thou give these laws? Or dost thou perfectly know them? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou manage and overrule their influences, that they shall bring such seasons and such weather as thou wouldest have?
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
38:32 Canst thou bring forth {s} Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide {t} Arcturus with his sons?
(s) Certain stars so called, some think they were the twelve signs.
(t) The north star with those that are about him.