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THE STONES
ON THE
HIGH PRIEST’S BREASTPLATE
THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL
AND
STAR-SIGNS
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KEY TO BREASTPLATE STONES
Hebrew
Greek Name
Stone Name and Greek Name (NT) and
Number
KJV
(OT)
KJV
Translation
Translation
1
2
3
4
Odem
Sardius
Pitdah
Topaz
Bareket
Carbuncle
Nophek
Sardios
Topazion
Smaragdos
Anthrax
Emerald
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Sappir
Sapphire
Yahalom
Diamond
Leshem
Ligure
Shevo
Agate
Achlamah
Amethyst
Tarshish
Beryl
Shoham
Onyx
Yashpheh
Jasper
Sardios
Sardius
Sardonyx
Sardonyx
Smaragdos
Emerald
Chalcedon
(Anthrax)
Chalcedony
Sappheiros
Iaspis
Ligourion
Achates
Amethystos
Chrysolithos
Beryllion
Onychion
Sappheiros
Sapphire
Iaspis
Jasper
Chrysoprasos
Chryoprasus
Hyakinthos
Jacinth
Amethystos
Amethyst
Chrysolithos
Chrysolyte
Beryllos
Beryl
Topazion
Topaz
Modern
Name
Zodiac
Sign
Birthstone
(footnotes)
Camp
Order
(footnotes)
Carnelian
Leo1
Reuben
Judah1
east
Sardonyx
Aries
Simeon
Issachar
east
Levi
Zebulun
east
Chrysoberyl Sagittarius
Green
Ruby
Taurus2
Judah
Reuben2
south
Lapis Lazuli
Virgo
Issachar
Simeon
south
Amethyst
Capricorn
Zebulun
Gad
south
Jacinth
Gemini
Dan
Ephraim3
west
Agate
Libra
Gad
Manasseh
west
Almandine
Aquarius3
Naphtali
Benjamin
west
Golden
Sapphire
Cancer
Asher
Dan4
north
Emerald
Scorpio4
Joseph
Asher
north
Panther
Stone
Pisces
Benjamin
Naphtali
north
Camp Leaders: 1) Judah east 2) Reuben south 3) Ephraim west 4) Dan north
Camp Leaders’ Flags: each camp’s 3 tribal stone colors plus 1) Leo east 2) Taurus south 3) Aquarius west 4) Scorpio north
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THE BIBLE BIRTHSTONES
See the Flash presentation of the Breastplate online at this link.
The identification of the ancient Hebrew stones of the Breastplate with modern gems has been achieved
by the following process:
1) The Hebrew names of the gems were translated into Greek by the writers of the Septuagint (referred
to as the “LXX” in this study) before the time of Christ. Other ancient writings, particularly the
Aramaic Targums, and post-Biblical Rabbinic literature, supply further evidence on the color and other
characteristics of the gems.
2) Greek names identical to those used in the Septuagint, for the most part, were used to denote the
Hebrew gems by Josephus, writing in the New Testament period, and he was in a position to see the
Breastplate stones himself, as they existed in the Second Temple period, and to verify their equivalence
with the Greek gemstones whose names he used.
3) Identical Greek names, for the most part, were used by John the Apostle in the Book of Revelation in
the New Testament period.
4) The Roman scholar Pliny wrote in the same period as Josephus and John, and he gave detailed
descriptions of these and other gems known to Greek and Roman writers of his era.
5) A thorough treatment of these ancient sources can be found in J. Braun (Braunius), Vestitus
Sacerdotum Hebraeorum, 1680. In the 19th century the British scholar C. W. King used the
descriptions of Pliny and other Classical writers to identify the ancient gems with their modern
equivalents, based mainly on their use in ornaments and artifacts which had been discovered by
archaeologists and antiquaries in the modern era, and preserved in museums, these being King’s
particular field of expertise. The reference “King” in the following notes is to King’s findings and
identifications in his two principal works, The Natural History of Precious Stones and of the Precious
Metals, London 1867, and The Natural History of Gems or Decorative Stones, London, 1867. Please
note, these identifications do not depend on King’s own conjectures regarding the Biblical Breastplate
stones, as he was only secondarily interested in those, and did no detailed research on the ancient
sources which allow them to be correctly identified. Rather, King’s extensive knowledge of the
Classical and medieval sources has been principally drawn on, in order to identify the stones under
their Classical and medieval names with modern gems. Then the stones under their Classical and
medieval names have been equated with the Hebrew gemstones by the process outlined above.
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Hebrew Name : Odem.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: Red-Earth-Colored or Flesh-Colored Stone. The letters of the Hebrew
name are the same from which is formed the name Adam, and Adam was so called because his flesh
was formed by God out of the red earth.
Targum Name: Samkan, Simmuktha, Samketha, Ahmar.
Meaning of Targum Name: Red Stone. From “smek” to be red, as of meat, or of someone under the
influence of wine, and “hamar”, to be red, be hot, to ferment, boil up.
Greek Names in Old Testament (LXX): Sardion. (Josephus: 1. Sardion [BJ 5. 234] 2. Sardonyx. [AJ 3.
168])
Greek Name in New Testament: Sardios.
Meaning of Greek Name: Fuller’s-Earth-Colored Stone. Latin “Sarda” Greek “Sardes” was a kind of
fuller’s earth found in Sardinia (probably identical to the Hebrew “Sered” which Kimhi translates “red
chalk”). Evidently the stone was the same ruddy color as this earth. (Josephus’ second name, Sardonyx,
represents just another type of Sard, see under Pitdah.)
Latin Vulgate Name: Sardius.
KJV Name: OT and NT: Sardius.
Modern Name: Carnelian. (Sardios = Carnelian — King.) Sard is a borrowing from the Latin and
Greek name, and Carnelian is a borrowing from another Latin name for the same gem, the “fleshcolored stone”, from the Latin carnis, “flesh”. A red variety of fibrous cryptocrystalline quartz, which
is called in modern terminology “chalcedony.” All the stones in the Breastplate are forms or
compounds of quartz or silica (SiO2). The name quartz comes from the Anglo-Saxon word querklufterz
which means “cross vein ore.” It represents the precious blood of Jesus the Messiah, by which His
Gemstones, — meaning, the Twelve Patriarchs, the sons of Israel and founders of the Twelve Tribes,
along with the Twelve Apostles, who Jesus promised were to reign, each one over a Tribe of Israel in
the Age To Come, — were redeemed on the Cross of Calvary. Carnelian, therefore, represents the
Incarnation, the taking on by the Messiah of the image of blood-red flesh in order to save Adam’s fallen
race. The New Testament describes Jesus as the Express Image of the Person of God. The word
“image” here denotes the likeness of a king or other prominent person as embossed on a seal-ring. The
blood-red carnelian was one of the most popular gemstones for such seal-rings in the age of the
Apostles.
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Hebrew Name : Pitdah.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: Prize. The Hebrew name comes from the root p-d (see on this root
Gesenius, Lexicon, s.v. Bdd), meaning to seize as of prey or a prize by an animal, to spoil, to rend, to
take, take back, redeem etc.
Targum Name: Yarkan, Yarketha, Akik.
Meaning of Targum Name: Tawny Colored Stone. The color indicated by the root meaning of the name
is something between pale, green, yellow, tawny, and waxy. It is used to describe the color of gold and
bronze (yellow, tawny) and also to describe the paleness of an afflicted face, and of wax, as well as the
greenness of herbs. Epiphanius says it was a layered stone, and the lower layer was “eruthros” (Greek)
beyond the ruby, the word eruthros denoting variously the color of nectar, wine, blood, copper, and
gold. The gem’s reddish element, therefore, tended to a more radiant, golden, or orange shade than the
deep red ruby. The same is implied by the Targumic name Akik, which is Arabic for a gem of a reddish
hue, obtained in the form of a pebble from a “stream” (akik, hence the name).
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Topazion. (Josephus: Topazos.) Greek Name in New Testament:
Sardonyx.
Meaning of Greek Names: 1) Topazion, Topaz, is supposed to be a borrowing from the Hebrew: the
Hebrew letters ptd (with the ending -h) becoming tpd, with p and t transposed, then tpz, d interchanging
with z. tpz in Aramaic means to “leap at,” literally to “crouch and spring,” and similarly the Greek
topazo means to “aim at.” According to Pliny the name topazion was of Middle-Eastern origin and
meant something prized or to be sought out (leaped, or aimed, at). 2) Sardonyx = Fuller’s-Earth-andBone-Colored-Stone. The first part of the name is “sard”, the red-earth or flesh colored stone
(equivalent to the Hebrew Odem), and the second part of the name is the Greek “onyx” meaning nail,
claw or bone or a stone of that texture and color. The dual meaning represents the same idea as the
stone’s Hebrew name Pitdah, the “prize” of an animal, the flesh rent by a claw. This was a layered
stone, a red (“sard”), overlaid by a creamy, or preferably, honey-colored, layer (“onyx”), the latter
variously described as “golden, green, yellow” etc. The color of a Sardonyx was anciently compared to
that of the flesh under a finger-nail. Sardonyx was one of the many types of onyx, which featured
layers of different colors, or were variously patterned. Onyx was also called Alabastron or Alabastrites.
Alabastron means “Something not taken in the hand,” which looks like a translation of the ancient
name: “something leaped, or aimed, at (but not yet taken).” The ancient Topaz, — a different gem from
the modern one so called, — was a variety of Alabastron (Onyx), according to Epiphanius. The name
denoted originally a stone with two layers: the inner or central layer was red (eruthros), and the top
layer passed it off to its purchasers immediately following its discovery as “Alabastron” (Onyx) — in
other words, and in the terminology of the Roman Imperial period, it was a Sardonyx, i.e. “the sardian,
or red, onyx,” red overlaid with a honey-colored layer. Hence Pitdah is called Topazion in the LXX, —
its earlier and original Greek name, — but in the Apocalypse of Roman Imperial times the same gem is
called Sardonyx. In this later period the name Topazion or Topazos had come to denote, in a more
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general way, gems of a golden honey color, green or yellow, including Peridot and Chrysolite.
Therefore the Yashpheh (see below), a yellow, patterned, Onyx, is called Topazion in the Apocalypse.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Topazius; NT: Sardonyx.
KJV Names: OT: Topaz; NT: Sardonyx.
Modern Name: Sardonyx. (Sardonyx = Sardonyx — King.) Sardonyx is a borrowing from the Greek
name. It is a variety of fibrous cryptocrystalline quartz, the same chemically as sard but with white or
creamy shades, streaks, or bands. The mixture of bone and flesh symbolized by the onyx and the sard
in the sardonyx speaks of the Redeemed Bride, the “Prize” of the Lion of Judah, which yet is “of His
flesh and of His bones” (Ephesians 5. 30). Christians must die, like the prey of the lion, to their past
sinful life, and be born again, baptized by the Spirit into the flesh and bone of the Messiah’s Body,
before they can be of use to Him. When first discovered in “India” (meaning Cush, Ethiopia, according
to Epiphanius), this stone was sold to someone in the Egyptian capital of Thebes, and was subsequently
worn by the Queen of Egypt on her crown. It is, therefore, in type, the jewel of the Egyptian BrideQueen of the Son of David (Solomon), and of the Gentile Church-Bride of Jesus the Messiah, the
greater Son of David.
Hebrew Name : Bareket.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: Sparkling like Lightning, or Morning Star. The Hebrew word from which
this name is formed refers usually to a flash of light from the sky, of lightning or a thunderbolt, and
secondarily to the glittering of metal or of a gemstone. The allusion in the Hebrew name to lightning
and glittering light suggests the stone was seen as being more of a bright golden tint than green, as the
Rabbinic sage Kimchi pointed out. This is confirmed by the Targumic name Barkan Zepran, see below.
Targum Name: Barkan, Barkatha, Barkan Zepran.
Meaning of Targum Name: Same as the Hebrew, and Zepran = “saphron, yellow” (Jastrow, Talmudic
Dictionary, s.v. ‘prn), hence “Yellow Bareket.”
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Smaragdos. (Josephus: Smaragdos.) Greek Name in New
Testament: Smaragdos.
Meaning of Greek Name: Thunderbolt Stone. Smaragdos or Maragdos is a borrowing (with exchange
of m for b, g for k and d for t, and the addition of an optional initial s) from the Hebrew bareket. The
Greek marage or smarage, like the Hebrew barak, means thunder(bolt).
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Latin Vulgate Name: OT and NT: Zmaragdus.
KJV Names: OT: Carbuncle; NT: Emerald.
Modern Name: Chrysoberyl. (Smaragdos = Chrysoberyl — King.) Literally the name means “Golden
Beryl.” When polished it can be mistaken for a yellow diamond. It is a yellow variety of the stone
called in earlier ages Emerald (the latter a borrowing through the French esmeraud from smaragdos).
Emerald in modern usage denotes a brilliant green gem, the mineral beryl, but the color of the ancient
Smaragdos could vary through the spectrum of yellow and green. Chrysoberyl is a beryllium aluminum
oxide, not related to the mineral beryl (which is a silicate). It contains the rare element beryllium.
According to the Rabbinic Commentary on Numbers, Bemidbar Rabbah, the color of the stone (and the
tribal flag corresponding to it) was a third part red, a third white and a third, literally, “dark” (shahor,
describing a deepening or intensification of the original color, as if by charring, therefore dark
green/blue/red, or deep purple, or, black). One set of sources points to a golden yellow color, another to
a mixture of red, white and purple. This might lead one to suppose a contradiction in the sources, but in
fact, they are in harmony, as this stone experiences what is known as the “Alexandrite effect,” whereby
it appears precisely red and dark purple, with flashes of white, in incandescent light, as opposed to its
normal radiant golden yellow or amber shade in daylight. This is because incandescent light lacks the
greenish blue wavelengths of natural daylight. Bemidbar Rabbah assigns the Birthstone to Levi, whose
tribe was that of the High Priest himself, and it was he who wore the Breastplate with its scintillating
gems in the sanctuary, lit by the seven-branched lamp-stand, or Menorah. In daylight the gem would
appear golden yellow, in the enclosed sanctuary, in the light of the Menorah, red, white and dark
purple. Any substance which appears to the naked eye to be red, white, and dark purple, appears to be
so, precisely because the light in the greenish blue area of the spectrum has either been absorbed by it,
or, as in the case of incandescent light, is absent. When white light falls on a substance, and the green
range, out of the full range of white light, is absorbed by it, the color that results, and is visible to the
naked eye, is red; when yellow light is absorbed, the color that results is dark purple; and when no
relevant light is absorbed, the color that results is white. In this case the greenish blue light was absent
in the incandescent light of the Menorah, and therefore the gem gleamed a stormy red and dark purple
with flashes of white in that light. Appropriately, it was called the “Lightning Stone,” Hebrew Bareket.
Amber (greenish-yellow) is the color of the Light of God (Ezekiel 1. 4, 27, 8. 2). Thus the color-change
in the gemstone of Levi indicated that when the original Light of God was absent, viz. in the artificial
light of the Menorah, representing the temporary dispensation of the symbolic Law of Moses, stormy
Divine judgment resulted. The particular form of Chrysoberyl called Alexandrite (whence the
designation “Alexandrite” effect) also shows in daylight a “light wave” effect, which has been thought
to have led to its being called in Pliny the “Lightning” stone (Ceraunius) or the “Star” stone (Asteria).
These two names correspond precisely to the two meanings of the Hebrew name Bareket, “Lightning”
and “Morning Star.” Symmachus actually renders the Hebrew Bareket as Keraunios (Ceraunius). The
gem represents Christ as the Morning Star, transitioning from Night to Day. He was Himself the Law in
physical form (the gem at night-time, in incandescent light), but took upon Himself the judgment of the
Law, and died to the Law on the Cross, in order to bring us Life and Light through the resurrection (the
gem in daylight sunshine), according to the Morning Star message of the Apostle Paul.
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Hebrew Name : Nophek.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: Stibium-like Ornamental Stone. The Hebrew root from which this word is
formed produces also the Hebrew word puk meaning 1) sea-weed or the pigment of sea-weed and 2)
stibium, antimony or kohl. Stibium was a dark eyeliner applied by women to the eyes both as a
protective layer around, and as a beautification of, the eyes. “Stones of puk” are said to have been put
into the Temple in Jerusalem and may be presumed to have had an ornamental or beautifying function
such as stibium had for the eyes. The other meaning “pigment of sea-weed” for puk suggests a green
color for the gemstone Nophek, whose name is derived from the same root. The eyeliner known as puk
had a dark green form as well as an almost black form. This is confirmed by the New Testament Greek
name (see below).
Targum Names: Izmargadin, Izmorad, Kadkedana, Kohal.
Meaning of Targum Names: 1) Izmargadin etc.: a borrowing from the Greek Smaragdos 2) Kadkedana:
related to the Greek Chalcedon or Charchedon, though it makes sense in Hebrew and Aramaic, and is,
therefore, not simply a transcription of the Greek: Kadkod in Biblical Hebrew is Kadkodin or
Kadkedana in the Aramaic of the Targums, from the root k-d-d, to pound, strike fire, this a reduplicated
form, conveying the sense “repeated strikings for fire.” 3) Kohal = kohl, literally “coal, ember,
charcoal”.
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Anthrax. (Josephus: Anthrax.) Greek Name in New Testament:
Chalcedon (some texts: Carchedon and Anthrax).
Meaning of Greek Names: 1) Anthrax (Latin Carbunculus) means a burning coal or charcoal (like
Aramaic Kohal). 2) Chalcedon. The name Anthrax (Carbunculus) is a translation of the Hebrew
Kadkod, Aramaic Khohal, “Coal, Ember.” The word “Coal” originally signified the charcoal-like
substance or color of the eyeliner, stibium, antimony, but in the Classical world, where the eyeliner was
not in common use, it conveyed the impression rather of a dark red ember, so Anthrax (Carbunculus)
came to denote a dark red gem, particularly the Ruby. The Nophek, accordingly, has been wrongly
thought to be a ruby or garnet. Several different red gemstones were included in the antique designation
“Ruby,” including Spinel, and Almandine Garnet. Modern mineralogists differentiate between Spinel
and the true Ruby, but even as late as the nineteenth century, the terms were used interchangeably. Both
are almost pure corundum (alumina). Garnet is of a different chemical composition, but can be difficult
to distinguish from the other two with the naked eye. The name Spinel comes from the Greek word
spinos or spinther, meaning “spark,” and is therefore the precise modern equivalent of the ancient name
Kadkedana or Chalchedon/Carchedon. The Anthrax of the LXX (translating Nophek) was exchanged
for Chalcedon in the New Testament, doubtless because retention of the LXX’s Anthrax in the Roman
Imperial period would give the false impression that the gem was red, not green. Chalcedon was a
green Spinel. Chalcedon is the form in the Received Text and Calcedonius is the Vulgate’s Latin
translation. Other texts of the Apocalypse read Carchedon or substitute Anthrax, or remark that
Carchedon is also called Anthrax. The Chalcedonius (also spelled Carchedonius) is one of the twelve
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types of emerald (Smaragdus) described by Pliny in his Natural History which was found near the
Asian (Turkish) town of Chalcedon. It is said to have been of a dark green hue like the feathers in the
tail of a peacock. These not only are of a dark green color, but are also located around eye-like patterns
(compare the root meaning of the Hebrew name and its connection with eyeliner). Probably the Greek
topographical name Chalcedon (Kalkhedon but also Khalkhedon) was derived from a Semitic form like
the Aramaic Kadkedana, on account of the abundance of the mineral in that locality. The Semitic d is
sometimes exchanged for l and r. Kadkedana would thus become Kalkedana or Karkedana and Greek
Kalkhedon, or Karkhedon. The equivalent Hebrew word Kadkod is rendered “Karkhedonion” by
Symmachus in Isaiah 54. 12. The particular gems from the Asian Chalcedon were not of the finest
quality. Elsewhere Pliny describes this stone as a Iaspis (which is different from the modern “Jasper”),
of a turbid hue. The Iaspis of the ancients, as a general term, denotes a green translucent gemstone. (An
exception was the most precious variety of Iaspis, see under Yahalom, which was a translucent purple.)
Pliny notes particularly that certain specimens of the stone had a flesh-colored mark in them,
corresponding to the variety of Chalcedony known nowadays as Bloodstone. In folklore the mark is
supposed to represent the Blood of Christ. The green emerald color represents the Light of God (the
Divine Nature in Christ), and the red, the humanity (the Human Nature in Christ). The Creed of
Chalcedon, composed in the early Christian centuries at the town of that name in Asia, claimed to
define the two natures in Christ, but, like the gems mined there, was of an inferior quality. The stone in
Rev. 4. 3, which is described as being similar in appearance to an “Iaspis and having Sardios-like
elements,” with a “Smaragdos-like” irridescence, appears to be the highest-quality Chalcedonian
Bloodstone, the Iaspis being the dark green translucent alumina, mixed, as it was in the Bloodstone,
with “Sard-like”, i.e. fiery red, flesh-colored, or blood-like, elements, the gem in whole being a type of
Smaragdos. The reference is also to the first and last of the twelve sons of Israel, as Reuben’s
Birthstone (carnal nature) was a Sardios, the first in the Old Testament (carnal) order, and Benjamin’s
stone in the Camp Order (spiritual nature) was a Garnet (Hebrew Achlamah, Greek Amethystos, infra),
the last in the New Testament (spiritual) order, Rev. 21. 19-20, the Garnet in antiquity being also
termed a Carbunculus, and not distinguished from the Anthrax (Carbunculus) which featured amongst
its varieties the Chalcedonian Iaspis. Likewise, Benjamin’s Birthstone (carnal nature) was a type of
Sardios (Sardonyx = Topazion = Yashpheh), and Reuben’s stone in the Camp Order (spiritual nature)
was a Iaspis (Nophek = Chalcedon = Iaspis). Hence both Reuben and Benjamin are represented, as
respects their carnal standing, by the Sardine element in this combined stone, which is the red, opaque
(fleshly) element, and, as respects their spiritual standing, by the Iaspis, the emerald, translucent
(spiritual) element.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Carbunculus; NT: Calcedonius.
