Hebrew word · H5906
עַ֫יִשׁ
ve'ayish
Bear
Found only here (spelled ʿāš) and in Job 38:32 (spelled ʿayiš, 'Ayish with her children/sons'). It is clearly the name of a star or star-group, but which one is debated. The spelling ʿāš also happens to match the word for 'moth' (Job 4:19).
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
The constellation 1a) Great Bear, Ursa Major
1b) (TWOT) Arcturus
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
- Range of meaning
Found only here (spelled ʿāš) and in Job 38:32 (spelled ʿayiš, 'Ayish with her children/sons'). It is clearly the name of a star or star-group, but which one is debated. The spelling ʿāš also happens to match the word for 'moth' (Job 4:19). That is almost certainly a separate word with the same sound.
- Against the English
KJV: 'Arcturus'. BSB, NIV, ESV, NASB, NRSV, WEB: 'the Bear'. YLT simply transliterates it ('Osh'). 'The Bear' is a reasonable guess, not a certainty.
- How it drifted
KJV's 'Arcturus' came through the Latin Vulgate. In older Greek and Latin usage 'Arcturus' could refer loosely to the region of the Great Bear. In modern astronomy Arcturus is one bright star in Boötes, so the KJV word now points a reader to a different object.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Septuagint: here 'Arcturus' (Ἀρκτοῦρος); in 38:32 'Hesperus'. Vulgate: 'Arcturum' in both places. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 58b) identifies ʿAsh with 'Yuta' and explains it as either the tail of Aries or the head of Taurus. The head of Taurus is where Aldebaran and the Hyades cluster sit. The case for the Bear rests on the Arabic name for the Big Dipper stars, banāt naʿš, 'daughters of the bier'. On that reading the bier is the four-star bowl and the 'children' of Job 38:32 are the three stars of the handle.
Where it appears
Job · 2
-
Job 9:9 עָ֭שׁ [the] Bear
He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
Here: A named star-group whose identity is uncertain. Job 38:32 spells it ʿayiš and pictures it 'with her children'. Most modern versions take it as the Great Bear (the Big Dipper). Jewish tradition and the Syriac translation point instead to Aldebaran and the Hyades in Taurus.
-
Job 38:32 וְ֝עַ֗יִשׁ and [the] Bear
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.