Hebrew word · H3598

כִּימָה

khimah

Pleiades

Two star groups, named together only here, in Job 9:9 and in Job 38:31. Kimah probably comes from a root meaning 'heap' or 'cluster' and is most often identified as the Pleiades. Kesil is identical to the common word for 'fool, dullard' and is identified as Orion.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Pleiades, a constellation of seven stars

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Amos 5:8

Range of meaning

Two star groups, named together only here, in Job 9:9 and in Job 38:31. Kimah probably comes from a root meaning 'heap' or 'cluster' and is most often identified as the Pleiades. Kesil is identical to the common word for 'fool, dullard' and is identified as Orion. Kesil in the plural (Isaiah 13:10, 'their kesilim') seems to mean 'constellations' in general.

Against the English

Most modern versions say 'Pleiades and Orion'. KJV has 'the seven stars and Orion' (the Pleiades were popularly 'the seven sisters'). YLT keeps 'Kimah and Kesil'. The Vulgate has 'Arcturus and Orion', showing that ancient translators were not sure which stars kimah meant.

How it drifted

No real drift. The identifications are reasonable but not certain, and English readers may miss that 'Orion' translates a word that also means 'fool'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 38:31: 'Can you bind the chains of Kimah or loosen the cords of Kesil?' This suggests a picture of a bound figure. Later Jewish and Arab tradition saw Orion as a chained giant (Arabic al-jabbār, 'the giant'). In Mesopotamia the Pleiades were MUL.MUL ('the stars') and Orion was 'the true shepherd of Anu'. Hesiod (Greece, about 700 BC, close to Amos's time) times the harvest by the rising of the Pleiades and ploughing by their setting, and times threshing and vintage by Orion.

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 9:9 וְכִימָ֗ה and Pleiades

    He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

  2. Job 38:31 כִּימָ֑ה Pleiades

    Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 5:8 כִימָ֜ה Pleiades

    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 is His name—

    Here: A star group, most likely the Pleiades, the tight 'cluster' visible to the naked eye. Its rising and setting marked the farming seasons in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.