KJV Names: OT: Emerald; NT: Chalcedony.
Modern Name: Spinel. (Chalcedonius, Carchedon, Anthrax, Carbunculus = Spinel — King.) The
Nophek was of an olive-green hue. The particular variety known as Chalcedon/Carchedon was called
Lychnis (“Lamp,” the same Greek word used for the Menorah in the Apocalypse, Chapter 1), because it
was believed to flash fiery sparks in the dark. It is a curious fact that Spinel is phosphorescent in ultraviolet light. It is formed naturally in octahedral crystals, with six angles, like two pyramids united at
their bases. “Sapphire” is the popular name given to blue translucent corundum (alumina), “Oriental
Topaz” to yellow, “Ruby” to red, and “Oriental Emerald” to the very rare green variety. Spinel has a
tendency to show gradations from one color to another, in the case under consideration here, from
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green to blood-red, which is a type referred to by the medieval Arabian writer Ben Mansur in his
description of the Laal (Spinel). In modern terminology “Emerald” means dark green beryl, and
“Oriental Emerald” green translucent corundum. Pure corundum is only surpassed in hardness by the
diamond. The ancient term Adamas, commonly translated “diamond,” referred originally to corundum,
and was only applied to what we know as diamond, when the latter became a more common
commodity in the west, around the turn of the Christian era.
Hebrew Name : Sappir.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Brightened Stone. The Hebrew name comes from the word saphar, lit.
to scratch or scrape, then to polish, to be made radiant or beautiful (whence this meaning is adduced),
and also to inscribe, to write.
Targum Names: Shabzez, Sappirinon, Simporyana.
Meaning of Targum Names: 1) Shabzez, or Shabziza is probably a deformation of the Hebrew sappir or
of the same name as passed down into some foreign language; 2) Sappirinon, Simporyana is the same
as the Hebrew sappir and the Greek sappheiros.
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Sappheiros. (Josephus: Sappheiros.) Greek Name in New
Testament: Sappheiros.
Meaning of Greek Name: The Greek name is a direct borrowing from the Hebrew. The name has
passed over from Greek and Latin into English as “sapphire”, but the Greek sappheiros and the Hebrew
sappir were not the modern sapphire but the very different Lapis Lazuli. Lapis Lazuli is more strikingly
and intensely blue-colored even than the sapphire, and is often flecked with little patches of gold. This
marking or flecking with bright patches is perhaps what is referred to in its Hebrew name. Its rich skyblue color, and its golden flecks, symbolize the starry heavens, and represent the heavenly origin of the
Son of God. The root meaning of its Hebrew name, to “inscribe, write”, reflects the fact that the names
of God’s saints are for ever written in heaven.
Latin Vulgate Name: OT: NT: Sapphyrus.
KJV Name: OT and NT: Sapphire.
Modern Name: Lapis Lazuli. (Sappheiros = Lapis Lazuli — King.) The name Lapis Lazuli comes from
the Persian word lazhward meaning blue, in allusion to its color. Lapis Lazuli has been highly valued
for many thousands of years. The most famous locality for fine quality Lapis Lazuli is the same ancient
deposit high in the mountains of Afghanistan where it was originally mined at least 6000 years ago. It
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usually occurs in crystalline limestones as a result of contact metamorphism and is characteristically
recognized by its color. Lapis Lazuli is sulphato-silicate of sodium and aluminum.
Hebrew Name : Yahalom.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Striking Stone. The Hebrew name comes from the word halam, lit. to
strike, hammer, fix, attach, plaster, be close or friendly, be viscous, dreamy. It is used, amongst other
things, of being “smitten” with wine. It connotes the dreamy appearance of the gem and also its
fragibility, which is only of a hardness of 7. It can be smitten and broken relatively easily.
Targum Names: Sabhalom or Sibhalom, Kadkodin, Eyn-igla.
Meaning of Targum Names: Same as the Hebrew Yahalom. For Kadkodin see under Nophek and for
Eyn-Igla under Achlamah.
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Iaspis. (Josephus: Iaspis.) Greek Name in New Testament:
Iaspis.
Meaning of Greek Name: All the ancient versions give the Greek name Iaspis (Jasper) to the Hebrew
Yahalom when referring to the Breastplate stone. Commonly the Greek Iaspis was green, but the most
precious variety (as one would expect to find in the Breastplate) was purple, according to Pliny. Pliny’s
description of the purple Iaspis shows it was the purple quartz crystal known today as Amethyst. The
Targumic name Kadkodin is treated under Nophek, where it will be seen that the Kadkodin, like this
gem, is referred to also as a “Iaspis” (“Jasper”). The Targumic name “Eye of a Calf” connotes the same
affable, or dreamy, quality as the Hebrew name. According to the Rabbinic Commentary on Numbers,
the gem looked like the moon, which is a good description of its tendency to fade from purple (the
purplish gray color of the non-illuminated portions of the moon) into gleaming white. The stone
symbolizes the inspiration of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus as the Comforter on those who believe truly
in His life-giving sacrifice, affecting Its recipients like wine, flooding their spirit with streams of joy,
energizing them with visions, dreams, revelations, and supernatural gifts, calming fears, washing away
the stains of sin, and bubbling up within them unto everlasting life.
Latin Vulgate Name: OT and NT: Iaspis.
KJV Names: OT: Diamond; NT: Jasper.
Modern Name: Amethyst. (Iaspis of the precious purple hue = modern Amethyst — King.) A
translucent quartz crystal of a purple shade, Pliny’s Jasper (Iaspis) from Phrygia and Cappadocia. Note:
Pliny’s Jasper has a wider application than the modern gem so called. The modern Jasper is a variety of
the mineral Quartz (SiO2). Quartz (silica) is the most abundant single mineral on earth. It makes up
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about 12% of the earth’s crust, occurring in a wide variety of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary
rocks. Quartz varieties are commonly separated into two groups based on the size of the individual
grains or crystals; macrocrystalline quartz, in which individual crystals are distinguishable with the
naked eye, and cryptocrystalline quartz in which the individual crystals are too small to be easily
distinguishable under the light microscope. The cryptocrystalline varieties of quartz may be separated
into two types; fibrous and microgranular. The modern Jasper is a variety of chert, which is the general
term applied to granular cryptocrystalline quartz varieties. It is usually opaque. The ancient Jasper,
Iaspis, by contrast, was translucent. Iaspis usually denoted a green gem, and the purple, most precious
variety, was an exception.
Hebrew Name : Leshem.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Crushing Stone. The name is derived from the root l-w-sh, meaning to
knead, crush, amongst other things of prey in the mouth of a beast, hence a variant form is Laish (same
meaning), which also means lion (from its power to crush its prey).
Targum Names: Kankeri, Kankirinon, Zozin, Birela.
Meaning of Targum Names: 1) Kankeri and Kankirinon appear to be transcriptions of the Greek
kenchrê = kenchros, and kenchrinon, meaning millet, a small-seeded cereal grass, and anything in small
grains, particularly a small jewel, so named because of its millet-like appearance. 2) Zozin is from the
root z-w-z = glitter, gleam, shake, move about.
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Ligourion. (Josephus: 1. Ligourion [BJ 5. 234], 2. Ligouros [AJ
3. 168].)
Greek Name in New Testament: Chrysoprasos.
Meaning of Greek Names: 1) Ligourion means the “Ligurian Stone,” Liguria being a country in the
Celtic realms of the South of France. There was a gem called Lygkourion which is thought to be
identical with this, and the first element in that stone name is the Greek word for lynx, a large wild cat
which could be classified as a layish (“lion”) in Biblical Hebrew and whose name seems, in fact, to be
simply a transcription from the Hebrew word. “Lynx” was also a name given to a tree whose sap
(“ouros”) exuded to form amber, which was imported into the Classical world from “Liguria,” the
“Amber Land.” Thus Lygkourion means an “amber-colored” stone. 2) Chrysoprasos means “The Goldleek-green Stone” and is descriptive likewise of its color. Pliny describes it as the third type of Beryllos
(Beryl) of a leek-like green color, varying between that of Topaz (green or yellow) and gold. The
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Targum on the Song of Solomon similarly gives Birela (Beryl) as the equivalent of the Hebrew
Leshem. The Targumic names Kankeri and Kankirinon (Greek kenchrê, kenchrinon) connote an
appearance as of grains of grass (millet), reminiscent of Pliny’s “leek-green” analogy. The stone
symbolizes the firmness of divine judgment, lion-like in its ferocity and power. All judgment has been
committed to the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Ligyrius; NT: Chrysoprasus.
KJV Names: OT: Ligure; NT: Chrysoprasus.
Modern Name: Jacinth (Zircon). (Lygkourion = Jacinth — King.) Jacinth resists weathering better than
any other gem, and hence is well termed “the crushing stone”. The Lyngkourion or Jacinth was the
Arabian Chrysolithos (King), one variety of which, according to Epiphanius, was the Chrysopastos or
“gold-spotted,” the latter, in turn, being treated as a form of Chrysoprasius (= Chrysoprasos) in
Marbodus. This Chrysoprasius was purple (or, dark blue) with golden spots. The pattern and color are
confirmed by the assertion in Bemidbar Rabbah that the Leshem was “like Lapis Lazuli,” as Lapis
Lazuli is dark blue with golden flecks.
Hebrew Name : Shevo.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Seized Prize. The Hebrew word shavah from which this name seems to
be derived means to take into captivity, to seize as spoil of war.
Targum Names: Tarkeya, Arekin, Beyrulin.
Meaning of Targum Names: 1) Tarkeya probably means “Turkish”, that is the “Turkish stone”,
turquois, or a gem of a similar consistency and blue shade. Arekin may be a transcription of the gem’s
Greek name hyakinthos, likewise a blue stone. 2) On Beyrulin see under Shoham (beyrulin = Gk.
Beryllion, beryl).
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Achates. (Josephus: Achates.) Greek Name in New Testament:
Hyakinthos.
Meaning of Greek Names: 1) Achates is the name of a river where this stone was found; it means in
Greek “No Lack”, and was a by-word for a “faithful friend”, but it has been more credibly derived from
the Hebrew akad, meaning “to be banded, striped, bound.” The Rabbinic commentary on Numbers,
Bemidbar Rabbah, shows the color was dark blue banded with white. 2) Hyakinthos was the name of a
blue (or purple) flower with a white area, bearing on it the letters AI or YI, which mean “Woe!” in
ancient Hebrew (ay or hoy). Hyakinthos is the “Woe flower.” Hence the name came to be used of
stones found in river-beds of a similar color to the flower. This gem is precisely dark blue with a white
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band. The Hebrew verb akad believed to underlie the Greek name of the gem, Achates, is used of the
“binding” of Isaac to the altar by Abraham, which is a type of the “binding” of Jesus to the Cross. This
complements the allusion to the cry of mourning, “Woe”, in the alternative name of the gem,
Hyakinthos. The gemstone represents the vicarious suffering of Calvary. Righteousness (the white band
in the stone) was imparted to sinners through the binding of the Savior to the Cross, and the cleansing
by the Water of the Word (blue ground) of the Gospel, typed by the water that gushed from His pierced
side.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Achates; NT: Hyacinthus.
KJV Names: OT: Agate; NT: Jacinth.
Modern Name: Agate. (Agate striped dark blue and white — King.) This particular variety, shading off
around the edges into a gleaming white, was called Perileukos (“Surrounded by White,” according to
Epiphanius). He states this was also considered a type of Hyakinthos, confirming the correctness of the
equivalence of the New Testament Hyakinthos and the LXX’s Achates. Epiphanius’ description of the
Perileukos combines the three known characteristics of this stone: 1) that it was an Agate (Achates), as
in the LXX; 2) that it was a variety of Hyakinthos, as in the Apocalypse; 3) that it was striped dark blue
and white, as in Bemidbar Rabbah.
Hebrew Name : Achlamah.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Hebrew name comes from the root ch-l-m, which is an intensification
of the root h-l-m of Yahalom, supra, lit. to strike, hammer, fix, attach, plaster, be close or friendly, be
viscous, dreamy. This is a purple-colored stone, but is of a much deeper violet hue than the Yahalom,
sparkling, translucent, and with a fiery red inner glow. The intensification in the color parallels the
intensification in the pronunciation of the root of the name.
Targum Names: Eyn-igla, Eyn-egla, Eyn-egel, Zemargedin.
Meaning of Targum Names: 1) Eye of a Calf (Eyn-igla, Eyn-egla, Eyn-egel); 2) Zemargedin: a
transcription of the Greek Smaragdos.
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Amethystos. (Josephus: Amethystos.) Greek Name in New
Testament: Amethystos.
Meaning of Greek Name: The (Un)intoxicated Stone. The Greek name is formed of two elements: 1. a-,
which means either “very, truly” or, contrariwise, “not” or “un-” (like the “un-” in “unreal”,
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“unreliable” etc.) and 2. methystos, “drunken, intoxicated”. The name might mean, therefore, “Very
drunken”, or, “Not drunken”. It was believed in popular superstition to prevent drunkenness (the initial
a- interpreted in the second sense). Its wine-like color, its association with youthful desire (infra), and
its ambiguous name, suggest it connoted spiritual or emotional intoxication, equivalent, or, as opposed,
to literal, that is, alcoholic, intoxication. The stone symbolizes the deepest, abiding, presence of the
Holy Spirit, stimulating the sanctified soul with the revelation of Jesus, to a state of Perfect Divine
Love (see infra on the name Paederos).
Latin Vulgate Name: OT and NT: Amethistus.
KJV Name: OT and NT: Amethyst.
Modern Name: Almandine Garnet. (Amethystos [Paederos] = Almandine Garnet — King.). The hue of
this type of Amethystos was the most admired in Classical times, and the gem was known as the
Paederos, “Youthful Desire.” The Garnet was classed as a Carbunculus (literally, a “burning coal”,
usually a Ruby or Spinel) in ancient times, the fiery flashes of which, especially in the green and
yellow varieties, gave rise to the Greek name Smaragdos (from Bareket, “lightning”, see under
Bareket). Hence, presumably, the Targumic name Zemargedin for this gem.
Hebrew Name : Tarshish.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: Tarshish is Tartessus, Spain, and the place-name means “Dashing or
Subjection” from the root r-sh-sh, crush, oppress, subdue, dash against. In the name of the gem, the
reference seems to be to the color of waves dashing against the shore (cp. The Targumic name), and
action of the waves sweeping up against the coast may similarly explain the name of the country. In the
Song of Solomon 5. 14, the Tarshish stone is said to be set beautifully with gold, and this confirms its
identification with the Greek Chrysolithos, which had the same characteristic.
Targum Names: Kerum-yama, Kerum-yama-rabba.
Meaning of Targum Names: Kerum means “color” (particularly yellow or green) and Yama means
“Sea” (with Rabba, “great”, the “Great Sea”, or Mediterranean). The name in full means “The Gem
Colored Golden Green like the Sea.”
Greek Names in Old Testament (LXX): Chrysolithos. (Josephus: Chrysolithos.) Elsewhere in LXX:
Anthrax.
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Greek Name in New Testament: Chrysolithos.
Meaning of Greek Name: The Gold Stone. This name likely reflects the use to which the stone was put,
according to Pliny, namely as a complement to gold, set beside which it made the metallic gold look
silver. It was transparent and refulgent like gold. The stone symbolizes the rushing power of the waves
of God’s Spirit in revival, sweeping away all that opposes Him, and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ
alone.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Chrysolitus, Hyacinthus, Mare (“Sea”, cp. Yama, “Sea”, in the Targumic
names); NT: Chrysolithus.
KJV Names: OT: Beryl; NT: Chrysolyte.
Modern Name: Golden Sapphire. (Chrysolithos = Yellow or Golden-colored Sapphire — King.) This is
Corundum (“Sapphire”) of a golden yellow hue. The Greek translation Anthrax (meaning red or, as in
this case, greenish, Corundum), the Targumic and Vulgate references to “Sea” and the Vulgate
translation Hyacinthus (a blue stone), all point to this stone’s being a translucent sea-color. There were
two varieties, one of a golden yellow hue, as indicated in this instance by the translation Chrysolithos,
and also a watery-blue form, that is, blue Corundum, the Hyacinthus, or modern Sapphire, commonly
so called.
Hebrew Name : Shoham.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Dark Stone. The name derives most probably from the biconsonantal
root h-m, meaning “to be hot, or, dark.” This stone was of great significance as it was also used on the
shoulders of the High Priest’s Breastplate. Two Shoham stones, placed one on each shoulder, bore the
names of the twelve sons of Israel, the patriarchs of the tribes, six on each stone “for the names of the
sons of Israel” and “according to their births”. (By contrast, the twelve stones of the Breastplate were
“for the names of the sons of Israel” only.)
Targum Name: Burela, Birleyvath-chala, Bedulcha.
Meaning of Targum Names: 1) Burela (otherwise Birela), as well as Birleyvath- (otherwise Burelath-)
is identical to the Greek beryllos, “beryl”, and chala means “jewelry.” 2) Bedulcha means “crystal”.
Greek Names in Old Testament (LXX): Beryllion. Elsewhere in LXX: Prasinos, Sardion, Smaragdos,
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Soom [transcription of Heb.] Onyx. (Josephus: Beryllos, elsewhere: Sardonyx.)
Greek Name in New Testament: Beryllos.
Meaning of Greek Name: Beryl. The other Targumic variant Bedulcha = Hebrew Bedolach, translated
in the Greek LXX as anthrax (either a fiery red ruby, or a green smaragdos-type stone, the Nophek also
being translated anthrax, see under that stone name), or krystallos, crystal. The Greek beryllos is
probably derived from the Hebrew bedolach, d and r being interchangeable in that language, bedolach
> berolach > beryllos. The Greek Beryllos was similarly a type of Smaragdos, of a sea-green color. The
manna is described as being like the color of the Bedolach stone. According to Pliny the best type of
Beryllos was from India and was of a sea-green color. It occurs naturally in a cylindrical hexagonal (six
-sided) form, such that the name of each Tribe could be inscribed on one of the six sides of the cylinder,
on either shoulder of the High Priest. The stone symbolizes the depths of God’s Love towards the
Gentiles, in uniting them with His chosen nation Israel in the one Bride body of the Messiah. Hence
there were two Shoham stones on the shoulders of the High Priest. The name Shoham speaks of the
land of Ham, Egypt, representing the non-Jewish nations amongst whom the Israelites sojourned when
they were in exile from the Promised Land, typing the Christian dispensation of the last two thousand
years, during the time of Israel’s blindness.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Onychinus, Onyx, Lapis Sardonychus; NT: Beryllus.
KJV Names: OT: Onyx; NT: Beryl.
Modern Name: Emerald. (Beryllos = Beryl/Emerald — King.) Beryl is a beautiful gem of a sea-green
hue (chemical composition Be3Al2Si6O18 of the class cyclosilicates). It is a relatively common
mineral although it does contain the rare element beryllium. Another of its varieties is the intense green
(modern) Emerald. The reference in the gem’s Hebrew name and the emphasis on the darkness of its
hue in Bemidbar Rabbah, along with the greenness referred to in the Greek names Prasinos and
Smaragdos, indicate it was the dark-green Emerald, rather than some other, variously-colored, variety
of Beryl. Beryl is found in a clear or honey-colored form, corresponding to the Greek Onyx (which is
sometimes used to translate the Hebrew name Shoham), and in a pink or reddish form, corresponding to
the Greek Sardonyx (also used to translate Shoham). These other Greek names are not used of the stone
as it appeared in the Breastplate, the latter being translated Beryllion (LXX) and Beryllos
(Apocalypse), the most prized variety of which was green.
Hebrew Name : Yashpheh.
Meaning of Hebrew Name: The Smooth or Slippery Stone. The name is derived from the root sh-ph-h
which means to smooth, purge away defects, scrape off, etc. It is thought to have been taken over into
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Greek in the form Iaspis (Jasper), though Iaspis amongst the Greeks and Romans came to denote a
translucent crystal, different from the Yashpheh of the Breastplate.
Targum Names: Panteyri, Panteyrey, Margenith Appanturin, Margalitha.
Meaning of Targum Names: Margenith, Margalitha, mean “jewel” (sometimes, more specifically
“pearl” — a borrowing from the Greek margaritês, pearl) and Panteyri, Panteyrey and Appanturin are
derivatives of panteyr, “panther, leopard”, so this gem is the “leopard jewel” or “panther stone” — a
reference to its tawny color and its markings like the spots on a panther’s pelt. Spotted fish were termed
“panther fish”, and the smooth, slippery, panther stone might easily be mistaken for a spotted fish under
water on a river-bed.
Greek Name in Old Testament (LXX): Onychion. (Josephus: Onyx.) Greek Name in New Testament:
Topazion.
