''Mazzaroth'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: מַזָּר֣וֹת, ''mazzārōṯ'', LXX Μαζουρωθ, ''Mazourōth'') is a

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite languages, Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Isra ...

word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...

found in the

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

() whose precise meaning is uncertain. Its context is that of

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

constellations A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellations were likely defin ...

, and some judge it to mean a specific constellation, while it is often interpreted as a term for the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

or the constellations thereof.Jewish Encyclopedia: Constellations
, accessed 2010-02-13. Norman C. Habel, ''The Book of Job: A Commentary'', Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, p. 523,

Franz Delitzsch Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of J ...

, ''Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job'', Volume 2, T. & T. Clark, 1866, p. 324. The similar word '' mazalot'' (מַּזָּלוֹת) in may be related. According to 10th-century biblical exegete

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

, it literally means "constellations," while others interpret the word as naming various concrete astronomic bodies -

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

, the seven planets, the

Hyades Hyades may refer to: *Hyades (band) *Hyades (mythology) *Hyades (star cluster), an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus {{Disambiguation it:Iadi ...

, the Northern and Southern Crowns, the Southern Ship (

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of Ptolemy's 48 constellations, now a grouping of three IAU constellations. It is formerly a single large constellation in the southern sky. The genitive is "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". ...

?) or

Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word (Latin script: ), meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbr ...

. The word itself is a ''

hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an Fixed expression, expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written re ...

'' (i.e., a word appearing only once in a text) of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

, the term ''mazalot'' came to be used in the sense of "astrology" in general, surviving in the expression "

mazel tov "Mazel tov" () or "mazal tov" (; literal translation, lit. "good fortune") is a Jews, Jewish phrase used to express congratulations for a happy and significant occasion or event. Etymology and pronunciation The word ''mazel'' comes from t ...

," meaning "good fortune."

Biblical context

The appearance of the word in the

appears in the context of various astronomical phenomena: :"Canst thou bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? Or canst thou guide the Bear with her sons?" (

JPS 1917 The Jewish Publication Society of America Version (JPS) of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) was the first Bible translation published by the Jewish Publication Society of America and the first translation of the Tanakh into English by a committee ...

) The related word ''mazalot'' (מַּזָּלוֹת) in

2 Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Israel also including ...

may have a different meaning, and is often translated differently, with the linkage of this word to the

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

s or the

being more widely held (in

Kabbalistic astrology Astrology has been a topic of debate among Jews for over 2000 years. While not a Jewish practice or teaching as such, astrology made its way into Jewish thought, as can be seen in the many references to it in the Talmud. Astrological statements be ...

, ''mazalot'' was also used for astrology in general, and the word may be related to the Assyrian ''manzaltu'', "station"): :And the king stood on the platform, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people stood to the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to offer in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that offered unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. The

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, however, uses the transliteration ''mazzaroth'' (μαζουρωθ) again at this point.

Translation

The word is traditionally (following LXX) left untranslated (ABC, ACV, AKJ, ASV, BBE, BIB, ESV, GNV, HNV, JPS, K21, KJG, KJR, KJV, NAB, NKJ, NRS, NWT, RSV, RWB, TMB, TNK, UPD, WEB, YLT, LXE, ZIK), but some

modern English Bible translations Modern English Bible translations consists of English Bible translations developed and published throughout the late modern period () to the present (). A multitude of recent attempts have been made to translate the Bible into English. Most mo ...

render it as "zodiac" (AMP, CJB, EMP, LEE); others have "constellations" (CJB, CSB, DBY, NET, ERV, GWN, LEE, LIT, MKJ, NAS, NAU, NIB, NIV, TNV, WEV) or "stars" (CEV, NCB, NIR, NLV, TEV). But as the

Latin Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, of his own initia ...

renders the word as "luciferum", there are alternative English translations as ''"morning star"'' (CVB, TRC, furthermore Luther's 1545 German translation as ''Morgenstern'' also means ''"morning star"''; (DRA); ''"Venus"'' (MSG); ''"Crown season"'' (NJB); ''"sequence of seasons"'' (NLT); ''"Lucifer, 'that is, dai sterre (day star)"'' (

Wycliffe's Bible Wycliffe's Bible (also known as the Middle English Bible ''MEB Wycliffite Bibles, or Wycliffian Bibles) is a sequence of orthodox Middle English Bible translations from the Latin Vulgate which appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to ...

). WES gives "stars in the southern signs". Translators' Notes given in individual translations are: *Geneva: ''Certain stars so called, some think they were the twelve signs.'' *KJV/KGB: ' *NAS/NAU: ''perh. "a constellation"'' *NET: ''The word מַּזָּלֹות; (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kings 23:5), and by others as connected to the word for "crown," and so "corona."'' *NIB/NIV: ' The Targum renders the translation as "guards of the mazalot".

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

clarifies mazzarot as "all the gates of the mazalot".

In Gnosticism

Lofts (2010) connects ''Mazareus'' (part of the name of the Sethian figure Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus) with Mazzaroth.

References

{{Reflist Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible History of astrology Book of Job Jewish astrology

Biblical context

Translation

In Gnosticism

See also

References