Mazzaroth


Mazzaroth is a Biblical Hebrew word found in the Book of Job whose precise meaning is uncertain. Its context is that of astronomical constellations, and some judge it to mean a specific constellation, while it is often interpreted as a term for the zodiac or the constellations thereof. The similar word mazalot in may be related.
According to 10th-century biblical exegete Saadia Gaon, it literally means "constellations," while others interpret the word as naming various concrete astronomic bodies - Saturn, the seven planets, the Hyades, the Northern and Southern Crowns, the Southern Ship or Sirius.
The word itself is a hapax legomenon of the Hebrew Bible. In Yiddish, the term mazalot came to be used in the sense of "astrology" in general, surviving in the expression "mazel tov," meaning "good fortune."

Biblical context

The appearance of the word in the Job 38:31-2 appears in the context of various astronomical phenomena: "31 Can you tie cords to Pleiades / Or undo the reins of Orion? 32 Can you lead out Mazzaroth in its season, / Conduct the Bear with her sons?"
The related word mazzālot :
The Septuagint, however, uses the transliteration mazouroth in this same passage : "5 καὶ κατέκαυσε τοὺς χωμαρίμ, οὓς ἔδωκαν βασιλεῖς ᾿Ιούδα καὶ ἐθυμίων ἐν τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς καὶ ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν ᾿Ιούδα καὶ τοῖς περικύκλῳ ῾Ιερουσαλήμ, καὶ τοὺς θυμιῶντας τῷ Βάαλ καὶ τῷ ἡλίῳ καὶ τῇ σελήνῃ καὶ τοῖς μαζουρὼθ καὶ πάσῃ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ οὐρανοῦ."

Translation

The word is traditionally left untranslated, but some modern English Bible translations render it as "zodiac" ;
others have "constellations" or "stars".
But as the Latin Vulgate renders the word as "luciferum", there are alternative English translations as "morning star" ; "Venus" ; "Crown season" ; "sequence of seasons" ; "Lucifer, 'that is, dai sterre ".
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; is taken by some to refer to the constellations, 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 clarifies mazzarot as "all the gates of the mazalot".

In Gnosticism

Lofts connects Mazareus with Mazzaroth.