Meaning of Greek Names: 1) Topazion is thought to be borrowed from the Hebrew Pitdah meaning
“Prized or Sought Out” (see under the stone name Pitdah). 2) Onychion (Onyx) means “Having the
quality of nail or bone.” The ancient Topazion was not the same as the modern Topaz, as it could be
filed: the latter would have been classed by the ancients a variety of Smaragdos or Chrysolithos. The
ancient Topaz’s semi-translucent, bone-like, constituency is illustrated by the fact that its name
alternates variously with the Greek Onychion, Onyx (above) and Sard-onyx (see under the stone name
Pitdah), which all contain the onyx (bone, nail) element. A large statue of Queen Arsinoe made of
Topaz indicates yellow or green Agate was included under that designation already in Hellenistic times,
as Peridot and chrysolite, which were also termed Topaz, do not occur in massive formations. The
name Topazion, and the corresponding Onychion (or Alabastron) came to denote a range of different
honey-colored gems. In this case, the Targumic name Appanturin, the “Panther” jewel, and the
description in Bemidbar Rabbah, identifies this particular Topazion or Onychion as the ancient
Pantheros, or Leonina, latterly known as Brocatella Agate, which has a yellow or tawny base, marked
with spots like those on a panther’s pelt, of various colors. The stone symbolizes the sure-sightedness
of God in watching over His Word to perform It, panther-like in His persistence, perseverance, and
determination. The aim is steadfast and unwavering, the fulfillment as sudden as the pounce of the
predator on his prey, as instantaneous and untraceable in retrospect as the course of a panther fish
through the water, flitting to evade capture.
Latin Vulgate Names: OT: Berillus; NT: Topazius.
KJV Names: OT: Jasper; NT: Topaz.
Modern Name: Panther Stone or Brocatella Agate. (Yashpeh or Appanturin = Brocatella Agate —
King.)
Gen. 37. 5 “And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the
more ... 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed
a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And
he told it to his father [Jacob-Israel], and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him,
What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to
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bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the
saying.”
Here, by implication, the twelve “stars” (Heb. Kochav = star or constellation) of the Zodiac, through
which the Sun and Moon pass, are identified with the twelve sons of Israel (the eleven brothers, plus
Joseph). The Sun is identified with Israel himself and the Moon with Leah (Rachel, Israel’s beloved
wife, and the natural mother of Joseph, having deceased by this time).
The same scheme is reflected in the Book of Revelation:
Rev. 12. 1: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”
This passage of Revelation, like everything in that great book of mystery between chapter 4 and
chapter 19, relates to Israel, not the Church. Eve-like Mother Israel (the Woman) is represented under
the figure of the heavenly sphere of the night sky, with the realm of the stars at her farthest limit (upon
the head), with the Sun, having revolved around her, now hidden from sight, and the Moon at her
lowest limit, nearest earth (beneath her feet). She is the mother of the promised Seed who is to rule all
nations with a rod of iron (the Messiah, the Bright and Morning Star). The Prophetic Message of Israel
is typed by the Sun, which has now declined, and the Israelite Church of the early Apostolic Age by the
Moon, which represents Leah in Joseph’s dream — the first, but not the favored, bride (Rachel). The
twelve stars on her head are the twelve tribes (sons [= suns]) of Israel, as well as the twelve Israelite
Apostles, who are appointed by Jesus the rulers of the twelve tribes in the Age To Come.
Josephus Antiquities III. 7. 7: “And for the twelve stones, whether we understand by them the months,
or whether we understand the like number of the signs of that circle which the Greeks call the Zodiac,
we shall not be mistaken in their meaning.”
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata V. 6: “The twelve stones set in four rows on the breast, describe for us
the circle of the Zodiac, in the four changes of the year.”
BIRTHSTONES OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL
Odem Reuben (mother: Leah)
Pitdah Simeon (mother: Leah)
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Bareket Levi (mother: Leah)
Nophek Judah (mother: Leah)
Sappir Issachar (mother: Leah)
Yahalom Zebulun (mother: Leah)
Leshem Dan (mother: Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel)
Shevo Gad (mother: Zilpah, handmaid of Leah)
Achlamah Naphtali (mother: Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel)
Tarshish Asher (mother: Zilpah, handmaid of Leah)
Shoham Joseph (mother: Rachel)
Yashpheh Benjamin (mother: Rachel)
These are the names of the sons of Israel as they were inscribed on the stones on the Breastplate, and
are the birthstones of the patriarchs. They represent the Zodiac signs under which they were born, each
stone corresponding to a single sign of the Zodiac, as described in Sefer ha-Zikhronot (the “Chronicles
of Jerahmeel”), quoted infra. The stones and Zodiac signs reflect the various natural dispositions of the
patriarchs. The stones are allocated to the patriarchs in Bemidbar Rabbah, a Rabbinic commentary on
the Book of Numbers, Section II, on Numbers 2. 2, the color of each stone being duplicated, as stated
there, in the background color of the flags of each tribe descended from the patriarchs, as follows:
“Reuben’s stone was the Odem, and his flag was colored red, and on it were depicted mandrakes.”
“Simeon was inscribed on the Pitdah, and his flag was colored a tawny shade, and on it was depicted
Shechem.”
[Note: “tawny”, lit. “pale,” the color variously translated, according to context, green, yellow, tawny,
bronze.]
“Levi’s stone was the Bareket, and his flag was colored one third white, one third black, and one third
red, and on it was depicted the Urim and Thummim.”
[Note: “black”: Heb. shahor, lit. “darkened”, which could also mean dark blue or deep purple, or an
intense shade of some other color.]
“Judah’s stone was the Nophek, and his flag was something like the color of garlic plants, and on it was
depicted a lion.”
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[Note: “garlic plants”: in the current text the Hebrew word is written with the consonants sh-m-y-m,
and this combination of consonants is usually read shamayim, “sky”. But the stone Nophek,
according to the Targums and other ancient versions, was dark green (with fiery red elements), not
blue, therefore the alternative way of reading this combination of consonants, shummim, “garlic
plants”, is preferable, as these have dark green leaves and reddish bulbs. The comparison of the
colors of gems with those of plants was common in the Classical and Medieval periods. The other
possibility is that, as frequently happened in the process of textual transmission, one section of the
text became misplaced, and what was originally a description of the following stone, the sappir,
Lapis Lazuli, which is very definitely “(blue) like the sky”, became attached instead to this stone,
the nophek. The possibility becomes a probability in light of the fact that the nophek is traditionally
associated with puk, kohal, antimony, and the description of the sappir in the current text is that it
was, precisely, “like kehol, antimony”, suggesting an exchange of one description for the other by a
scribal slip.]
“Issachar’s stone was the Sappir, and it was colored dark blue, like antimony, and on it were depicted
the sun and moon, representing what is written: ‘of the children of Issachar who had understanding of
the times.’”
[Note: “dark blue”: Heb. shahor, lit. “darkened”, which could also mean black, or, dark purple, or,
dark green, but, according to the ancient versions, and like crude antimony, with which it is
compared in the current text, blue, and dark blue (or dark green, or black), when reduced to powder.
Crude antimony also has golden gleaming specks in it, like the Sappir, which is Lapis Lazuli.
However, it is probable a scribal slip has exchanged the original description of the sappir, “(blue)
like the sky”, for the description of the preceding stone, the nophek, “dark (green) like antimony”, as
explained under Nophek, supra.]
“Zebulun’s stone was the Yahalom, and the color of his flag was that of the moon, and on it was
depicted a ship, representing what is written: ‘Zebulun shall dwell by the shore of the seas.’”
[Note: “the color ... was that of the moon”: in this case, according to the information supplied by the
Targums and ancient versions, white and grayish purple, including, that is, all phases of the moon,
from new (grayish purple when not illuminated) to full (white when illuminated). The Yahalom was
the modern Amethyst, the tint of which commonly fades, in a mystical, certainly moon-like, manner,
from purple to white, and which has the quality, when heated (or, in lunar terms, illuminated), of
turning from purple to white. Presumably, in respect of the colors in the banner, a white crescent
represented the light-colored sandy shore and the illuminated portion of the moon, and the grayish
purple, the sea and the unilluminated portion of the moon.]
“Dan’s stone was the Leshem, and the color of his flag was like that of the Lapis Lazuli, and on it was
depicted a serpent, representing what is written, ‘Dan shall be a serpent.’”
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[Note: Lapis Lazuli is the Sappir, which is dark blue with golden specks, whilst the Leshem is the
variety of Chrysoprasius described by Marbodus which was purple or dark blue with golden spots.]
“Gad’s stone was the Shevo, and the color of his flag was neither white nor dark blue, but a mixture of
dark blue and white, and on it was depicted a camp, representing what is written, ‘an armed band shall
band violently against him.’”
[Note: “dark blue”: Heb. shahor, which word can also mean dark purple, or, black, etc., but this
stone was a blue color (and banded or striped), according to the ancient versions.]
“Naphtali’s stone was the Achlamah, and the color of his flag was like that of sparkling wine, without a
strong red tint, and on it was depicted a hind, representing what is written: ‘Naphtali is a hind let
loose.’”
“Asher’s stone was the Tarshish, and the color of his flag was like that of the precious stone with which
women adorn themselves, and on it was depicted an olive tree, representing what is written: ‘From
Asher shall his food be well-oiled.’”
“Joseph’s stone was the Shoham, and the color of his flag was a very dark shade, and on it was depicted
for the two chiefs, Ephraim and Manasseh, Egypt, representing what is written: that their births took
place in Egypt. Also on the flag of Ephraim was depicted an ox, representing what is written: ‘the
firstborn of his ox’: that was Joshua, who was of the tribe of Ephraim. Also on the flag of the tribe of
Manasseh was depicted a wild bull, representing what is written: ‘his horns are the horns of a wild
bull’: representing what is written, of Gideon son of Joash, that he was of the tribe of Manasseh.”
[Note: “a very dark shade”: that is, a very dark shade of green, according to the ancient versions,
though the Hebrew word, shahor, could also denote dark blue, or, dark purple, or, black.]
“Benjamin’s stone was the Yashpheh, and the color of his flag was like all the colors of the twelve
colors, and on it was depicted a wolf, representing what is written: ‘Benjamin shall ravine as a wolf.”
[Note: “the color ... was like all the colors of the twelve colors”: the Yashpheh was the Brocatella
Agate which incorporated all the colors of the other stones in its panther-like spots on a yellow or
honey-colored ground.]
The gemstones are allocated to the twelve tribal Patriarchs also in the Targum to the Song of Songs, 5.
14, but there without color descriptions and with the use of Arabic and later Medieval popular Aramaic
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names of the stones which make them more difficult to identify (see supra on the Birthstones and the
Targumic names):
“Reuben was inscribed on an Ahmar [= Odem, Carnelian], Simeon was inscribed on an Akik [= Pitdah,
Sardonyx], Levi was inscribed on a Barkan Zepran [= Bareket, Chrysoberyl], Judah was inscribed on a
Kahaley [= Nophek, Spinel], Issachar was inscribed on an Izmorad [prob. for Zimporad = Simporyana,
Sappir, Lapis Lazuli], Zebulun was inscribed on a Gihar [Braun, Vestitus, refers to the belief in his day
that the Gihar was the ancient Iaspis, which was the Heb. Yahalom, the modern Amethyst: prob. Gihar
= Zihar = “glistening object, gleaming light, moonlight, moon”, cf. Bemidbar Rabbah, Zebulun’s stone,
the Yahalom, likened to the moon], Dan was inscribed on a Birela [= Leshem, Jacinth], Naphtali was
inscribed on an Espor [prob. for Izmor(gad) or similar = Smaragdos = Carbunculus, viz. Achlamah,
Almandine Garnet], Gad was inscribed on a Tabag [prob. for Topaz(ion) or similar, cf. Topazion =
Onychion, Brocatella Agate, i.e. Tabag in this instance = Shevo, Agate] {in the text of the Targum to
the Song of Songs used by Braun, Vestitus, Gad’s stone contrariwise was the Espor and Naphtali’s the
Tabag, another example of the transposition of passages in textual transmission}, Asher was inscribed
on a Prozag [prob. for Prasius, viz. Tarshish, Golden Sapphire, which was translated into Greek as
chrysolithos, and the latter into Latin in the Middle Ages as prasius], Joseph was inscribed on a
Meribag [prob. for Izmorag or similar = Smaragdos (var. Maragdos), viz. Shoham, Emerald], Benjamin
was inscribed on an Apantor [= Yashpheh, Brocatella Agate]: they were like the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, illumining like a lantern, bright in their effect as ivory, and shining as glittering jewels [lit.
“sapphires”, shabzizin].”
These stones and corresponding Zodiac signs were allocated to the tribes descended from the patriarchs
differently from the patriarchs’ Birth Order, when God revealed the Camp Order, or marching order, of
the tribes of Israel in the Wilderness. There the tribes were allocated a stone (and corresponding Zodiac
sign) according to their calling and work in the Host of the Lord. The difference between the Birth
Order and the Camp Order is the same as that between a man’s natural birth and his spiritual rebirth.
The nature of the former is carnal and this-worldly, the nature of the latter is God-ordained, according
to the man’s calling and purpose in the Kingdom of God. For example, the stone Odem (Carnelian),
and the corresponding Zodiac sign Leo, were allocated to the firstborn son of Israel, Reuben, the
natural leader of the siblings, in the Birth Order, reflecting Reuben’s pre-eminence in the carnal realm;
but in the Camp Order that same stone and its Zodiac sign were allocated to Judah instead, because, in
the meantime, Reuben had lost his commanding position through a sexual misdemeanor, and Judah had
replaced him as leader of the tribes. The following information relates to that God-ordained Camp
Order.
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THE TRIBES, STONES AND ZODIAC
SIGNS IN CAMP ORDER
THE PALESTINIAN TARGUM (JONATHAN BEN UZZIEL) on Numbers
2 ch. 2
“And the Lord spake with Mosheh [Moses] and with Aharon [Aaron], saying: Every man of the Beni
Israel [Sons of Israel] shall encamp by his standard, by the ensign which is signified upon the standards
of their fathers’ house over against the tabernacle of ordinance shall they encamp round about. The
length of the camp of Israel shall be twelve miles, and its breadth twelve miles.
“And they who encamp eastward to the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of JEHUDAH
[JUDAH] by their hosts, spreading over four miles. And his standard shall be of silk, of three colours,
corresponding with (those of) the precious stones which are in the Breastplate, — Semuka, Yeruka, and
Beruka [= Odem, Pitdah, Bareket]; and upon it shall be expressed and set forth the names of the three
tribes of Jehudah [Judah], Issakar [Issachar], and Zebulon [Zebulun]; and in the midst shall be written:
Arise, O Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, and Thine adversaries be driven away before Thee;
and upon it shall be set forth the figure of a YOUNG LION [LEO].
“And the Rabba of the Beni Jehudah shall be Nachshon bar Amminadab. And the sum of the hosts of
that tribe was seventy-four thousand six hundred. And they who encamp next by him shall be the tribe
of Issakar, and the Rabba appointed over the host of the Beni Issakar, Nathaniel bar Zuar: and the sum
of the host of the tribe fifty-four thousand four hundred. The tribe of Zebulon, — the Rabba, Eliab bar
Chelon; the number, fifty-seven thousand four hundred. All the numbered ones of the camp of Jehudah,
one hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred, by their hosts; they shall go forward in front.
“(By) the standard of the camp of REUBEN, they shall encamp southward by their hosts, spreading
over four miles. And his standard shall be of silk, of three colours, corresponding with (those of) the
precious stones that are in the Breastplate, Izmorad, Shabziz, and Sabhalom [= Nophek, Sappir,
Yahalom]: on it shall be expressed and set forth the names of the three tribes of Reuben, Shemeon
[Simeon], Gad; and in the midst of it be written, Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is One; and upon it
shall be set forth the figure of a stag. Some would have thought there should have been upon it the
figure of a YOUNG OX [TAURUS]; but Mosheh the prophet altered it, that the sin of the calf might
not be remembered against them.
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“And the Rabba set over the host of the tribe Reuben was Elizur bar Shedeur. And his host and the
numbered of his tribe were fifty-nine thousand three hundred. The tribe of Gad: the Rabba set over the
host of the tribe of the Beni Gad was Eljasaph bar Dehuel. And his host and the number of his tribe,
forty-five thousand six hundred. All the sum of the numbered ones of the camp of Reuben, one hundred
and fifty one thousand four hundred and fifty by their hosts; and they went forward secondly, But the
tabernacle shall go with the host of the Levites, in the midst of their host; and their camp spreadeth over
four miles, in the midst are they to be: as they encamp, so shall they go, every man going in his
appointed place, by their standard.
“The camp of EPHRAIM by the standard of their hosts shall pitch on the west; their camp spreadeth
over four miles; and their standard is of silk of three colours, corresponding with the precious stones in
the Breastplate, Kankerin, Tarkin, and Eyn-Eygel [= Leshem, Shevo, Achlamah]; and upon it expressed
and set forth the names of the three tribes, Ephraim, Menasheh [Manasseh] and Benjamin, having
written in the midst, And the Cloud of the Lord was over them, in the going forward of the host; and
upon it was set forth the figure of a YOUNG MAN [AQUARIUS].
“And the Rabba set over the tribe of Ephraim, Elishama bar Ammihud; and the sum of his host, forty
thousand five hundred. And next to him were the tribe of Menasheh: the Rabba, Gamliel bar Pedashur;
their number, thirty-two thousand two hundred. Of the tribe of Benjamin the Rabba was Abidan bar
Gideoni, and the number of his host thirty-five thousand four hundred. The Sum of the camp of
Ephraim was one hundred and eight thousand one hundred; and they went forward thirdly.
“The standard of the camp of DAN shall be to the north with their hosts; and the space of their camp
shall spread over four miles. His standard shall be of silk of three colours, corresponding with the
stones in the Breastplate, Kerum-yama, Beyrlevat-chala, and Apantor [= Tarshish, Shoham, Yashpheh];
in it shall be expressed and set forth the names of the three tribes, Dan, Naphtali, and Asher; and upon
it shall be expressed: And in his encampment shall he say, Return, O Lord, and dwell in Thy glory in
the midst of the myriads of Israel; and upon it shall also be set forth the figure of a BASILISK
SERPENT [SCORPIO]. (Gen. xlix. 17.)
“The Rabba set over the hosts of Dan was Achiezer bar Aminishaddai, and the number of his tribe
sixty-two thousand seven hundred. They who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher; the Rabbi
was Paghiel bar Achran, and the numbers forty-one thousand five hundred. Of the tribe Naphtali, the
Rabba, Achira bar Enan; and the numbers, fifty-three thousand four hundred. The sum of the hosts of
Dan was one hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred: and these went forward last with their
ensigns.
“This is the amount of the numbers of the Beni Israel, according to the house of their fathers; all the
sums of the camps by their hosts were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. But the
Levites were not numbered among the sons of Israel, as the Lord commanded Mosheh. And the sons of
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Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Mosheh; so did they encamp by their standards,
and so went they forward, every man with his family by the house of his fathers.”
Josephus says the 12 stones represent the 12 months of the year and the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The
Palestinian Targum lines up 4 of the star signs with 4 of the tribes in the Camp Order of Numbers 2:
Leo (Lion) = Judah, Taurus (Bull) = Reuben, Aquarius (Young Man) = Ephraim, Scorpio (BasiliskSerpent) = Dan. These are the four chief tribes of the four sides of the Camp. Each chief tribe had two
other tribes with it.
In Numbers 2, the tribes are listed in the direction of motion of the sun, starting with the tribes under
Judah on the East, and proceeding through the Reuben tribes on the South, then the Ephraim tribes on
the West and finally the Dan tribes on the North.
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THE TRIBES IN CAMP ORDER, WITH STONES AND STAR-SIGNS
IN SEFER HA-ZIKHRONOT
The following passage is from Sefer ha-Zikhronot of Elazar ben Levi, c. 1325, compiling largely from
Yerahmeel, c. 1150 (hence called by Gaster “The Chronicles of Jerahmeel”), but also from other
sources, LIII. 9-15 (trans. Gaster, my observations added in braces {}). This passage allocates the
stones and corresponding Zodiac signs according to the Camp Order (not the Birth Order). The four
rows of stones in the Breastplate, allocated to the tribes on each of the four sides of the Camp,
correspond, according to Clement of Alexandria, to the four seasons of the year. Sefer ha-Zikhronot
equates the tribes on the East Side of the Camp, under Judah, with the stones and Zodiac signs of the
Fire Triplicity, meaning three Zodiac signs forming an isosceles triangle in the Zodiacal Circle (see the
Flash presentation online here, or the images infra), the Fire Triplicity comprising Leo, Aries and
Sagittarius, and representing summer; similarly, it equates the tribes on the South Side of the Camp,
under Reuben, with the stones and Zodiac signs of the Earth Triplicity, representing spring, Taurus,
Virgo, Capricorn; the tribes on the West Side of the Camp, under Ephraim, with the stones and Zodiac
signs of the Air Triplicity, representing autumn, Aquarius, Gemini, Libra; and the tribes on the North
Side of the Camp, under Dan, with the stones and Zodiac signs of the Water Triplicity, representing
winter, Scorpio, Cancer, Pisces.
Note: This account in Sefer ha-Zikhronot is the only surviving traditional account which explicitly
identifies the stones of the Breastplate with Zodiac signs. It is, therefore, the only legitimate traditional
source for the system of Birthstones, which identifies the Zodiac sign under which one was born (or,
less accurately, the month of birth) with a particular precious stone. All modern Birthstones systems go
back ultimately to the stones of the Breastplate, but have lost connection with the original gemstones
and Zodiac signs. The gemstones identified here and the corresponding Zodiac signs represent the
original ancient Hebrew tradition.
