Job 38:32 BSB — MannaFest

Job 38:32

Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train?

KJV

Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?

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Commentary

1 voice

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX (604)

Dost thou bring forth the morning star at its time, and dost thou make the evening star to rise over the sons of earth? For the Father brought forth the morning star in his season, because, as it is written; When the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son born of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that are under the Law.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible (1832)

Mazzaroth in his season? - This is generally understood to mean the signs of the zodiac. מזרות Mazzaroth, according to Parkhurst, comes from מזר mazar, to corrupt; and he supposes it to mean that pestilential wind in Arabia, called simoom, the season of which is the summer heats.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Arcturus--Ursa Major. his sons?--the three stars in his tail. Canst thou make them appear in the sky? The great and less Bear are called by the Arabs "Daughters of the Bier," the quadrangle being the bier, the three others the mourners.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

"What is the way (to the place wherein) light dwelleth?" The origin of light and darkness. In Ge 1:3-5, 14-18, "light" is created distinct from, and previous to, light-emitting bodies, the luminaries of heaven.

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

7 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
הֲתֹצִ֣יא	ha.to.Tzi'	¿ will you lead out	H3318 →
מַזָּר֣וֹת	ma.za.Rot	[the] constellations	H4216 →
בְּעִתּ֑וֹ	be.'i.To	at appropriate time its	H6256 →
וְ֝עַ֗יִשׁ	ve.'A.yish	and [the] Bear	H5906 →
עַל־	'al-	with	H5921 →
בָּנֶ֥יהָ	ba.Nei.ha	young ones its	H1121 →
תַנְחֵֽם׃	tan.Chem	will you guide? them	H5148 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Job 9:9
He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
leads to
- Amos 5:8
  He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD…
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Genesis 1:16
  God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.
- Job 38:31–41
  Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
- Psalms 147:4
  He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.
- Psalms 104:13
  He waters the mountains from His chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works.
Through
Job 38:31
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
leads to
- Job 9:9
  He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
Through
2 Kings 23:5
Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who…
leads to
- Jeremiah 44:17–19
  Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials…
- 2 Kings 21:3–4
  For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he raised up altars for Baal. He made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and he worshiped…

The gold bar shows how strongly the cross-reference sources tie the two verses together: a long bar means many compiled references make the connection, a short one means few.

Job 38:31Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?2 Kings 23:5Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.Job 9:9He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

Contested claims2

Held at full strength, with the debate attached

◈Mazzaroth — the hapax in Job 38:32contested · tier A

Mazzaroth (H4216) is a hapax legomenon: it occurs once in all of Scripture, at Job 38:32.

The critique, at full strength

A lexical fact with no critique attached, and a boundary the page must hold: מַזָּרוֹת (H4216) occurs exactly once, at Job 38:32, which means its sense is established by context and cognate evidence rather than by usage across the canon. A hapax legomenon cannot bear the weight of a decoded system. Whatever the word denotes - constellations, the signs of the zodiac, or a specific asterism - the single occurrence licenses no reading of what those constellations were said to mean (Strong's H4216).

Full registry →

◈The gospel-in-the-stars thesiscontested · tier D

God — or, on most tellings, the patriarchs, with Seth and Enoch usually named — originally named the twelve zodiac constellations and their thirty-six decans to encode the plan of redemption, running from Virgo the virgin-born seed through to Leo the conquering Lion of Judah, and this primeval revelation was later corrupted into pagan astrology. The argument appeals to Job 38:32 ("Mazzaroth"), Genesis 1:14 ("for signs") and Psalm 19, and rests its weight on the etymologies of the transmitted star names.

The critique, at full strength

Refuted from inside young-earth creationism, which is what makes the critique decisive rather than merely hostile. Danny R. Faulkner holds a doctorate in astronomy and writes for Answers in Genesis: "Is There a Gospel in the Stars?", Journal of Creation 12(2):169-172 (1998), and "A Further Examination of the Gospel in the Stars," Answers Research Journal 6:285-300 (2013) — the second written after Rolleston's long-out-of-print book was republished, so that he could audit the source directly. His findings: Rolleston's star-name etymologies, which carry the entire argument, are questionable at best and most likely simply wrong, since most transmitted star names are medieval Arabic descriptive terms ("the follower," "the tail") rather than primeval Hebrew sermons; Seiss and Bullinger largely embellished Rolleston without independent verification and contradict both the standard sources and each other; and there is no ancient testimony of any kind — Jewish, Christian or pagan — that the zodiac ever carried this meaning. The documented origin of the zodiac is Babylonian, from the MUL.APIN-era catalogues, with meanings unrelated to Rolleston's. Faulkner adds a theological objection: faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17), and the rulers of this age did not know the hidden wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:8), so redemption was not legibly pre-written in the constellations; the theory also lends cover to astrology, which Scripture condemns (Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Isaiah 47:13-14). His verdict is that however well-intentioned, the theory has serious problems and Christians should abandon it. What survives, and it is not small: the biblical star-texts themselves (Job 38:31-33, Psalm 19:1-6, Genesis 1:14) genuinely affirm that the heavens declare the glory of God. That is Tier A and preachable. The decoded zodiac is not.

Full registry →

An anchor verse
Strong's H4216
Mazzaroth (H4216) is a hapax legomenon; Job 38:32 is its lone occurrence and the page's title word.
Strong's H4216 (biblehub.com/hebrew/4216.htm); Job 38:32 ASV
Sky imagery framing the passage
Psalms 19:1
The two texts the Mazzaroth wheel hangs on; the gospel-in-the-stars reading stays an attributed 19th-c. tradition (Seiss, Bullinger; PD). No confidence badge. Presentation, not echo-claim.
Commons Uranometria plates (PD)
A guardrail on the reading
Deuteronomy 4:19
Israel is forbidden to worship the host of heaven that God 'allotted to all the peoples' - the counterweight to venerating the Mazzaroth.
Deut 4:19 (ASV)

Featured studies on this passage

On Job 38:32

Mazzaroth

Twelve constellation groupings; one biblical word (Job 38:32). Bullinger and Seiss read them as a gospel-arc; modern critics trace their figures to Albumazar, not Adam. The objections below are presented at full strength, and the founder's own slot on the page is his to fill.

Open the study →

On Job 38:32

The Question of Suffering — Job 1–42

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The Star of Bethlehem — Edward Burne-Jones

On Job 38:32

The Stars

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Walks through Job 38

Ezra's Questions God Answers

Open the study →

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Job: the study guide →Read chapter 38 →The featured study →

Continue: Job 38 →

01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

Held at full strength, with the debate attached

05Featured studies on this passage

06About Job

The record, by era

Held at full strength, with the debate attached

Where the connections lead

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

Featured studies on this passage

About Job