“(9) As a signal for continuing their journey they used two trumpets and sounded the Teru’ah. At the
first sound the three camps eastward, under the banner of Judah, moved onwards; at the second the
three camps in the south, under the banner of Reuben; at the third, the three camps in the west, under
the banner of Ephraim; and at the fourth sound of the Teru’ah, the three camps in the north, under the
banner of Dan, started on their journey. For all these the Teru’ah sound was blown. In war, however,
and on a day of rejoicing, or a festival, or a new moon, the sons of Aaron blew the two sounds Teqi’ah
and Teru’ah ….
“(13) Judah’s constellation is Leo and his stone the sardius {Odem, Carnelian}; Isaachar’s is Aries and
his stone the topaz {Pitdah, Sardonyx}; Zebulun’s Sagittarius and his stone the carbuncle {Bareket,
Chrysoberyl}, i.e., altogether nine corresponding to fire.* [* I. e., if we include the names of the tribes.]
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Reuben’s constellation is Taurus, and his stone the emerald {Nophek, Spinel}; Simeon’s Virgo and his
stone the sapphire {Sappir, Lapis Lazuli}; Gad’s Capricornus and his stone the diamond {Yahalom,
Amethyst}, i.e., altogether nine* corresponding to dust. Ephraim’s constellation is Gemini and his
stone the jacinth {Leshem, Jacinth}; Menasseh’s Libra and his stone the agate {Shevo, Agate};
Benjamin’s Aquarius and his stone the amethyst {Achlamah, Almandine Garnet}, which are together
nine corresponding to air.* Dan’s constellation is Cancer and his stone the beryl {Tarshish, Golden
Sapphire}; Asher’s Scorpio and his stone the onyx {Shoham, Emerald}; Naphtali’s Pisces and his stone
the jasper {Yashpheh, Brocatella Agate}, which are altogether nine corresponding to water.*
“(14) Each man stood by his standard, together with the ensign of his father’s house, thus: Reuben,
mandrakes; Simeon, the city of Shechem; Judah, the lion’s whelp; Issachar, a strong ass; Zebulun, a
ship; Ephraim, an ox; Menasseh, a buffalo (or Reem); Benjamin, a wolf; Dan, a serpent; Naphtali, a
hind; Gad, a troop (according to the passage, ‘a troop will overtake him’); Asher, an olive, on account
of the passage, ‘He dipped his foot in oil.’ Thus, a sign was given to every banner, according to the
deeds and according to the name of the tribe.
“(15) And these are the four camps of the standards. ‘Every man by his standard, according to the
house of their fathers, shall encamp round about the tent of the congregation.’ Between the tabernacle
and the camps of the standards there was a very wide space. Three tribes formed under one banner, that
is, in three separate camps according to their order, and each camp was like a large city. The camps of
Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, were placed in the east; Reuben, Simeon and Gad in the south; Ephraim,
Benjamin and Menasseh in the west; and Dan, Asher and Naphtali in the north. The Levites encamped
between the tabernacle and the camps, on the four sides of the tabernacle, at a distance from the camps,
but near the tabernacle, and kept guard in the tabernacle of the Lord. Moses and Aaron and his sons
encamped in the east of the tabernacle, opposite Judah’s standard. The sons of Kehath encamped in the
south, opposite Reuben’s banner; the children of Gershon in the west, opposite Ephraim’s banner, and
the children of Merari in the north, opposite Dan’s banner. The tent of the congregation stood in the
centre, surrounded on all sides by the Levites, while the four standards of the lsraelites surrounded the
Levites, and the clouds of glory surrounded the lsraelites. That is the meaning of the verse, ‘The angel
of the Lord encamps round about those who fear Him.’ The four standards, Moses, Aaron and the
tabernacle, which are altogether seven, correspond to the seven planets, viz., Sun, Venus, Mercury,
Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, and the twelve tribes to the twelve constellations.”
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THE CAMP ORDER, TRIBES AND STAR-SIGNS IN SEFER HA-ZIKHRONOT
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THE HEBREW STONE NAMES COMPARED WITH THE ZODIAC
SIGNS
Pitdah = Redemption = the Sacrificial Lamb of Aries
Nophek = Antimony Stone = the Horn of the Bull Taurus used in antiquity as a vessel to hold antimony
Leshem = Crushing Power = the Power of the Armed Twins of Gemini
Tarshish = Colored like a Wave Crashing on the Beach = the environment of Cancer the Crab
Odem = Fleshly Stone = the flesh devoured by the Carnivorous Lion Leo
Sappir = Radiantly Beautiful = the heavenly Virgin Virgo
Shevo = the Seized Prize = the valuables weighed for sale on the trader’s Scales Libra
Shoham = the Burning Stone = the burning red star Antares and the burning poison of Scorpio
Bareket = the Thunderbolt = the projectile of the heavenly Archer Sagittarius
Yahalom = the Hammerer = the butting goat Capricorn
Achlamah = the Intoxicating Stone = the heavenly liquid poured out by the Water-pourer Aquarius
Yashpheh = the Slippery Stone = the slippery Fishes of Pisces
GREEK MYTHICAL ORIGIN OF THE ZODIAC
The origin of the Zodiac signs, according to the Greeks, was as follows: — In ancient times, in Syria,
the twelve major gods of the Greek, pagan, pantheon were threatened by Typhon, the terrible demon of
the desert storm. They fled from Typhon into Egypt and there turned into animals or jumped in the
River Nile to escape him. Aphrodite and her son Eros were turned into fishes (Pisces), Pan into a seamonster, half goat, half fish (Capricorn) etc. This is a mythological version of the biblical account of
the Flood of Noah. To escape a monstrous storm (Typhon) the prophets (called “gods” by the Greeks,
because in biblical Hebrew the word elohim, which usually means “God” or “gods”, can also mean
“prophets”) jumped into the Nile (the flood-waters). When the twelve tribes, descended from Noah’s
family, left Egypt in the Exodus, they were identified with the animal signs of the Zodiac and the tribal
banners bore those signs (Numbers 2, Palestininan Targum, Josephus etc.).
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THE BIRTH-SIGNS OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL
The four Zodiacal signs attached to Judah, Reuben, Ephraim and Dan are in the Camp Order described
in the Targum, as chiefs of the four Camps, with four Camp banners, each banner and Camp
comprising three conjoined tribes. Zodiacal signs attached to individual stones of the Breastplate and
individual tribes (each having its own banner, rather than being considered as Camp-members, under
the four Camp banners) are found in Sefer ha-Zikhronot. There the tribes likewise are in the Camp
Order, not the Birth Order. However, the stones are applied to the twelve patriarchs in the Birth Order
in Bemidbar Rabbah. Each stone had the name of a patriarch engraved on it, as in this Birth Order. By
combining the allocations of stones and patriarchs in Bemidbar Rabbah with the allocation of stones
and Zodiacal signs in Sefer ha-Zikhronot we arrive at the Zodiacal birth signs of the twelve sons of
Israel as follows:
Reuben Leo
Simeon Aries
Levi Sagittarius
Judah Taurus
Issachar Virgo
Zebulun Capricorn
Dan Gemini
Gad Libra
Naphtali Aquarius
Asher Cancer
Joseph Scorpio
Benjamin Pisces
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THE OTHER NON-ZODIACAL
CONSTELLATIONS
Hippolytus (AD 170-236), Refutation of All Heresies, IV. xlvii-xlviii: — In this section of his antiheretical treatise Hippolytus summarized a work, now lost, which claimed to expound the real meaning
of the writings of Aratus (3rd century BC), that is, of Aratus’ Phainomena (“Visible Things”) and
Diosemia (“The Divine Signs”). According to this lost work, Aratus identified the constellations
described in his astrological writings with figures in the Old Testament Scriptures. Its anonymous
author is indicated by the words “he [that is, the author of the work] says” in Hippolytus’ summary,
usually as an interpretation of the meaning of Aratus himself. Aratus was a native of Tarsus, home of
the Apostle Paul, and his work was known to, and, indeed, read and used by the Apostle, as he quoted
from it in his message to the elders of Athens on Mars’ Hill (Acts 19. 28): “For in Him [God, the Word]
we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His
offspring.” In the following quotations from Hippolytus’ summary, the few comments which
Hippolytus added, showing how Gnostic heretics used this interpretation of Aratus to establish their
own tenets, have been omitted. My comments are in braces {}. (To read the full passage in English
translation go to the end of this section. For the original Greek, PDF, click here.)
Draco, the Dragon = Satan
Aratus says that there are in the sky revolving, that is, gyrating, stars, because from east to west, and
west to east, they journey perpetually, (and) in an orbicular figure. And he says that there revolves
towards “The Bears” themselves, like some stream of a river, an enormous and prodigious monster,
(the) Serpent; and that this is what the devil says in the book of Job to the Deity, when (Satan) uses
these words: “I have traversed earth under heaven, and have gone around (it),” that is, that I have been
turned around, and thereby have been able to survey the worlds .... For though all the stars in the
firmament set, the pole of this (luminary) alone never sets, but, careering high above the horizon,
surveys and beholds all things, and none of the works of creation, he says, can escape his notice.
“Where chiefly Settings mingle and risings one with other.” (Here he) says that the head of this
(constellation) is placed. For towards the west and east of the two hemispheres is situated the head of
the Dragon, in order, he says, that nothing may escape his notice throughout the same quarter, either of
objects in the west or those in the east, but that the Beast may know all things at the same time .... The
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Dragon, however, in the center {i.e. one section of Draco’s stars are placed between Ursa Minor and
Ursa Major, symbolizing the Spiritual and Temporal Worlds respectively, see under Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor below} reclines between the two creations, preventing a transition of whatever things are
from the great creation {the Temporal World, Ursa Major} to the small creation {the Spiritual World,
Ursa Minor}; and in guarding those that are fixed in the (great) creation {the Temporal World}, as for
instance Engonasis {= Hercules-Adam, see under that name below}, observing (at the same time) how
and in what manner each is constituted in the small creation {the Spiritual World}. And (the Dragon)
himself is watched at the head, he says, by Anguitenens {= Ophiuchus, the Word of God, see under that
constellation}. This image, he affirms, is fixed in heaven, being a certain wisdom to those capable of
discerning it.
Hercules (Engonasis, the Kneeling Man) = Adam
And near the head itself of the Dragon is the appearance of a man, conspicuous by means of the stars,
which Aratus styles a wearied image, and like one oppressed with labor, and he is denominated
“Engonasis {the Kneeling Man}.” Aratus then affirms that he does not know what this toil is, and what
this prodigy is that revolves in heaven {but see further, infra, on the author’s interpretation of Aratus’
identification of Hercules-Engonasis himself} .... Engonasis is Adam, according to the commandment
of God as Moses declared, he says, guarding the head of the Dragon, and the Dragon (guarding) his
heel. For so Aratus expresses himself: — “The right-foot’s track of the Dragon fierce possessing.” ....
And he says that (the constellations) Lyra and Corona {see further, under those constellations, below}
have been placed on both sides near him, — now I mean Engonasis, — but that he bends the knee, and
stretches forth both hands, as if making a confession of sin .... If, then, he says, Adam, acknowledging
(his guilt) and guarding the head of the Beast, according to the commandment of the Deity, will imitate
Lyra, that is, obey the Logos of God, that is, submit to the law {the harmonious Law of God, the
Word}, he will receive {Corona, the Crown, the reward} ... And Engonasis seems on both sides to
extend his hands, and on one to touch Lyra, and on the other Corona — and this {the uplifting of his
hands} is his confession; — so that it is possible to distinguish him by means of this (sidereal)
configuration itself. {Separated by Draco-Satan from the Spiritual World, see under Ursa Minor, are}
those that are fixed in the (great) creation {the Temporal World, see under Ursa Major}, as for instance
Engonasis .... Adam in labors, this is he who is seen “on his knees” (Engonasis).
Lyra, the Lyre = the harmony of the Seven Days of Creation and Rest
And that the lyre {Lyra} is a musical instrument fashioned by Logos {the creative, divine, Word —
well known to the pre-Christian Rabbis: the Aramaic Targums call it the Memra} while still altogether
an infant, {i.e. in the first stages of Creation} and that Logos is the same as he who is denominated
Mercury {Hermes} among the Greeks. And Aratus, with regard to the construction of the lyre,
observes: — “Then, further, also near the cradle {referring to the Greek myth that Hermes created the
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Lyre whilst still an infant in the cradle: the author interprets this of the first stages of Creation}, Hermes
pierced it through, and said, Call it Lyre.” It consists of seven strings, signifying by these seven strings
the entire harmony and construction of the world as it is melodiously constituted. For in six days the
world was made, and (the Creator) rested on the seventh. If, then, he says, Adam, acknowledging (his
guilt) and guarding the head of the Beast, according to the commandment of the Deity, will imitate
Lyra, that is, obey the Logos of God, that is, submit to the law {the harmonious Law of God, the
Word}, he will receive {Corona, the Crown, the reward} ... And Engonasis seems on both sides to
extend his hands, and on one to touch Lyra, and on the other Corona — and this is his confession; — so
that it is possible to distinguish him by means of this (sidereal) configuration itself.
Corona, the Crown = the divine reward for obedience to the Word of God
{If he is obedient to the Word, he (Hercules-Adam) will receive} ... Corona (the Crown) that is situated
near him. If, however, he neglect his duty, he shall be hurled downwards in company with the Beast
{Draco-Satan} that lies underneath, and shall have, he says, his portion with the Beast. But Corona
nevertheless is plotted against, and forcibly drawn away by another beast .... {the Serpent}
Serpens = the Serpent, offspring of Draco-Satan
But Corona nevertheless is plotted against, and forcibly drawn away by another beast, a smaller Dragon
{= the constellation Serpens, the Serpent}, which is the offspring of him {Draco-Satan} who is guarded
by the foot of Engonasis {Hercules-Adam}.
Ophiuchus = the Word of God in combat with the Serpent
A man also stands firmly grasping with both hands, and dragging towards the space behind the Serpent
from Corona; and he does not permit the Beast to touch Corona. Though making a violent effort to do
so. And Aratus styles him Anguitenens {= Ophiuchus, the Serpent-wrestler}, because he restrains the
impetuosity of the Serpent in his attempt to reach Corona. But Logos {the Word of God}, he says, is he
who, in the figure of a man {Ophiuchus}, hinders the Beast from reaching Corona, commiserating him
{Hercules-Adam} who is being plotted against by the Dragon {Draco-Satan} and his {Draco-Satan’s}
offspring {Serpens, the Serpent} simultaneously. .... Christ {the anonymous work identifies the Logos,
or Memra, with the Messiah, or Christ, as do the New Testament writers}, by which we are regenerated
... this is Anguitenens {Ophiuchus}, who struggles against the Beast {Serpens}, and hinders him from
reaching Corona, which is reserved for the man {Hercules-Adam} ... And (the Dragon) himself is
watched at the head, he says, by Anguitenens {Ophiuchus} {see further under Ursa Minor}.
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Ursa Major (the Great Bear, the Dipper) = Timebound Creation and the Wisdom of
This World
These (constellations), “The Bears,” however, he says, are two hebdomads {sets of seven, or periods of
seven days, referring to the Seven Days of Creation and Rest}, composed of seven stars, images of two
creations. For the first creation {= Ursa Major, the Great Bear}, he affirms, is that according to Adam
in labors, this {Adam, the Man of This World} is he who is seen “on his knees” (Engonasis). But “The
Great Bear” is, he says, Helice {Recurring Cycle}, symbol of a mighty world towards which the
Greeks {i.e. experts in the Wisdom of This World} steer their course, that is, for which they are being
disciplined. And, wafted by the waves of life, they follow onwards, (having in prospect) some such
revolving world or discipline or wisdom which conducts those back that follow in pursuit of such a
world. For the term Helice seems to signify a certain circling and revolution towards the same points ....
{For the following passage see further under Ursa Minor.} The Dragon {= Draco-Satan}, however, in
the center {part of its stars being placed between the two Bears} reclines between the two creations
{i.e. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor}, preventing a transition of whatever things are from the great
creation {Ursa Major, the Temporal World} to the small creation {Ursa Minor, the Spiritual World}.
Ursa Minor (the Little Bear) = The Regenerated or Spiritual Creation and Its
Eternal, Divine Wisdom
The second creation {Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, also called Cynosuris, the “Dog’s Tail Constellation”,
by the Greeks because it contains the star Cynosura, “The Dog’s Tail”, i.e. the Polestar}, however, is
that according to Christ {the Messiah}, by which we are regenerated; and this {Christ, Messiah} is
Anguitenens, who struggles against the Beast, and hinders him from reaching Corona, which is
reserved for the man {Hercules-Adam} .... {The} “Small Bear” (Cynosuris), {is} as it were some
image of the second creation — that formed according to God. For few, he says, there are that journey
by the narrow path. But they assert that Cynosuris is narrow, towards which Aratus says that the
Sidonians {those Phoenicians who inhabited the port of Sidon in the land of Canaan} navigate. But
Aratus has spoken partly {i.e. pars pro toto} of the Sidonians, (but means) the Phoenicians {in
general}, on account of the existence of the admirable wisdom of the Phoenicians {that wisdom
symbolized by Ursa Minor}. The Greeks, however, assert that they are Phoenicians, who have migrated
from (the shores of) the Red Sea into this country where they even at present dwell, for this is the
opinion of Herodotus. {I.e. the ones whom the Greeks called Phoenicians, who migrated from the Red
Sea into Canaan, and who used Ursa Minor to navigate by, included the Solumoi, or “people of
Jerusalem”. Thus, Ursa Minor, the Little or Lesser Bear, symbolized the less popular, Spiritual,
Creation, and Its Divine Wisdom, to which the Israelites aspired. The unmoving Polestar represented its
unchanging, eternal, nature.} Now Cynosura {meaning the “Dog’s Tail”}, he says, is this (lesser) Bear,
the second creation; the one of limited dimensions, the narrow way, and not Helice. For he does not
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lead them back, but guides forward by a straight path {i.e. the Polestar does not revolve, but guides
those who follow it undeviatingly}, those that follow him being (the tail) of Canis {i.e. the “Tail of the
Dog (Canis = Dog)”} .... From some such cause {as is described below under Canis Major, where
Canis, the Dog-star, is considered a symbol of the creative Logos, Memra or Word of God}, then,
Cynosura {the “Dog’s Tail”}, the second creation, is set in the firmament as an image of a creation by
the Logos. {For the following passage, see also under Draco.} The Dragon, however, in the center
reclines between the two creations, preventing a transition of whatever things are from the great
creation {Ursa Major, the Temporal World} to the small creation {Ursa Minor, the Spiritual World};
and in guarding those that are fixed in the (great) creation, as for instance Engonasis {= HerculesAdam}, observing (at the same time) how and in what manner each is constituted in the small creation.
And (the Dragon) himself is watched at the head, he says, by Anguitenens {= Ophiuchus, the Word of
God}. This image, he affirms, is fixed in heaven, being a certain wisdom to those capable of discerning
it.
Canis Major (The Great Dog) = the Word of God
For Canis {Canis Major, or, more particularly, its main star Sirius, the “Dog-Star”} is the Logos {the
creative Word of God, the Memra}, partly guarding and preserving the flock {like a sheepdog}, that is
plotted against by the wolves; and partly like a {hunting} dog, hunting the beasts from the creation, and
destroying them; and partly producing all things, and being what they express by the name “Cyon”
(Canis), that is, generator {the Greek word Kyon, Dog, the Latin Canis, was interpreted to mean
“Generator”}. Hence it is said, Aratus has spoken of the rising of Canis, expressing himself thus:
“When, however, Canis has risen {Canis, or Sirius, only appears above the horizon for a part of the
year}, no longer do the crops miss.” This is what he says: Plants that have been put into the earth up to
the period of Canis’ rising, frequently, though not having struck root, are yet covered with a profusion
of leaves, and afford indications to spectators that they will be productive, and that they appear full of
life, (though in reality) not having vitality in themselves from the root. But when the rising of Canis
takes place, the living are separated from the dead by Canis; for whatsoever plants have not taken root,
really undergo putrefaction. This Canis, therefore, he says, as being a certain divine Logos, has been
appointed judge of quick and dead. And as (the influence of) Canis is observable in the vegetable
productions of this world, so in plants of celestial growth — in men — is beheld the (power of the)
Logos.
Cepheus = Adam
If however, this {the symbolization of Draco, the Bears, Ophiuchus, etc.} is obscure, by means of some
other image {in the other celestial hemisphere}, he says the creation teaches (men) to philosophize, in
regard to which Aratus has expressed himself thus: — “Neither of Cepheus Iasidas are we the wretched
brood.” .... For he asserts that Cepheus is Adam.
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Cassiopeia = Eve
Cassiopeia {is} Eve.
Andromeda = the Soul of Adam and Eve
Andromeda {the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia} {is} the soul of both of these {viz. Of CepheusAdam and Cassiopeia-Eve}.
Cetus = the Plotting Monster
Cetus {who, in the Perseus myth, intended to devour the chained Andromeda} {is} the plotting
monster.
Perseus = the Word of God and the Cosmic Axle
Perseus {is} the Logos {the Word of God}, winged offspring {Son} of Jove {i.e. God: as the Memra
was believed to be the offspring of Jehovah} .... Not to any of these {Cepheus-Adam or CassiopeiaEve}, but to Andromeda {the human Soul} only does he repair, who slays the Beast; from whom,
likewise taking unto himself Andromeda, who had been delivered (and) chained to the Beast, the Logos
— that is, Perseus — achieves, he says, her liberation. Perseus, however, is the winged axle that pierces
both poles through the center of the earth, and turns the world round.
Cygnus, the Swan = the Holy Spirit
The Spirit also, that which is in the world {the Platonic World-Soul}, is (symbolized by) Cycnus {or
Cygnus, the Swan}, a bird — a musical animal, near “The Bears” — type of the Divine Spirit, because
that when it approaches the end itself of life, it alone is fitted by nature to sing, on departing with good
hope from the wicked creation, (and) offering up hymns unto God {the “Swan-Song”}.
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The full passage in English translation:
Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book IV
Chapter xlvi.
The Astrotheosophists — Aratus imitated by the Heresiarchs — his System of the Disposition of the
Stars.
“Having sufficiently explained these opinions, let us next pass on to a consideration of the subject
taken in hand, in order that, by proving what we have determined concerning heresies, and by
compelling their [champions] to return to these several [speculators] their peculiar tenets, we may show
the heresiarchs destitute [of a system]; and by proclaiming the folly of those who are persuaded [by
these heterodox tenets], we shall prevail on them to retrace their course to the serene haven of the truth.
In order, however, that the statements about to follow may seem more clear to the readers, it is
expedient also to declare the opinions advanced by Aratus concerning the disposition of the stars of the
heavens. [And this is necessary], inasmuch as some persons, assimilating these [doctrines] to those
declared by the Scriptures, convert [the holy writings] into allegories, and endeavor to seduce the mind
of those who give heed to their [tenets], drawing them on by plausible words into the admission of
whatever opinions they wish, [and] exhibiting a strange marvel, as if the assertions made by them were
fixed among the stars. They, however, gazing intently on the very extraordinary wonder, admirers as
they are of trifles, are fascinated like a bird called the owl, which example it is proper to mention, on
account of the statements that are about to follow. The animal [I speak of] is, however, not very
different from an eagle, either in size or figure, and it is captured in the following way:— The hunter of
these birds, when he sees a flock of them lighting anywhere, shaking his hands, at a distance pretends
to dance, and so by little and little draws near the birds. But they, struck with amazement at the strange
sight, are rendered unobservant of everything passing around them. But others of the party, who have
come into the country equipped for such a purpose, coming from behind upon the birds, easily lay hold
on them as they are gazing on the dancer.
Wherefore I desire that no one, astonished by similar wonders of those who interpret the [aspect of]
heaven, should, like the owl, be taken captive. For the knavery practiced by such speculators may be
considered dancing and silliness, but not truth. Aratus {Aratus Phaenom. V. 19 et seq.} therefore
expresses himself thus:
“Just as many are they; hither and thither they roll
Day by day o’er heav’n, endless, ever, (that is, every star),
Yet this declines not even little; but thus exactly
E’er remains with axis fixed and poised in every part
Holds earth midway, and heaven itself around conducts.”
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Chapter xlvii.
Opinions of the Heretics borrowed from Aratus.
Aratus says that there are in the sky revolving, that is, gyrating stars, because from east to west, and
west to east, they journey perpetually, [and] in an orbicular figure. And he says that there revolves
towards {Arat. Phaenom. V. 45, 46.} “The Bears” themselves, like some stream of a river, an enormous
and prodigious monster, [the] Serpent; and that this is what the devil says in the book of Job to the
Deity, when [Satan] uses these words: “I have traversed earth under heaven, and have gone around
[it],” {this refers to Job i. 7}, that is, that I have been turned around, and thereby have been able to
survey the worlds. For they suppose that towards the North Pole is situated the Dragon, the Serpent,
from the highest pole looking upon all [the objects], and gazing on all the works of creation, in order
that nothing of the things that are being made may escape his notice. For though all the stars in the
firmament set, the pole of this [luminary] alone never sets, but, careering high above the horizon,
surveys and beholds all things, and none of the works of creation, he says, can escape his notice.
“Where chiefly
Settings mingle and risings one with other.” {Arat. Phaenom. V. 61.}
[Here Aratus] says that the head of this [constellation] is placed. For towards the west and east of the
two hemispheres is situated the head of the Dragon, in order, he says, that nothing may escape his
notice throughout the same quarter, either of objects in the west or those in the east, but that the Beast
may know all things at the same time. And near the head itself of the Dragon is the appearance of a
man, conspicuous by means of the stars, which Aratus styles a wearied image, and like one oppressed
with labor, and he is denominated “Engonasis.” Aratus {Ibid. V. 63 et seq.} then affirms that he does
not know what this toil is, and what this prodigy is that revolves in heaven. The heretics, however,
wishing by means of this account of the stars to establish their own doctrines, [and] with more than
ordinary earnestness devoting their attention to these [astronomic systems], assert that Engonasis is
Adam, according to the commandment of God as Moses declared, guarding the head of the Dragon,
and the Dragon [guarding] his heel. For so Aratus expresses himself:
“The right-foot’s track of the Dragon fierce possessing” {Arat. Phaenom. V. 70}.
Chapter xlviii.
Invention of the Lyre — allegorizing the Appearance and Position of the Stars — Origin of the
Phoenicians — the Logos identified by Aratus with the Constellation Canis — Influence of Canis on
Fertility and Life generally.
And [Aratus] says that [the constellations] Lyra and Corona have been placed on both sides near him
(now I mean Engonasis), but that he bends the knee, and stretches forth both hands, as if making a
confession of sin. And that the lyre is a musical instrument fashioned by Logos while still altogether an
infant, and that Logos is the same as he who is denominated Mercury among the Greeks. And Aratus,
with regard to the construction of the lyre, observes: “Then, further, also near the cradle, Hermes
pierced it through, and said, Call it Lyre.” {Arat. Phaenom. V. 268. “Pierced it through,” i.e. bored the
holes for the strings, or, in other words, constructed the instrument.... The tortoise is mentioned by
Aratus in the first part of the line, which fact removes the obscurity of the passage as quoted by
Hippolytus. The general tradition corresponds with this, in representing Mercury on the shores of the
Nile forming a lyre out of a dried tortoise. The word translated bed might be also rendered fan, which
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was used as a cradle, its size and construction being suitable for such a purpose.}
It consists of seven strings, signifying by these seven strings the entire harmony and construction of the
world as it is melodiously constituted. For in six days the world was made, and [the Creator] rested on
the seventh. If, then, says [Aratus], Adam, acknowledging [his guilt] and guarding the head of the
Beast, according to the commandment of the Deity, will imitate Lyra, that is, obey the Logos of God,
that is, submit to the law, he will receive Corona that is situated near him. If, however, he neglect his
duty, he shall be hurled downwards in company with the Beast that lies underneath, and shall have, he
says, his portion with the Beast. And Engonasis seems on both sides to extend his hands, and on one to
touch Lyra, and on the other Corona (and this is his confession); so that it is possible to distinguish him
by means of this [sidereal] configuration itself. But Corona nevertheless is plotted against, and forcibly
drawn away by another beast, a smaller Dragon, which is the offspring of him who is guarded by the
foot of {or, “son of” (see Arat. Phaenom. V. 70)} Engonasis. A man also stands firmly grasping with
both hands, and dragging towards the space behind the Serpent from Corona; and he does not permit
the Beast to touch Corona, though making a violent effort to do so. And Aratus styles him Anguitenens,
because he restrains the impetuosity of the Serpent in his attempt to reach Corona. But Logos, he says,
is he who, in the figure of a man, hinders the Beast from reaching Corona, commiserating him who is
being plotted against by the Dragon and his offspring simultaneously.
These [constellations], “The Bears,” however, he says, are two hebdomads, composed of seven stars,
images of two creations. For the first creation, he affirms, is that according to Adam in labors, this is he
who is seen “on his knees” [Engonasis]. The second creation, however, is that according to Christ, by
which we are regenerated; and this is Anguitenens, who struggles against the Beast, and hinders him
from reaching Corona, which is reserved for the man. But “The Great Bear” is, he says, Helice, {The
Abbe Cruice considers that these interpretations, as well as what follows, are taken not from a Greek
writer, but a Jewish heretic. No Greek, he supposes, would write, as is stated lower down, that the
Greeks were a Phoenician colony. The Jewish heresies were impregnated by these silly doctrines about
the stars (see Epiphan. Adv. Haeres. Lib I. De Pharisaeis), symbol of a mighty world towards which the
Greeks steer their course, that is, for which they are being disciplined. And, wafted by the waves of life,
they follow onwards, [having in prospect] some such revolving world or discipline or wisdom which
conducts those back that follow in pursuit of such a world. For the term Helice seems to signify a
certain circling and revolution towards the same points. There is likewise a certain other “Small Bear”
[Cynosuris], as it were some image of the second creation — that formed according to God. For few, he
says, there are that journey by the narrow path. {Reference is here made to Matt. vii. 14.} But they
assert that Cynosuris is narrow, towards which Aratus {Arat. Phaenom. V. 44.} says that the Sidonians
navigate. But Aratus has spoken partly of the Sidonians, [but means] the Phoenicians, on account of the
existence of the admirable wisdom of the Phoenicians. The Greeks, however, assert that they are
Phoenicians, who have migrated from [the shores of] the Red Sea into this country where they even at
present dwell, for this is the opinion of Herodotus. {Herod. Hist. I. 1.} Now Cynosura {otherwise
Cynosuris}, he says, is this [lesser] Bear, the second creation; the one of limited dimensions, the narrow
way, and not Helice. For he does not lead them back, but guides forward by a straight path, those that
follow him being [the tail] of Canis. For Canis is the Logos, {or, “for creation is the Logos” (see Arat.
Phaenom. V. 332 et seq.)} partly guarding and preserving the flock, that is plotted against by the
wolves; and partly like a dog, hunting the beasts from the creation, and destroying them; and partly
producing all things, and being what they express by the name “Cyon” [Canis {Dog}], that is,
generator. Hence it is said, Aratus has spoken of the rising of Canis, expressing himself thus: “When,
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however, Canis has risen no longer do the crops miss.” This is what he says: Plants that have been put
into the earth up to the period of Canis' rising, frequently, though not having struck root, are yet
covered with a profusion of leaves, and afford indications to spectators that they will be productive, and
that they appear full of life, [though in reality] not having vitality in themselves from the root. But
when the rising of Canis takes place, the living are separated from the dead by Canis; for whatsoever
plants have not taken root, really undergo putrefaction. This Canis, therefore, he says, as being a certain
divine Logos, has been appointed judge of quick and dead. And as [the influence of] Canis is
observable in the vegetable productions of'this world, so in plants of celestial growth — in men — is
beheld the [power of the] Logos. From some such cause, then, Cynosura, the second creation, is set in
the firmament as an image of a creation by the Logos. The Dragon, however, in the center reclines
between the two creations, preventing a transition of whatever things are from the great creation to the
small creation; and in guarding those that are fixed in the [great] creation, as for instance Engonasis,
observing [at the same time] how and in what manner each is constituted in the small creation. And [the
Dragon] himself is watched at the head, he says, by Anguitenens. This image, he affirms, is fixed in
heaven, being a certain wisdom to those capable of discerning it. If, however, this is obscure, by means
of some other image, he says the creation teaches [men] to philosophize, in regard to which Aratus has
expressed himself thus: “Neither of Cepheus Iasidas are we the wretched brood.” {Arat. Phaenom. V.
179.}
Chapter xlix.
Symbol of the Creature — and of Spirit — and of the different Orders of Animals.
But Aratus says, near this [constellation] is Cepheus, and Cassiepea, and Andromeda, and Perseus,
great lineaments of the creation to those who are able to discern them. For he asserts that Cepheus is
Adam, Cassiepea Eve, Andromeda the soul of both of these, Perseus the Logos, winged offspring of
Jove, and Cetos {I.e. literally a sea-monster ... ; Arat. Phaenom. V. 353 et seq.}, the plotting monster.
Not to any of these, but to Andromeda only does he repair, who slays the Beast; from whom, likewise
taking unto himself Andromeda, who had been delivered [and] chained to the Beast, the Logos — that
is, Perseus —achieves, he says, her liberation. Perseus, however, is the winged axle that pierces both
poles through the center of the earth, and turns the world round. The spirit also, that which is in the
world, is [symbolized by] Cycnus, a bird — a musical animal near “The Bears” — type of the Divine
Spirit, because that when it approaches the end itself of life, it alone is fitted by nature to sing, on
departing with good hope from the wicked creation, [and] offering up hymns unto God. But crabs, and
bulls, and lions, and rams, and goats, and kids, and as many other beasts as have their names used for
denominating the stars in the firmament, are, he says, images, and exemplars from which the creation,
subject to change, obtaining [the different] species, becomes replete with animals of this description.
Chapter l.
Folly of Astrology.
Employing these accounts, [the heretics] think to deceive as many of these as devote themselves oversedulously to the astrologers, from thence striving to construct a system of religion that is widely
divergent from the thoughts of these [speculators.] Wherefore, beloved, let us avoid the habit of
admiring trifles, secured by which the bird [styled] the owl [is captured]. For these and other such
speculations are, [as it were], dancing, and not Truth. For neither do the stars yield these points of
information; but men of their own accord, for the designation of certain stars, thus called them by
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names, in order that they might become to them easily distinguishable. For what similarity with a bear,
or lion, or kid, or waterman, or Cepheus, or Andromeda, or the specters that have names given them in
Hades, have the stars that are scattered over the firmament (for we must remember that these men, and
the titles themselves, came into existence long after the origin of man), — [what I say is in common
between the two], that the heretics, astonished at the marvel, should thus strive by means of such
discourses to strengthen their own opinions?”
THE BIBLICAL STAR-NAMES
A) Analysis of the Hebrew Constellation and Star Names
a) Job 9. 9:
Hebrew:
‫
׃ם׃‬8‫ֹת‬
ּ ֽ‫
׃ם‬8 ‫
׃ם חַיֹתְח‬8‫בי‬
֣‫רח וֹתְבכ ד֖חַעכ ד כֹוִבָכ ִ םי‬
֑‫לי א ִיֹתְז ִבָ ו ח‬
ּ ֣‫ל סֶח סֶר ס ֹתְו םי‬
ַ‫מר ֶח֭ח‬
֣‫ ִבָהּי א ֵ םי‬Job 9:7
‫
׃ם׃‬8‫
׃םִֽבָי‬8 ‫מֵתי‬
ֳ‫ָב יֵת‬
֥‫
׃ם ֹתְלחַבו חּ֑דֹו ודֹ֝תְוכ דֹו ְךֵ֗ר ְך חַעל־ ִבָ תֳמ‬8‫ָשחַמ םיִ֣י‬
ָ‫טה ִב‬
֣‫ ּנ סֶ םי‬8
‫
ן‬1‫
׃םִֽבָמ‬8‫ֶשה־ֶחִ֭בָעָש ֹתְכ ִ תֳמ֥ סיל ֹתְוִכי ְךִ֗בָמה ֹתְוחַחֹתְכ דתֳמֵ֥רי ֵת‬
ֶ‫
׃םּֽע ס‬8 9
‫
׃םָֽפר׃‬8 ָ‫
ן ִמֹתְ ס ִב‬1‫ל ְך֗י אֹות חַעכ ד־תֳמֵ֥י אי‬
ָ‫
ן ֵחו ח֑ סֶקר ֹתְו ִנֹתְפ ִב‬1‫י אי‬
֣‫כ דלֹות חַעכ ד־ ֵ םי‬
ּ ֭‫ֶשה ֹתְג ֶח‬
֣‫ ּע סֶ םי‬10
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
Job 9:7 {God} Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.
8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.
9 Which maketh Ash {Pleiades}, Kesil {Venus as an evening luminary}, and Kimah {Arcturus in its
ancient, wider meaning, see [3]}, and Hadrei Teman {the “Chambers of the South”, viz. the Stars of the
Southern Skies}.
10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.
Greek (LXX):
7 ὁ λέγων τῷ ἡλίῳ καὶ οὐκ ἀνατέλλει, κατὰ δὲ ἄστρων κατασφραγίζει·
8 ὁ τανύσας τὸν οὐρανὸν μόνος καὶ περιπατῶν ὡς ἐπ᾽ ἐδάφους ἐπὶ θαλάσσης·
9 ὁ ποιῶν Πλειάδα καὶ ῞Εσπερον καὶ ᾿Αρκτοῦρον καὶ ταμιεῖα νότου·
10 ὁ ποιῶν μεγάλα καὶ ἀνεξιχνίαστα, ἔνδοξά τε καὶ ἐξαίσια, ὧν οὐκ ἔστιν ἀριθμός.
Literal Translation of the Greek:
Job 9:7 {God} Who speaks to the sun and it does not rise, whilst he seals over the stars;
8 Who has spread out the heaven alone, and who walks upon the sea as upon dry ground;
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9 Who makes Pleias {Pleiades} and Hesperos {Venus as an evening luminary} and Arktouros
{Arcturus in its ancient, wider meaning, see [3]} and Tamieia Notou {the “Chambers of the South”};
10 Who does great and unsearchable things, yea glorious and extraordinary things innumerable.
1) Ash = Pleias (sing. collective for Pleiades); the same is found in the Old Latin version of the
Bible which predates Jerome’s Vulgate and similarly in the case of the other two signs in this
verse: viz. in the Old Latin (1) Ash = Pleiades, (2) Kesil = Hesperus, and (3) Kimah = Arcturus.
However, the phrase maadanoth kimah, the “delights, or, bonds of kimah” (6) in Job 38. 31 is
translated desmos pleiados, “bond of pleias” in the LXX. Jerome, presuming pleias in Job 38.
31 meant the “Pleiades” cluster, rather than “cluster” simpliciter (see infra), and merging or
confusing the Pleiades, as they were often confused in antiquity, with what is nowadays treated
as a distinct cluster, the Hyades, translated Kimah (3) in this verse in Job 9. 9 “Hyades”; and
since also Kimah = Arktouros in the LXX and Arcturus in the Old Latin here in Job 9. 9, Jerome
treated all three names as interchangeable and translated Ash in this verse “Arcturus”. He thus
reversed the translations of the first and third names as compared to the older versions (LXX
and Old Latin). The latter preserve the more original traditional interpretation, Ash = Pleiades
and Kimah = Arcturus. This is confirmed as regards the first of these by the Syriac translation of
Ash (and Aish [9]) in the Peshitta as Iyutha: Iyutha is considered by Syriac authorities the same
as the Arabic al-Ayuq, which is an asterism variously located within the contiguous stellar fields
of Taurus, Auriga and the head of Orion, and is in some texts more specifically identified as the
Pleiades (the Pleiades being part of the constellation Taurus), Gesenius, Thesaurus s.v. Ash.
Syriac Iyutha also translates Hebrew Aish (9), and Aish in the Targum is Zagetha, the Clucking
Hen, “over her children, or, chickens”, which is the Aramaic name for the Pleiades (Jastrow,
Talmudic Dictionary, s.v.). Likewise, but less specifically, in the Talmud, Berakhoth fol. 58b,
Ash = Cauda Arietis (three stars forming the Tail [cauda] of Aries, not far from the Pleiades) or
the “Head of the Bull”, that is the area around Aldebaran, the principal star in Taurus. This
location is doubtless related to Jerome’s translation “Hyades” (for Pleiades), as the Hyades, in
the strict definition of that term, are the stars in the close neighborhood of Aldebaran. In
Rabbinic sources cited by Kircher (Oedipus Aegyptiacus, vol. 1, 1652, cap. XVIII, p. 354ff.) the
Pleiades cluster is called the “Hen with her chickens”, and Kircher further identifies it with the
Samaritan deity Succoth Benoth (II Kings 17. 30), because Succoth = “hens” (female plural of
Secui, cockerel) and Benoth = “chickens”. He also takes Succoth Benoth to be a name for the
planet (and goddess) Venus, represented as the mother hen, because the constellation Taurus in
which the Pleiades are situated, is, astrologically considered, the “House of Venus”. As regards
Succoth Benoth, he cites Kimhi on the verse II Kings 17. 30: “They called hens Succoth and
their chickens Benoth in the popular language”; Rashi on the same passage: “Succoth Benoth is
represented as an Hen with her chickens”; and as regards Ash = Pleiades, he cites Rashi on
Amos 5. 8: “kimah Ash {here both nouns are applied to the same sign, see further infra} is the
Tail of Aries”; and Abenezra: “Ash is the seven stars in the extremity of Aries, though only six
stars are visible to the naked eye”; and Rabbi Yona: “Ash is the six stars forming the sign called
in the Ishmaelite language al-Turaya [the Pleiades]”; and on Amos 5. 8: “Ash is the six stars in
the sign of Taurus which are represented as an Hen with her chickens [employing the same
terms for this last phrase precisely as Rashi on Succoth Benoth]”. The authority of the Vulgate
in the Middle Ages encouraged the spread of the erroneous belief that the Hebrew Ash was a
star or constellation in the region of, or identifiable with, Arcturus (that is, Arcturus in its wider
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sense, including Ursa Major, see [3] infra). In a similar way, Banat al-Naash is commonly taken
to be the Arabic name for Ursa Major (Lane, Lexicon etc.), but Kircher (ibid., p. 357) cites
“Al[p]hag[h]i ben Ioseph” (presumably al-Ḥajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Maṭar [786-830]) in his
Astronomia Arabica, as equating Arabic Banat Naash with the Pleiades, not Ursa Major: “Now
the sign of Taurus is the house of Venus ... and ten days later rises al-Turaya [the Pleiades] or
Banat al-Naash, and it is then a good time to make maritime journeys, to sow seeds, and to do
any agricultural work, and any work in accord with the nature of Venus”. This implies the
confusion, Ash/Kimah = Ursa Major, and Ash/Kimah = the Pleiades, operated in Arabic sources.
It is probable, in fact, that the Greek Pleias (meaning a “group of many stars”) meant “cluster”
(of stars) originally, rather than the specific cluster later commonly called “Pleias” (singular, or
“Pleiades”, plural, from pleiones, “many”, see further Section [d] Note 1), that is “the Cluster”,
the Pleiades cluster in Taurus. Accordingly, the Suda Byzantine-era Lexicon has two entries
defining Pleias, separated by several other non-related entries: one has the Epic spelling of the
name, presumably the older of the two, and Pleias is therein defined as “the group of stars [so
called]” (Gk. to astron); in the other entry (with the non-Epic spelling) Pleias is defined as “the
group of six stars [so called]” (Gk. to exasteron), that is the Pleiades cluster in Taurus. Further,
the definition “group of stars”, Gk. astron, in the case of the Epic spelling, is explained
elsewhere in the Suda, under aster, as follows: aster means a single luminary, but astron
comprises “many (Gk. pollon)” luminaries. Here the identical Greek word “many” is employed
to bring out the meaning of astron, which latter defines Pleias, spelled in the Epic manner,
whilst Pleias itself is a formation, as it was held in antiquity, from the word “many”. We can
conclude that in the Epic period, in an earlier phase of the language, Pleias meant simply a
“group of many stars”, and received its name accordingly (Pleias = “multitude”). This word was
secondarily, and in a later period, applied to a particular “multitude of stars” in Taurus, the
Pleiades cluster. So the word pleias is used in the LXX, see (c) infra, at Job 38. 31 to translate
the Hebrew kimah. If pleias in Job 38. 31 meant “Pleiades” there would be a contradiction to
this verse, Job 9. 9, where Kimah is translated Arktouros. This suggests the LXX’s pleias in Job
38. 31 meant “cluster” (the Suda’s astron): that is, the Greek translators understood kimah in
Job 38. 31 to be a common noun, “cluster, a cumulation of stars”, not a proper noun, Kimah =
“the Cluster, the Cumulation of Stars” (Arktouros), as in Job 9. 9. See further Section (d) Note 1
on the root-meaning of the Hebrew kimah. Note also Rashi’s use of the word kimah, quoted
supra, in the sense “cluster”: viz. “kimah Ash”, the cluster (kimah) called Pleiades (Ash).
2) Kesil = Hesperos, the planet Venus (male gender) and in its evening aspect. See further infra,
Section (d) Note 2 and Section (e) Note 3, on kesil = “predictable celestial object”, on Venus as
“the Predictable Celestial Object”, and on the wider use of the word kesil to denote “luminary”
in general.
3) Kimah = Arktouros, which in Greek means Bootes (a.k.a. Arcturus) and/or Ursa Major (a.k.a
Arcturus Major) and/or Ursa Minor (a.k.a. Arcturus Minor). Arktouros could be interpreted to
mean the “Tail (ouros) of the Bear (Arkas)”, viz. of Ursa Major, in which case it might be
treated as part of the larger constellation. For more on Kimah see Section (d) Note 1.
4) Hadrei-Teman = Tamieia Notou, the “Chambers of the South”. Explained in the Hexapla (ed.
Field in loc.) as follows: “the Hebrew {writer} (interprets it to mean): all the stars revolving
around the South”. The word “chambers” is indicative of the fact that these stars are for the
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most part “shut up” out of sight, as if in chambers, beneath the horizon.
b) Job 26. 13:
Hebrew:
‫
׃םִֽבָרחַהב׃‬8 ‫
׃ם ו ודִ֝בֹתְתבוִבָנ ְך֗תֹו ִבָמ םי֣חַח ץ‬8‫ָי‬
֑‫כחֹו ִבָר םי֣חַגע חַה ִבָ ו ח‬
ּ ֭‫ ֹתְָב ֶח‬Job 26:12
‫
׃םִֽריחַח׃‬8 ‫לתֳמִ֥בָלה ִבָיוד֝ ְך֗כ דֹו ִבָנתֳמִ֥בָחָש ִבָָב‬
ֲ‫ח ָ֥ל‬
ּ ֽ‫
׃ם‬8 ‫רה‬
֑‫
׃ם ִָשֹתְפ ִבָ ו ח‬8‫ָשחַמ םיִ֣י‬
ָ‫ָברוחֹו ִב‬
֭‫ ֹתְ ֶח‬13
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed Nahash Bariah {Apostate Draco,
the Fleeing Serpent}.
Greek (LXX):
Job 26:12 ἰσχύι κατέπαυσεν τὴν θάλασσαν, ἐπιστήμῃ δὲ ἔτρωσε τὸ κῆτος·
13 κλεῖθρα δὲ οὐρανοῦ δεδοίκασιν αὐτόν, προστάγματι δὲ ἐθανάτωσεν δράκοντα ἀποστάτην.
Literal Translation of the Greek:
Job 26:12 By his might he stilled the sea, yea by his understanding he crippled the sea-monster;
13 The bars of heaven dread him; yea he slew Drakon Apostates {Draco, the “Apostate Serpent”} with
a word of command.
5) Nahash bariah = Drakon apostates. This is the constellation Draco, here called the
“Apostate, or, Fleeing (apostates) Serpent (Drakon)”. The root meaning of Heb. b-r-h is “break
through, pass across” and hence “to flee, or, be fugitive, particularly to a desert land” (GeseniusTregelles s.v.). Cf. the slang expression “to split”, or “to make a break”, meaning “to flee”. The
Serpent is described here as bariah, “having fled (or, ‘split’)”. The Classical sign included the
figure whose presence is implied in the name (the person, that is, from whom the Serpent fled),
Ophiuchus, and he is depicted accordingly “splitting” a serpent (the constellation Serpens) in
two, or with a serpent “passing across” him. Ophiuchus is eagle-headed or accompanied by an
eagle, representing the Spirit (bird) in the Storm (eagle = storm-bird). Aquila is the eagle. The
desert land is symbolized by the scorpion beneath the feet of Ophiuchus. Scorpio (The
Scorpion) is the Hebrew month Bul (see further Section C [b]), and this signifies the “flood”
(Heb. root b-l) of water (snake) pouring on the hot, dry desert (scorpion), or, in medical terms,
the dampening (snake = water) of the heat of the flaming (scorpion-like) boil (Heb. root b-l,
used of the “flowing” of pus). Bul also means “stake, pole”, and represents, amongst other
things, the central axis around which the storm-winds blow in a hurricane or whirlwind. Hence
Ophiuchus is represented carrying (Heb. root b-l) a rod or cross around which the serpent
(water-clouds) are circling. Pole, rod, Bul, is from the same Heb. root b-l. The cross is the
constellation Cygnus, the Swan or the Northern Cross, at the top of the rod: the cross-pole is
symbolized as bird’s wings, because it is an aerial (winged) rod, representing the whirlwind
flying through heaven. Hence also Ophiuchus is deemed to be “eagle-headed”. The whole sign
was one unit: it was the Eagle, or the Eagle-headed Man, or, the Man Holding the Power (Rod)
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of the Eagle (Storm) in the act of crushing the Scorpion, and thus might be represented either by
an Eagle or a Scorpion. In the ancient Egyptian system the Draco-Serpens star-field was
represented by a pregnant hippopotamus, either with a crocodile mounted on her back, or with a
crocodile’s tail. This indicates that Satan (the crocodile) is the cause (at the back) of violent
flooding (the hippopotamus). The pregnant womb of the hippopotamus signifies that dry land,
as especially in ancient Egypt, is fertilized by the identical, otherwise destructive, flood waters.
In Graeco-Roman astrology the intertwined crocodile and hippopotamus are transformed into
Draco and the serpent.
c) Job 38. 31-32:
Hebrew:
‫
׃םֹֽתחַח׃‬8 ֵ ‫ סיל ֹתְֹתחַפ‬
֣‫מֹתְָשכ ד֖כֹות ֹתְכ ִ םי‬
ּ ‫
׃םֽי אֹו־‬8 ‫מה‬
֑‫עחַכ ד םיּ֣נֹות ִכי ִבָ ו ח‬
ֲ‫ֵּשר חַמ ָ֥ל‬
ֵ ‫
׃םֽה ֹתְת חַק‬8ַ‫ ֶח֭ח‬Job 38:31
:‫
׃ם‬8‫
׃םֵֽח‬8‫ציי א חַמִבָָז םי֣רֹות ֹתְָבִעו חֹ֑תֹו ֹתְו וד֝ ְך֗חַעִיָש חַעל־ִבָָב תֳמ֥ סֶניִבָה חַת ֹתְנ‬
֣‫ת ִ םי‬
ּ ‫ה‬
ֲ‫ ָ֥ל‬32
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
Job 38:31 Canst thou bind maadanoth kimah {the delights/bonds of a cluster}, or loose moshekoth
kesil {the dragging effects of a predictable celestial object, or, of Venus [the Predictable Celestial
Object]}?
32 Canst thou bring forth mazzaroth {webs} in his (viz. kesil’s) season? or canst thou guide Aish {the
matrix of the Pleiades} over her children?
Greek (LXX):
Job 38:31 συνῆκας δὲ δεσμὸν πλειάδος καὶ φραγμὸν ᾿Ωρίωνος ἤνοιξας;
32 ἦ διανοίξεις μαζουρωθ ἐν καιρῷ αὐτοῦ καὶ ῞Εσπερον ἐπὶ κόμης αὐτοῦ ἄξεις αὐτά;
Literal Translation of the Greek:
Job 38:31 Did you bind together desmos pleiados {“the bond of a cluster”} and break through
phragmos Orionos {“the obstruction of an Orion”}?
32 Or will you manifest mazouroth in his time, and Hesperos {the father of the Hespirides, a.k.a. the
Pleiades} over his luminous tail, will you conduct them forward?
6) Maadanoth kimah = desmos pleiados; see further under Section (d) Note 1.
7) Moshekoth kesil = phragmos Orionos (phragmos = “fencing, blockage, obstruction,
fortification”). The Hebrew “dragging effects of a predictable celestial object” is translated as
“obstruction of (an) Orion” in Greek. Earlier (in Section [a]) we have seen Kesil translated as
Hesperos, Venus. Here it is “Orion”. Which is the correct translation, and is there a
contradiction in the text of the LXX? The answer to this question is found in another verse in
the LXX (Section [e] infra), where the word kesil in the Hebrew text is in the plural, kesilim.
Other versions render kesilim “luminaries” or “stars”, but the LXX translates dynamically:
“Orion and the whole array of heaven”. This means Orion is a single kesil, one of the kesilim,
but there are other similar luminaries making up “the whole array of heaven”. Thus the LXX
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renders “Orion” when it considers the word kesil is generic, and means “a kesil”, as in the verse
under consideration, Job 38. 31. It is translated differently in Job 9. 9, because there the LXX
takes it to be specific (“the Kesil”), and in fact a proper noun, the name of Venus as an evening
luminary (Gk. Hesperos). Of course, the LXX might be wrong in its understanding of the
Hebrew here in Job 38. 31. The Hebrew kesil could be meant either in a generic sense,
“predictable celestial object”, or in a specific sense, “the Predictable Celestial Object”, viz.
Venus. The LXX elects to take it in the generic sense, “an Orion”. The translation suits the
context, as Orion in Greek and Roman astro-mythology is a mighty giant, and therefore might
be thought to exemplify the principles of masculine strength and resistance to female
“attraction”. The Hebrew might also be interpreted in the sense that the kesil or “predictable
celestial object” is producing, rather than experiencing, the “dragging effects”. Jerome seems to
have understood the word kesil in a generic sense, like the LXX, but translated the whole phrase
(moshekoth kesil) as “gyrum Arcturi”, the “orbital motion of (an) Arcturus”. Basil of Caesarea
noted in his Commentary on Isaiah 13. 10 that the constellation “Orion” of the LXX, translating
there in Isaiah 13, as in this verse, the Heb. kesil, was called “by some” Bootes (Arcturus). He
explained this by saying the Sacred Writings treated Orion and Bootes as a “single body”.
Bootes in modern maps of the night sky is located in a different section, almost in the opposite
section, of the night sky, to Orion. However, in an ancient exegesis of Aratus’ astrological
treatises referenced infra, Section (d) Note 1, Aratus’ constellations, under their Classical
denominations, are given Scriptural identifications which explain Basil’s assertion: Sirius, the
“Dog-star”, the hunting dog of Orion, is treated therein as the cosmic dog (the divine Logos),
whose “tail” is Cynosuris or Cynosura, the “dog’s tail”, viz. Ursa Minor. And Ursa Minor, as we
have seen, is Arcturus Minor, whilst Ursa Major is Arcturus Major, and Arcturus itself the “tail”
of Ursa Major. A similar concept explains the Classical appellation “Icarius’ Dog” attached to
Sirius, as Icarius is a name for the constellation Bootes (Arcturus) in Graeco-Roman astromythology. The concept of a dog chasing its tail was evidently applied to the star Sirius as it ran
its course through the heavens: the celestial pole then became the “tip of the tail”, and the Arctic
constellations Bootes, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the body of the tail, typing the “followers”
of the Logos (Sirius). Orion (strictly Sirius in Orion) and Arcturus, according to this theory,
were “one body”. See further infra (8) on kesil as cross-referenced in Job 38. 32 interpreted to
mean Sirius, the “little dog of Orion”.
8) Mazzaroth be-itto = mazouroth (the LXX thus transcribes the Hebrew word) “in his season”.
The Vulgate translates it “luciferum (not Lucifer, Venus, for which the acc. would properly be
Luciferem) in tempore suo”, “light as it progresses in its time”. Mazzaroth means “webs”
(Jastrow Talmudic Dictionary s.v. mzr), or, according to Symmachus in the Hexapla (ed. Field),
more literally, “the strewn, or, scattered things (neut. pl.)”. The celestial configuration (mazzal)
here was believed in Rabbinic tradition to cover fruit with webs (Jastrow ibid., citing Bereshith
Rabba Para. 10), which may relate to the time of a luminary’s appearance in the early morning,
when dew-covered webs are noticeable at ground-level; in that case, it implicitly identifies the
luminary as a celestial spider, a minute circular creature with radiating legs (rays), spinning
web-like orbits. This is the normal position of Venus, as it is always located near the rising or
setting sun. The same applies to other celestial phenomena, including the one involving Sirius
described infra. Mazzaroth is a feminine plural, but the following words have a masculine suffix
be-itto, “in his time”. The probable subject of the masculine suffix is the immediately preceding
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masculine noun kesil of verse 31, which is a “predictable celestial object” and may refer, in a
specific sense, to Venus, or, in a more general sense, to Orion or a similar asterism, see (ii) and
Section (d) Note 2 infra. Originally the phrase seems to have referred to the “bringing forth” of
“scattered” things, perhaps “webs” or “web-like orbits”, by the luminary denominated kesil,
when “its time comes round”. (Cf. Symmachus’ translation supra.) Jerome understood the
“scattered things” to be scattered rays of light, translating mazzaroth “luciferum”, which would
properly be the neut. sing. acc. of the adj. luciferus, lit. “light-bringing (effect)”, that is “light
as it progresses, or mounts up in the sky, or proceeds in its course”. Given that kesil means
“predictable celestial object” in a generic sense (“an Orion”, as the LXX renders it) and that the
pronominal suffix in the phrase be-itto (“in its time”) refers to kesil in the preceding verse, the
“web-like orbit” or “light as it progresses” referred to in verse 32 might be thought to belong to
Orion itself. Accordingly, a marginal note in the Syriac of the Hexapla (ed. Field in loc.)
identifies Mazzaroth as a name for Caniculum Orionis, lit. the “little dog of Orion”, that is,
Sirius, the brightest fixed star in the sky, which was treated in antiquity as a part of the greater
constellation of Orion. This marginal note says Mazzaroth means, “according to some”, a “sign
of the Zodiac”, and, “according to others”, Caniculum Orionis, viz. Sirius. The first suggestion
is dependent on the transcription of the name in the LXX (“Mazouroth”), which happens, but
only happens, to be identical in that version to the transcription of the Heb. Mazzaloth, the latter
meaning “signs of the Zodiac”, see Section C (a) Note 4 infra. The other alternative, Sirius, is a
workable translation, if over-precise. The original meaning of verse 32 is, in all likelihood, that
God “causes to go forth” (viz. in the forefront position, ahead of the sun) a luminary (kesil) in
the morning, and that this coincides with the production of “webs” or “web-like orbits”. This
statement is balanced by the following phrase, which talks of “leading” Aish with her children.
The Greek translates this as of an evening (“hesperos”) phenomenon: the sun “leads” and the
stars follow, since the sun sets first and the stars set behind it.
9) Aish al-baneyha = “Aish over her children”, Greek, Hesperos epi komes autou, “Hesperos
over his luminous tail”. The Greek translators took the Heb. banim, “children”, here to mean
kome, lit. “hair” = “luminous tail”, e.g. of a comet (Liddell-Scott-Jones). The “luminous tail” is
what we would call a “cluster” or “nebula”, compared to a cluster of children around their
mother. Aish means “That which gnaws like a moth” (cf. ash = moth); otherwise it means “that
which wears out over time”; here again the star or asterism is symbolized as a minute creature,
an insect or similar, and further, in this instance, the mother of a cluster (swarm) of young. Aish
signifies the cause (“mother”) of the astral phenomenon, or the matrix thereof, or the astral
phenomenon viewed in toto, rather than the effect (Ash), or individual astral object of which it is
composed (“child”). The LXX uses Greek mythological terminology to translate the Hebrew:
Aish is the mother of the Ash children (viz. the Pleiades) according to the Hebrew of this verse,
and the equivalent figure (with a change of gender) in Greek astro-mythology is Hesperos, the
father of the Hesperides (the Hesperides being another name for the Pleiades). As it happens
Hesperos is also the Greek name for the planet Venus, and this may account for, or be related to,
the astrological belief that Taurus (the constellation where the Pleiades are located) is the
“house” of Venus, supra (1).
Certain facts may be deduced about the constellations and stars denominated here:
i) In relation to (6) maadanoth kimah, translated “bond of pleias”: pleias here is a common noun for the
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reasons given supra in (1), meaning “a cluster”, but it could be treated as a proper noun, viz. Pleias =
the Pleiades Cluster. Since Kimah = Arktouros (supra [a]), according to the LXX, a connection might
be drawn between Arktouros and the Pleiades cluster, involving “Edenic delights” (grammatically of
the feminine gender), or, alternatively, “bands” or “bindings, knots”. “Ash”, translated “Pleiades” in the
LXX of Job 9. 9, might then be thought to be brought into “bondage” (maadanoth = “bands”) by the
“Edenic delights” (maadanoth). (See further infra [iv] on [9], the “daughters of Aish”.) This would
relate to the contrast of “bondage” and death in the world of time (the Pleiades on the Zodiacal circle,
representing time and decay, cf. ashash, wear out infra, [iv]), and the “Edenic delights” of the eternal
world of Kimah in the circumpolar realm. See further on Kimah at Section (d) Note 1, infra. Jastrow
(s.v. Kimah) points out that (in Bemidbar Rabba Para. 10, Bereshith Rabba Para. 10, etc.) Kimah is
compared to “knowledge” (Heb. daath): for the term maadanoth kimah indicates Kimah “ripens” the
fruits of the field and gives them their individual “taste” (Heb. taam), and the word “taste” can also
mean “discernment”, i.e. knowledge, in Hebrew. Here an analogy is implied between the bestowal of
taste in literal fruit by Kimah and the bestowal of knowledge in metaphorical fruit in Eden. Evidently
the phrase maadanoth kimah has been taken to mean “the delicious (fruits) of kimah”, and a crossreference taken for granted to the “Edenic delights” of the Tree of Knowledge.
ii) In relation to (7) moshekoth kesil, translated “obstruction of (an) Orion” in the Greek LXX, implying
kesil here is used in the generic sense: since Kesil in the specific sense = Hesperos, viz. Venus as an
evening luminary, a connection might be drawn between Venus and Orion, involving “the dragging
effects” (moshekoth) exerted on, or produced by, both these luminaries, and that in spite of strong
resistance (Gk. phragmos, obstruction). See further on Kesil at (iv), Section (d) Note 2 and Section (e)
Note 3, infra.
iii) In relation to (8) mazzaroth be-itto: the phrase is understood variously to refer to the morning
luminary Venus (Kesil = Hesperos), or to Sirius treated as part of the constellation Orion (kesil in the
generic sense, a predictable celestial object such as Orion). In ancient astro-mythology Venus was
closely connected with Sirius. Sirius was the astral form of the Egyptian goddess Isis-Hathor, and
therefore of the corresponding Greek goddess Aphrodite, and the Roman Venus. In her various Oriental
embodiments Venus was, at one and the same time, the lover and the slayer of the particular hunter-god
(known variously as Tammuz, Adonis, Osiris, Asclepius etc.) represented in the constellation Orion,
being the mistress of the “Dog-Star” (Sirius) which brought about his death. The hunter-god perished at
the time of the heliacal rising of Sirius, when the star appeared for the first time in its yearly cycle, in
the morning, at sunrise. Thus the “webs” or “nets” (mazzaroth) might be understood to be hunting-nets:
the instrument which encompassed the death of the giant hunter, — symbolized similarly as his own
dog, or as Venus’ dog, or as the goddess herself with whom he was fatally obsessed. In the Edenic
sense, it might also be a reference to the “weaving” of clothes to cover fallen mankind’s nakedness, a
concomitant of the Fall, since the Heb. mazar, whence Mazzaroth, means “spin yarn” as well as
“weave a web”. Naamah, the sister of Tubal-cain, is said to have invented weaving (Sefer haZikhronoth [Jerahmeel]), and she is identified with Minerva = Athena = Neith = Isis = Sothis-Sirius,
and Tubal-cain her brother with Vulcanus = Apis = Serapis = Orion. (Naamah = Minerva, Tubal-cain =
Vulcanus, according to the Latin Exordium to Eusebius’ Chronicle.) The threads spun around the
“mature fruits” of the bodies of Adam and Eve and their offspring, as a consequence of the Fall, are
comparable to the spiders’ webs spun around the fruits of the field, and the web-like orbits of
luminaries around the celestial spheres in the fallen world of time and space (cf. the phrase be-itto,
“when its time comes round” or “in his time”).
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iv) In relation to (9) Aish al-baneya, interpreted as Hesperos epi komes autou, viz. Hesperos upon his
“luminous tail”: a connection might be drawn between this sign and (7), Hesperos being classed with
Orion as subject to “dragging effects”, supra (ii). However, the female gender of the Hebrew (baneyha,
“her children”) proves Aish is a mother. The female form of the Greek Hesperos was Hesperis (the
daughter of Hesperos), who married Atlas and begot by him the Hesperides/Atlantides/Pleiades, which
are all names for the same nebula. Alternatively Hesperos himself was the father of the Hesperides. It
would have been somewhat more accurate for the LXX to have translated Aish as Hesperis, not
Hesperos, to represent the gender of the Hebrew. The common root of Ash (the Pleiades, see [1]) and
Aish (the common root being ashash = “wear out over time, gnaw like a moth”) reflects the connection
between Aish/Hesperis and Ash/Hesperides. That Aish is closely connected with the Pleiades is shown
by the fact that the Syriac term Iyutha is used in the Peshitta to translate both Ash and Aish, and the
asterism Iyutha is located in the star fields covering the face of Orion, Taurus and Auriga, and is in
some texts more specifically identified as the Pleiades. (See [1] supra.) Also Aish is Zagetha, the
Clucking Hen, “over her chickens, or, children”, in the Targum, which is the Aramaic name for the
Pleiades. (Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, s.v., and see [1] supra.) The “chickens” clearly are the same as
the “children” of verse 32 here. The Pleiades were understood to be the object of Orion’s desire, both in
post-Biblical Rabbinic tradition and in Graeco-Roman astro-mythology, so it is significant that the
Hebrew phrase moshekoth kesil, interpreted in the Greek LXX as (breaking through the) “obstruction
of (an) Orion”, occurs in this passage in such close proximity to the phrase Aish al-baneyha, “the
matrix of the Pleiades”.
d) Amos 5. 8:
Hebrew:
‫
׃םּֽניחו׃‬8 ִ ‫לתֳמִ֥בָי א סֶר ץ ִה‬
ָ‫ָפט וֹתְצִבָכ ד כ דִ֖בָקה ִב‬
֑‫ע כ דִ֖בָנה ִמֹתְָש ִבָ ו ח‬
ֲ‫ל ָ֥ל‬
ַ‫
׃ם ֹתְל ח‬8‫הֹתְפתֳמִ֥כי‬
ּ ‫ חַה‬Amos 5:7
‫
׃ם חַעל־ֹתְָפ ֵ תֳמ֥ני‬8‫כ‬
֛‫
׃םֽוִיִָֽיֹתְָשֹתְָפ ֵ ַע ם‬8ַ‫
׃ם ח‬8‫
׃םֵֽמי־חַה ְךִ֗בָָי‬8‫רי א ֹתְל‬
֣‫ָשי ְך חַהּקֹו ֵ םי‬
֑‫לה סֶהֹתְח ִ ו ח‬
ָ‫
׃ם חַל םיֹ֣תְי ִב‬8‫ָב סֶקר צ ֙ חַצֹתְלתֶוִ֔בָמ סֶות ֹתְוכ ד֖יֹו‬
ּ ֙‫ל ֙רֶק‬
ַ‫פ ְך ח‬
֤‫ה ֵ ְך‬
ּ ‫ֶשה ִכי הִ֜בָמה וֹתְכ ִ ְך֗ סיל ֹתְו‬
ֵ ֙‫ ּע ֙רֶק‬8
‫
׃םֽמֹו׃ ס‬8‫ִבָהכ דִ֖בָי א סֶר ץ ֹתְיה תֳמִ֥בָוה ֹתְָש‬
‫
׃םֽבֹוי א׃‬8‫ָשכ ד חַעל־ִמֹתְבתֳמִ֥בָצר ִבָי‬
ּ ֖‫עז ֹתְו כ ד‬
֑‫ָשכ ד חַעל־ ִבָ ו ח‬
ּ ֖‫ חַהחַַמֹתְבתֳמִ֥ליג כ ד‬9
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
Amos 5:7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8 Seek him that maketh kimah and kesil {all the matter in the universe, giving it solid shape}, and
turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the
waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
Greek (LXX):
Amos 5:7 κύριος ὁ ποιῶν εἰς ὕψος κρίμα καὶ δικαιοσύνην εἰς γῆν ἔθηκεν,
8 ποιῶν πάντα καὶ μετασκευάζων καὶ ἐκτρέπων εἰς τὸ πρωὶ σκιὰν θανάτου καὶ ἡμέραν εἰς νύκτα
συσκοτάζων, ὁ προσκαλούμενος τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ ἐκχέων αὐτὸ ἐπὶ προσώπου τῆς γῆς, κύριος
ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ ὄνομα αὐτῷ·
9 ὁ διαιρῶν συντριμμὸν ἐπ᾽ ἰσχὺν καὶ ταλαιπωρίαν ἐπὶ ὀχύρωμα
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Literal Translation of the Greek:
Amos 5:7 It is the Lord who sets judgment on high and he established righteousness on earth
8 Making all the matter in the universe, and giving it solid shape, and turning the shadow of death into
dawn and darkening day into night, who calls for the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of
the earth, the Lord Almighty God is his name.
9 Who dispenses ruin on might and brings misfortune upon the stronghold.
Note 1) The LXX understands the word kimah to be a common noun here, meaning “totality”,
lit. “all things”, viz. all the matter in the universe, or a “universal clustering” of matter, from
kwm, “accumulate, multiply collectively, collect together”. Cf. kimtu in Akkadian = “family,
kin”, from the same root. Hence kimah might also be understood to mean “gathering of the
whole family” or “complete family circle”. Kimah used as a proper noun means Arktouros
according to (3) and Arktouros denotes not only the constellation Bootes, the Bear-keeper, but
also Arkas, the Bear itself (the star Arktouros in Bootes, the fourth brightest in the sky, then
being understood to be the tail [ouros] of the Bear [Arkas]). Ursa Major, the Great Bear, was
also known as Arcturus (Arktouros) Major and Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, as Arcturus
(Arktouros) Minor. The Pole Star in Ursa Minor/Arcturus Minor was called the “Dog’s Tail” by
the ancient Greeks because the constellations were thought to revolve around the Pole Star like
a dog chasing its tail. The “Family Circle” (Kimah) of Arktouros would be, in that case, the
circle marked by the sweep (“tail” ouros) of the Bear (Arkas), that is, the star Arktouros, as it
revolves round the pole. Maadanoth kimah, the “delights/bonds of kimah” is translated desmos
pleiados, the “bond of pleias”, in the LXX. Pleias/pleiades is traditionally understood to be a
formation from the Greek word pleiones, “the multitude”, which corresponds to the root
meaning of the Hebrew kimah, “accumulate, multiply collectively”. Thus “desmos pleiados”
would be a translation of “maadanoth kimah”, literally “bond(s) of the multitude”. When the
“delights” (maadanoth) of the never-setting (eternal, paradisiacal) stars of Kimah (= Pleias in
Greek, the “Multitude”) were believed to have become involved in the “bonds” (maadanoth) of
time, typing the fall of the sons (stars) of God, then the nebulous cluster in the time-bound
region of Taurus in the Zodiacal zone of rising and setting stars might be treated as an example
of the “bound stars of Kimah/Pleias”, and the Greek name Pleias or Pleiades become attached
to that particular cluster secondarily. The “seven” nebular-enclosed stars of the Pleiades cluster
look like a miniature version of the seven stars of the circumpolar constellations, Ursa Minor
and Ursa Major, the Little Bear and Great Bear, within the Kimah zone, even duplicating their
configuration: as if the seven “eternally revolving” stars of those higher and vaster
constellations fell southward into the cloudy matter of time to form the tiny cluster of the
Pleiades in the Zodiacal realm. This explains also the confusion in later texts between Kimah
and Ash as names for the Pleiades.
In ancient Egyptian astrology the connection between these two asterisms (Kimah and Ash, Ursa
Major and Pleiades) is implied by the common symbolism employed to depict them. The
Pleiades cluster is part of the constellation Taurus, represented by a bull in Egyptian as in other
Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman systems, but Ursa Major also by a bull, rather than a bear, in
ancient Egypt, or more commonly by a bull’s foreleg, or the latter equipped with a bull’s head.
The bull’s foreleg (Meskhetiu, the “Foreleg”) duplicates the characteristic shape of Ursa Major.
It is a remarkable fact that the Pleiades cluster is located on the haunch of the foreleg of the bull
Taurus, though the legs of the bull do not usually appear, traditionally on account of the fact that
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they are submerged in water: so the constellation represents only the head and horns of the
animal. In the Egyptian Dendera Zodiac the Taurus bull (in this case a complete animal) is
depicted looking back over the haunch of its foreleg, as if concerned it may be attacked there.
The seven (latterly six) stars of the Pleiades represent the seven (latterly six) generations and/or
cities of the Cainite prediluvian civilization destroyed in the Noachide Flood. Therefore it comes
as no surprise to find in the Egyptian scheme the seven stars of the similar-shaped constellation
the “Foreleg” (Ursa Major) in the grip of the Hippopotamus-cum-Crocodile figure, which
represents Draco-Serpens, or the down-pouring heavenly waters of the Flood (Draco = the
Egyptian Seth, the Crocodile, and Serpens = his consort, the Hippopotamus goddess Thoueris).
The “Foreleg” might be thought to have been wrenched off the Taurus bull (where it was
originally located as the Pleiades cluster), and set amongst the circumpolar stars as the
constellation Ursa Major. The Hippopotamus-cum-Crocodile, in fact, holds the “Foreleg” by a
chain, which is reminiscent of the Hebrew name maadanoth kimah, the “bonds of kimah”. Hence
also it is known in Egypt as the “Leg of Seth”. Have we not here a depiction of the fact that the
Flood (the Hippopotamus-cum-Crocodile) overwhelmed (chained up) the Cainite cities (the
Pleiades) beneath its waters, and removed their inhabitants into the eternal world of the
Circumpolar stars (as Ursa Major), in what amounts to a reversal of the concept that the seven
stars fell in principio from eternity (Ursa Major) into the bonds of time (the Pleiades)? The
efficient cause of this process was God Himself, and hence in some depictions the constellation
of the “Foreleg” is represented as being speared by Horus, the god of heaven, under the name
“Anu”, whilst chained by the Hippopotamus-cum-Crocodile. The generation which suffered this
fate was the seventh Cainite generation, that of Tubal-cain, who was identified with the Classical
smith-god Vulcanus (Exordium to Eusebius’ Chronicle), corresponding to the Egyptian
Ptah/Apis/Osiris. The animal form of the latter was the Apis bull, and the bull or bull’s foreleg
appropriately symbolized that seventh generation destroyed in the Flood. Osiris was identical to
the Levantine god Adonis-Tammuz, and the Zodiac sign Cancer (the Crab) was an astral form of
the smith-god Tammuz. In the tomb of Petosiris at Atfieh, accordingly, the Horus-like god Anu
spears both the sign Cancer (represented as a turtle, instead of a crab, immediately in front of the
constellation Mai, the “Lion” [Leo]), and the “Foreleg”, viz. the two astral forms of Tammuz.
The two star-signs doubtless reflect the fact that Tammuz had two incarnations, one before the
Flood (Taurus), and one after it (Cancer). The Flood, according to the Nabataean Agriculture, or
in Egyptian astral terms the Hippopotamus-cum-Crocodile, took away the prediluvian Tammuz
(Tubal-cain), and the god Seth (the Crocodile) and/or a Hippopotamus and/or the waters of the
Mediterranean took away the body of his postdiluvian Egyptian counterpart Osiris (Plutarch, Isis
and Osiris), Osiris being identified with the first king of Egypt, Mizraim (Defloratio Berosi). In
Mesopotamia the month Tammuz, when the moon was in Cancer, was called the “month of the
binding (kimitu or kimutu) of Tammuz”, as it was then that he was believed to have been
imprisoned in the underworld: the word kimitu or kimutu is a formation from the same Semitic
root k-m as the Hebrew kimah, meaning “to bind, or, gather together” and hence “to capture,
imprison”. The Egyptian depictions show the event duplicated: once in Cancer, once in Ursa
Major; so the word might be applied to either of these constellations. In the Egyptian Ursa
Major, the “Foreleg”, the verbal root is symbolized by the chain with which it is bound in the
hand of the Hippopotamus-cum-Crocodile, as well as by the piercing of the spear of Anu. In the
Hebrew tradition, similarly, the name Kimah is applied to the stars of the Northern Arctic Circle,
or, more specifically to “Arcturus” (Gk. Arktouros). In Graeco-Roman astrology the
constellation Arcturus was also known as Lycaon, meaning “a person with the appetite of a wild
canine (lycus)”, and Bouzuges, who first yoked oxen to a plow. In the Egyptian Dendera Zodiac
this sign (Arcturus) appears in its proper place, adjacent to the chained “Foreleg” (Ursa Major),
in the form of an Egyptian wild canine (lycus) standing on a plow. We may conjecture the name
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Plow for Ursa Major arose from this source. The canine is facing towards the “Foreleg” in an
aspect of expectation, as though it is about to devour the prized piece of meat (Lycaon = “person
with the appetite of a wild canine”).
Returning to the original meaning of the name Kimah: (“Accumulation, Gathering, Complete
Family Circle”): being a “Complete Family Circle” this would include ideally a father (at the
head/pole) and mother, a son and a daughter and son-in-law. The circumpolar stars within the
sweep of Arktouros include precisely these, and only these, human figures in ancient astromythology: viz. (1) the constellation Cepheus (the father: Cepheus = Japheth = Iapetus
[Defloratio Berosi]) and (2) the constellation Cassiopeia (the mother: -iopeia = Joppa), both of
these at the polar position, (3) the constellation Prometheus a.k.a. Hercules (the son:
Prometheus = Adam [Zosimus], Adam = Gomer [Tabari and Arabic tradition generally],
firstborn son of Cepheus-Japheth-Iapetus [Defloratio Berosi]), but here on his knees on account
of Adam’s fall, (4) the constellation Andromeda (the daughter), and (5) the constellation
Perseus (the son-in-law). The star Alpha Andromedae, the chief star in Andromeda, is in
Hebrew Parash, “Horse”, Arabic al-Feras, “Horse”, or Surra al-Feras, the “Navel of the
Horse”: the reference is to what in Graeco-Roman astro-mythology is Perseus’ steed Pegasus,
the offspring of Poseidon. Pegasus is the “body” (wife) under the control of Perseus, or, more
specifically, the composite woman, half human (Andromeda), half beast (horse), which resulted
from the admixture of human and animal genes in the daughters of Adam, through Eve’s
adultery with the Serpent. For the “horse-serpents” of the line of Cain (Poseidon) which was the
fruit of that adultery, see further at this link, http://www.christianhospitality.org/resources/6days-creation-online/content/6-days-creation30.html, §492.1. The Pleiades in the Defloratio
Berosi are 7 daughters of Atlas-Italus-Kittim son of (Gomer son of) Japheth, and Hesperus
(Hesperos), whence the alternative name Hesperides for Pleiades, is the brother of Atlas-ItalusKittim. These are the Greek (Japhethite) post-diluvian interpretations. They represent a
reworking of the following, more ancient, pre-diluvian identifications, according to the
principle that Kimah might mean the “union” of body, soul and spirit in Adam/Man which is
even closer than the “union of the family”: (1) the Spirit-Adam (the constellation Cepheus), and
(2) his Spirit-bride Eve (the constellation Cassiopeia), (3) Earthly or Body-Adam (the
constellation Hercules) on his knees on account of the fall, and (4) the Soul (Andromeda), in the
process of being redeemed by (5) the Messianic Logos (the constellation Perseus), the Soul’s
Savior, ascending to the Celestial Pole. With this we should compare Gen. 1. 27 and 2. 7. The
constellations depict: 1) Spirit-Adam in the “image of Elohim”, the outer shell around the
central Adam (see on the Logos infra), divided into two, male and female (in the astral
interpretation the male is the constellation Cepheus) and 2) Spirit-Adam’s female complement
(in the astral interpretation Cassiopeia); 3) Earthly or Body-Adam (in the astral interpretation
the constellation Hercules); 4) the animal Soul (Heb. nephesh, in the astral interpretation
Andromeda) which the Spirit-Adam (Heb. neshamah) was transformed into, in order to enter
into the earthly Adam (Gen. 2. 7): this Soul lost the “image of Elohim” through the fall, and
then required redemption by 5) the Logos (in the astral interpretation Perseus, who is rescuing
Andromeda): the Logos is the Spirit-Adam in “His (God’s) own image” at the center of the
perfect human personality. The constellation Perseus is a stick-figure of a pair of legs walking
up the Milky Way: this represents the “walk” with God by which the Messianic Logos, the Seed
of the Woman, is translated to Heaven, in the same way Enoch was before the Flood (Enoch
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“walked with God” and was thus translated). These latter identifications are found in a preChristian Jewish exegesis of Aratus’ astrological treatises excerpted in Hippolytus’
Philosophoumena, and analyzed above. In this exegesis Ursa Major, a hebdomad of seven stars,
is called the “Broad Way” of the “Human Creation” (ktisis kata anthropon), because the number
seven symbolizes the seven days of creation. In contrast to this, Ursa Minor is the hebdomad of
the “Narrow Way”, the “Divine Creation” (ktisis kata Theon). These two constellations
represent the material and spiritual levels in what we call the Universe. Since kimah is
translated “Universe” in the LXX (panta, Amos 5. 8), we may presume the same Hebrew term,
when applied as a proper noun to the stars of the Arctic circle, included both hebdomads, as
well as any other stars associated with them (Gk. Arktouros in its wider sense).
Note 2) The LXX understands kesil in an adjectival sense here: solid, or, (of celestial solid
bodies) regularly observed, predictable. It is preceded by the participle of the verb asah, so that
the words together mean “making something solid”, and hence the LXX’s metaskeuazon,
“changing the outward form of something”. Kesil is from ksl = be solid, confident, unvarying,
predictable etc., either in a good sense (unvarying = reliable) or in a bad sense (unvarying =
unmovable, lethargic, foolish). Presumably this word kesil came to mean “luminary” because
the luminaries of heaven are predictable, regular in their movements and unvarying. The
Hebrew phrase oseh kimah u-kesil was understood by the Greek LXX translators to mean
“Producing (oseh) all the matter in the universe (kimah) and giving it solid shape (kesil)”. These
were probably the original meanings of the words kimah and kesil. Kimah, therefore, had three
meanings: 1) as a common noun, the general meaning “universal matter” (as in this verse
according to the LXX); 2) as a common noun, the more particular meaning “cluster” (as in [c]
Job 38. 31, on which see Section [d] Note 1 supra, also [1] supra, including Rashi’s phrase
“kimah Ash”, the “cluster [kimah] Pleiades [Ash]”); and 3) as a proper noun, the meaning
“Arcturus”, viz. that cluster of the matter of the universe observable at night in the circumpolar
regions of the night sky, as in Job 9. 9 (a) supra. Kesil likewise had three meanings: 1) as an
adjective, “solid, unvarying, predictable, etc.” (as in this verse according to the LXX); 2) as a
common noun, a “predictable celestial object” (as in Isaiah 13. 10 [e] infra); and 3) as a proper
noun “the planet Venus”, viz. “the predictable celestial object” (as in Job 9. 9 [a] supra).
Confusion of the various meanings has led to a misidentification of the celestial phenomena so
denominated in the Bible.
e) Isaiah 13. 10:
Hebrew:
‫לי א־חַי ִ תֳמִ֥גיחַה‬
ּ ֽ‫
׃ם‬8 ‫ֵּש צ ֙ סֶמָש צ ֙ ֹתְָבֵצי אתֶו֔תֹו ֹתְוִבָיכ דֵ֖רחַח‬
ֶ‫ָש ְך חַה ס‬
֤‫
׃ם ִבָח חַ ְך‬8‫ר‬
֑‫לי א ִבָיכ דֵ֖הוּלו י אֹו ִבָ ו ח‬
ּ ֥‫
׃ם תֳמ‬8‫ליתֶו֔ סֶה‬
ֵ ‫ סי‬
֣‫
׃ם צ ֙ וֹתְכ ִ םי‬8‫ֵּשחַמ צ ִ֙י‬
ָ‫בי חַה ִב‬
֤‫
׃םִֽכי־כֹוֹתְכ ֵ ְך‬8 Isaiah 13:10
‫
׃םֽרֹו׃‬8 ‫י אֹו‬
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the kesilim {luminaries} thereof shall not give their light: the
sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
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Greek (LXX):
Isaiah 13:10 οἱ γὰρ ἀστέρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὁ ᾿Ωρίων καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τὸ φῶς οὐ
δώσουσιν, καὶ σκοτισθήσεται τοῦ ἡλίου ἀνατέλλοντος, καὶ ἡ σελήνη οὐ δώσει τὸ φῶς αὐτῆς.
Literal Translation of the Greek:
Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and Orion and the whole array of heaven will not give out light and
it will be dark when the sun arises and the moon will not give out its light.
Note 3) Here kesil is in the plural: “their [viz. the heavens’] kesilim”, that is, predictable
celestial objects (see supra [d]). The Old Latin translates: “all the luminaries thereof” (omnia
luminaria eius) and Symmachus in the Hexapla (ed. Field) “the stars thereof”. The Vulgate,
following the Origenic interpretation, translates similarly: kesilim “splendor earum”, “their
splendor [viz. of the stellae, stars]”. The full verse reads in the Vulgate: “quoniam stellae caeli
et splendor earum non expandent lumen suum obtenebratus est sol in ortu suo et luna non
splendebit in lumine suo”, that is, “for the stars of heaven and their splendor shall not give forth
their light, the sun is darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shed forth its refulgent light”.
Here in the LXX Orion is included amongst the “predictable celestial objects”, and, indeed,
Orion is one of the most noticeable objects in the sky. Orion, therefore, is a “kesil”, but the
“Kesil” is Venus as an evening star (supra [2]). That the term kesilim does not include the
planets in this verse (and therefore excludes Venus amongst the rest) is shown by its
juxtaposition to the term “stars” (kokavim), which means both fixed stars and planets in Hebrew.
f) Isaiah 14. 4, 12-17
Hebrew:
‫
׃םִֽבָבה׃‬8‫ָשֹתְבכ דִ֖בָתה חַמֹתְכ דֵה‬
ָ‫בת ּנתֶוֵ֔גֶש ִב‬
֣‫ָש חַ םי‬
ָ‫י אי ְך ִב‬
֚‫ל ְך ִבָָבכ ד֖ סֶבל ֹתְוִבָי אִבָמו ח֑ ֹתְרִבָֹת ֵ ךי‬
ֶ‫ָזה חַעל־תֳמ֥ סֶמ ס‬
֛‫ָשל חַה סֶ ַע ם‬
֥‫ֶשי אִבָת חַהִבַָמ ִבָ תֳמ‬
ָ‫ ֹתְוִבָנ ה֜ ִב‬4
......
‫
׃ם׃‬8‫
׃םִֽי‬8 ‫לתֶוִ֔בָי א סֶר ץ חֹוכ דֵ֖לָש חַעל־ִגֹו‬
ָ‫ּדֹתְעִבָֹת ִב‬
֣‫
ן־ִבָָשו ח֑חַחר ִנֹתְג חַ םי‬1‫לל סֶָב‬
֣‫
׃ם ֵהי ֵ םי‬8‫ֵּשכ ד֖חַמִי‬
ָ‫י אי ְך ִבָנתֳמ֥חַפֹתְלִבָֹת ִמ ִב‬
֛‫ ֵ ַע ם‬12
‫ָשב ֹתְָבחַהר־מֹוכ דֵ֖עכ ד ֹתְָבחַי ֹתְרֹתְכתֳמֵ֥תי‬
֥‫י אי ֹתְוֵי א ֵ תֳמ‬
֑‫
׃ם ִכֹתְ ס ִ ו ח‬8‫
׃םֽכֹוֹתְכֵבי־כ דֵ֖י אל ִבָי א םיִ֣רי‬8‫ַמחַעל ֹתְל‬
֥‫לה ִמ חַ תֳמ‬
ֶ‫ע תֶו֔ ס‬
ֱ‫
׃םֽ סֶי א ֶ֔ל‬8 ‫
׃ם‬8‫ֵּשחַמ םיִ֣י‬
ָ‫
׃םִֽבֹתְלִבָבֹתְבָך צ ֙ חַה ִב‬8 ‫מ ֹתְרִבָֹת‬
֤‫ ֹתְוחַי אָא הִ֞בָֹתה ִבָי א חַ ְך‬13
‫
ן׃‬1‫
׃םֽפֹו‬8‫ִבָצ‬
‫
ן׃‬1‫
׃םֽיֹו‬8 ‫ַמה ֹתְל סֶעֹתְל‬
֖‫עב סֶי אחַּד סֶ כ ד‬
֑‫מֵתי ִבָ ו ח‬
ֳ‫עכ ד֖ סֶלה חַעל־ִבָָב םי֣ יֵת‬
ֱ‫ סֶי א ֶ֔ל‬14
‫
׃םֽבֹור׃‬8‫י א ְך סֶי אל־ֹתְָשַע ם֛י אֹול ֹתוכ דִ֖בָרכ ד סֶי אל־חַי ֹתְרֹתְכֵתי־‬
֧‫ חַ ְך‬15
‫
׃םֽכֹות׃‬8‫ל‬
ָ‫זה ִבָהִי איָש צ ֙ חַמ ֹתְר ִ םיִ֣גיז ִבָהתֶוִ֔בָי א סֶר ץ חַמ ֹתְרכ דִ֖עיָש חַמֹתְמ ִב‬
֤‫ה סֶ ְך‬
ֲ‫ליָך חַיֹתְָש ִתֶוִ֔גיחו ֵי אכ ד֖ סֶליָך ִיֹתְתָבֹו ו חִ֑בָננו ָ֥ל‬
֣‫י איָך צ ֙ ֵי א סֶ םי‬
֙ ‫ר סֶ צ‬
ּ 16
‫
׃םָֽבֹתְיִבָתה׃‬8 ָ‫לי א־תֳמִ֥בָפחַתח ִב‬
ּ ‫י אִ סיכ דִ֖בָריו‬
ֲ‫ר ס ָ֥ל‬
֑‫ריו ִבָה ִבָ ו ח‬
֣‫ָבר ֹתְוִבָע ִבָ םי‬
֖‫כִַמֹתְכ ד ִבָ כ ד‬
ַ‫בל ח‬
֛‫
׃ם ֵֹת ֵ ַע ם‬8‫ֶש‬
֥‫ ִבָ תֳמ‬17
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
4 .... Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor
ceased! the golden city ceased!...
....
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Heilel {“Shining One”, Venus as a morning star}, son of the
morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
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God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that
made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of
his prisoners?
Greek (LXX):
4 καὶ λήμψῃ τὸν θρῆνον τοῦτον ἐπὶ τὸν βασιλέα Βαβυλῶνος καὶ ἐρεῖς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ...
...
12 πῶς ἐξέπεσεν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὁ ἑωσφόρος ὁ πρωὶ ἀνατέλλων; συνετρίβη εἰς τὴν γῆν ὁ ἀποστέλλων
πρὸς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη.
13 σὺ δὲ εἶπας ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ σου Εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβήσομαι, ἐπάνω τῶν ἄστρων τοῦ οὐρανοῦ θήσω
τὸν θρόνον μου, καθιῶ ἐν ὄρει ὑψηλῷ ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλὰ τὰ πρὸς βορρᾶν,
14 ἀναβήσομαι ἐπάνω τῶν νεφελῶν, ἔσομαι ὅμοιος τῷ ὑψίστῳ.
15 νῦν δὲ εἰς ᾅδου καταβήσῃ καὶ εἰς τὰ θεμέλια τῆς γῆς.
16 οἱ ἰδόντες σε θαυμάσουσιν ἐπὶ σοὶ καὶ ἐροῦσιν Οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ παροξύνων τὴν γῆν, σείων
βασιλεῖς;
17 ὁ θεὶς τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην ἔρημον καὶ τὰς πόλεις καθεῖλεν, τοὺς ἐν ἐπαγωγῇ οὐκ ἔλυσεν.
Literal Translation of the Greek:
4 And you shall take up this lament against the king of Babylon, and you shall say in that day ...
....
12 How has Eosphoros {Venus as a morning star} who rises in the early morning fallen from heaven,
how has he been trampled into the ground, who sent forth missions to all the nations,
13 You have said in your mind, I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of
heaven, I will be seated in a high mountain upon the high mountains towards the north,
14 I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High.
15 Now you will descend into Hades and into the foundations of the earth.
16 Those who see you will be astounded at you, and will say, Is this he who oppressed the earth,
shaking kings,
17 who made the whole earth a wasteland and demolished the cities, who did not release those taken
into captivity?
10) Heb. Heilel = Gk. Eosphoros (= Latin Lucifer), Venus as a morning star. Here the “king of
Babylon” is identified with Venus. The king’s “fall” (verse 12) into the Underworld (Heb. Sheol,
Gk. Hades) is equated with Venus’ descent beneath the horizon (viz. as an evening star). The
word “fall” is Hebrew naphal. From the same root is formed the word nephilim, “fallen ones”,
which is used in Genesis 6 to describe the gibborim (“mighty ones”) born to the “sons of God”
(= “male members of the divine race”) when they commingled with the “daughters of
Adam/man” (= “female members of the Adamic/human race”). These nephilim are said to have
been “on earth” in the days leading up to the Noachide Flood (Gen. 6. 4 [Heb.]), and also “after
that”. Thus in Gen. 10 we find Nimrod the first ruler of the kingdom of Babel called a “gibbor”,
and it is specifically noted that he was such “on earth” (Gen. 10. 8) in those early post-diluvian
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days. This implies he was a “fallen one” on the order of the pre-diluvian nephilim/gibborim.
Rather as the title “Caesar” was given to the other Emperors of Rome who succeeded Julius
Caesar, so the name Nimrod passed down to the other kings of Babylon who succeeded Nimrod,
and they are therefore called the Nimrodim, “Nimrods”, in Jewish, Samaritan and Arabic postBiblical tradition. Here in Isaiah 14 the prototypical “king of Babylon”, viz. the representative
Nimrod of that line, is identified with the “fallen” (nephilim) luminary Venus. In other words
the “fallen ones” of Genesis 6, the Nimrod-like gibborim, are held here to have “fallen” from
heaven, like the stars and planets in their courses, not only to be present in this life “on earth”
but also to descend further at its end in the Underworld. Some of the spiritual “stars” or
“luminaries” of the company of God, whose eternal kingdom (“Seat” or “Throne”) is typed by
the circumpolar stars (“on the sides of the north”) which never set, “fell” into the world of time.
The king of Babylon is the brightest such luminary, according to this passage, as he is identified
with Venus, the brightest luminary in the sky, excepting only the sun and moon (the latter typing
God and the Messiah). This rises and sets, unlike the circumpolar stars, and is therefore
considered a creature of time, subject, as it were, to “incarceration” in the Underworld at its
setting. We have seen how the term Kesil is applied to Venus, as well as to Orion, and it comes,
therefore, as no surprise to find Nimrod identified with Orion in post-Biblical tradition, and his
titles, gibbor (“mighty one”) and naphil (“fallen one”, the singular of nephilim), applied to that
constellation.
B) Summary and Synthesis.
Kimah
Kimah means a Cluster, a Union, a Universal Clustering, or a Family Circle. It is represented in the
night sky by the great Circle of circumpolar stars called Arcturus in antiquity. The maadanoth kimah
are the “bonds of the cluster”, meaning the cosmic forces by which the Cluster is held together. In
Hebrew the word maadanoth can also mean (Edenic) delights. The delights (maadanoth) of Eden are
what caused the fall of the human race into bondage (maadanoth), and thus the story of the Fall was
read into the star-patterns of the circumpolar stars (Kimah). The fact these stars never set beneath the
horizon, but whirl continually around the pole, was understood to be a symbol of the eternal nature of
the world of the heavenly Paradise. The Union (Kimah) of the male and female in the Heavenly Adam
was pictured in the two constellations at the (unchanging, eternal) pole, Cepheus and Cassiopeia, and
Adam’s subsequent redeemed state in the neighboring (circling) constellations, Perseus (the Spiritual
Adam, the Redeeming Logos), Andromeda (the Redeemed Soul) and Hercules (the Body). These form
a redeemed Family (Kimah), and the nearest earthly representation to the original heavenly Union
(Kimah): father (Cepheus), mother (Cassiopeia), son (Hercules), daughter (Andromeda), the daughter’s
savior, the son-in-law (Perseus).
The dual meaning of the Hebrew maadanoth, “delights” and “bands”, arises thus: 1) Kimah, as detailed
supra, is the “Family Circle” of the circumpolar stars which never set, and consequently type Eternity
or Paradise; 2) the Hebrew root of the word maadanoth means to “turn round, twist, round out,
develop, mature, become attractive, delightful, etc.”, and is the same as in Eden (the “delightful”
Paradise); 3) the “delightful” branches filled with the fruits and flowers of Eden, when “twisted round”
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(same root) into circlets, form “bands” (same root), either of triumphal chaplets, or of bondage. Hence
the dual meaning. The same Hebrew root of the word “delight” is used to form not only the word
“circlet” but also a word for “lyre” (ed, Gesenius-Tregelles, Hebrew Lexicon, s.v. eduth 3). A lyre (the
constellation Lyra) and circlet (the constellation Corona) are therefore emblems of the maadanoth in
the circumpolar stellar region (Kimah) in Graeco-Roman astrology. So also are the “mature” (same
root) fruit which the figure Hercules in the Kimah family-circle is plucking and which are the “golden
apples of the Hesperides”. The fall from the “delights” (maadanoth) of Eden to the “bonds”
(maadanoth) of corruption occurred historically through the “twisting” (same root) of truth in the tree
of the garden of Eden by the influence of the Apostate Serpent (Hebrew Nahash Bariah, Greek Drakon
Apostates), represented by the constellation Draco.
Aish and Ash
The “children” of Aish, so termed in the Hebrew, are what the Greeks called the Hesperides, the
“children of Hesperis”. Hesperis is the female form of Hesperos, corresponding precisely to the female
Hebrew form Aish. The Hesperides are the Pleiades, who were known variously as the Hesperides, the
Pleiades and the Atlantides. The connection of Aish with the Pleiades is confirmed in the original
Hebrew by the common root (ashash, “wear out over time, gnaw like a moth”) of the names Aish and
Ash, the latter of which is translated Pleias, the “Pleiades cluster”, in the Greek LXX, and both of
which are translated Iyutha in the Syriac Peshitta: Iyutha comprises the stars in proximity to Aldebaran
in Taurus, and is identified outright in some texts with the Pleiades.
The Hebrew Aish is translated Hesperos in the Greek LXX. Hesperos is a name for the planet Venus in
its evening aspect, but in this instance, when used to translate Aish, is the eponymus (“father”) of the
Hesperides = the Pleiades: that is, the Hebrew Aish, the “mother” of Ash, the Pleiades, corresponds to
the Greek Hesperos, the father of the Pleiades, with a change of gender. Nevertheless the equation Aish
= Hesperos could have given rise to the belief that the Pleiades are an astral embodiment of Venus
(Hesperos), such as is found in the post-Biblical Esterah tradition (see infra).
In the spiritual sense, the maadanoth kimah are the bonds of time in which the fallen daughters (stars)
of Eve, represented by the Hesperides or Pleiades, are enmeshed. Eve is the “mother of all living” and
consequently the “mother” Aish referred to here, Hesperis. She fell from Eternity into Time by
“gnawing like a moth” (ashash) the tree of the garden. The Pleiades cluster is situated in Taurus,
amongst the Zodiacal constellations which rise and set. It is thus “worn out over time” (ashash).
Kesil
The Hebrew Kesil (masculine gender) is translated Hesperos in the Greek LXX. Hesperos means here,
as it usually does, the planet Venus in its evening aspect. The male Venus Kesil is experiencing, or
producing, “dragging effects” (moshekoth). This word might also be interpreted to mean “attracting
females”: Kesil (Hesperos) would, of course, be “attracted” by his own female complements, that is, by
the mother and children, Aish (Hesperis) and her daughters, the Pleiades. For Hesperos is not only the
planet Venus as an evening luminary, but also the male eponymus of the Hesperides (the Pleiades), as
Hesperis is the female eponymus of the same constellation. Kesil, the planet Venus, is the prime or
prototypical “predictable celestial object”, — which is what kesil means in Hebrew, — as Venus is the
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most noticeable luminary in the sky. It is representative of the other kesilim, plural, “predictable
celestial objects”, constellations and stars, including especially the very notable “predictable celestial
object”, Orion. Thus the “attracting females” and/or Venus itself, are “attracting” Orion and the other
luminaries of the sky, causing them to move continuously forward through the visible heavens, and
“wearing them out over time” (ashash). For this reason moshekoth kesil is translated the “obstruction of
(an) Orion” in Greek, phragmos Orionos. The Greek translators took the kesil or “predictable celestial
object” referred to here to be Orion, or an asterism of similar type. Otherwise the luminaries are held to
be “attracted”, literally “dragged”, into “webs” (mazzaroth), that is, web-like orbits, or, in human terms,
into clothing spun, as webs are spun, to cover the nakedness of the Fall. The terminology is explained
thus: Kesil has two meanings, a) “unvarying” in a good sense, predictable, reliable, b) “unvarying” in a
bad sense, unmovable, lethargic, foolish; Kesil can be identified with Orion, or, rather with its attendant
star, Sirius, whose rising with the sun in the Fall of the year is the time-marker of the beginning of the
yearly cycle. The “Fall”, therefore, is the particular “season” of the “foolish luminary” which stumbles
and “falls” through its own foolishness. Kesil also is Venus in its evening (“fallen”) aspect, and
therefore represents the same spirit-being called Heilel ben Shahar (Venus in its morning aspect) in
Isaiah 14. As Venus is the brightest luminary, kesil, in the sky, so Heilel was at one time (in the
“morning”) chief of the luminaries of heaven. When Heilel “fell” from heaven, after his foolish, failed
attempt to scale the Mountain of God, and seat himself upon God’s throne over the other “stars of
God”, he became incarnate in the king of Babylon (the gibbor [mighty one] Nimrod and his successors)
as a naphil, or “fallen one”. Naphil in the singular is nephilim in the plural. The kesilim, “unvarying
ones”, the “luminaries” of the physical heaven, represent the “sons of God” of Genesis Chapter 6, the
“unvarying luminaries” of the spiritual heaven, who were attracted by the “daughters of Adam” and fell
into sin, becoming the “fallen ones”, nephilim, and “mighty ones”, gibborim. The Targum translates
Kesil, singular, “the Naphil (Aramaic Niphla)”, that is, “the Fallen One, the Giant” (Orion), and the
Syriac Peshitta, “the Gibbor (Syriac Gabbara)”, that is “the Mighty One, the Giant” (Orion), and
similarly in the Targum “their (viz. the heavens’) kesilim”, plural, is translated as “their giants
(nephileyhon)”. In Rabbinic and Arabic legend, echoed in the astro-mythologies of other cultures,
Orion is the “gibbor” par excellence, “attracted” by Esterah (Venus), who ascends to heaven as the
Pleiades to escape the advances of the nephilim. The nebulous matrix in which the Pleiades are set is
called maadanoth kimah in Hebrew, “the Edenic delights, or bands, of kimah”, and desmos pleiados in
Greek, “the bond of a cluster”.
Nahash Bariah
See (5) supra.
Heilel Ben Shahar
See (10) supra.
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C) The Zodiacal Circle
a) II Kings 23. 5:
Hebrew:
‫ָבי‬
֖‫רי ֹתְיהו ִבָ תֶו֔כ דה וֹתְמִ ס ֵ כ ד‬
֣‫ֵטר חַָבִבָָבמֹות צ ֙ ֹתְָבִבָע ֵ םי‬
֤‫כי ֹתְיהו ִבָ תֶו֔כ דה חַוֹתְיחַק ֵ ְך‬
֣‫
׃םִֽבָנֹתְתנו צ ֙ חַמֹתְל ֵ םי‬8 ‫ָשר‬
֤‫י א סֶ ְך‬
ֲ‫
׃ם ָ֥ל‬8‫ָבית סֶי את־חַהֹתְכִבָמ ְךִ֗רי‬
֣‫ ֹתְוִהֹתְָש ִ םי‬II Kings 23:5
‫
׃ם׃‬8‫
׃םִֽבָמִי‬8‫ֵּש‬
ָ‫כל ֹתְצתֳמִ֥בָבי א חַה ִב‬
ּ ֖‫לחַַמִבָָזתֶו֔לֹות וֹתְל כ ד‬
ַ‫לִבָָיֵר צ ֙חַח צ ֙ ֹתְו ח‬
ַ‫ֵּש סֶמָש ֹתְו ח‬
֤‫ל סֶ ְך‬
ַ‫ל ְך֗חַָבחַעל ח‬
ַ‫
׃ם ח‬8‫
׃םֽחַהֹתְמחַקֹתְֵט םיִ֣רי‬8‫
׃ם ֹתְו סֶי את־‬8‫ל‬
֑‫ָש ִִבָ ו ח֑אְו ם‬
ָ‫ֹתְירו ִב‬
KJV translating the Hebrew (modified):
II Kings 23:5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn
incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that
burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to Mazzaloth {the Zodiacal Circle}, and to
all the host of heaven.
Greek (LXX):
II Kings 23:5 καὶ κατέπαυσεν τοὺς χωμαριμ, οὓς ἔδωκαν βασιλεῖς Ιουδα καὶ ἐθυμίων ἐν τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς
καὶ ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν Ιουδα καὶ τοῖς περικύκλῳ Ιερουσαλημ, καὶ τοὺς θυμιῶντας τῷ Βααλ καὶ τῷ ἡλίῳ
καὶ τῇ σελήνῃ καὶ τοῖς μαζουρωθ καὶ πάσῃ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ οὐρανοῦ.
Literal Translation of the Greek:
II Kings 23:5 And he caused the Khomarim to cease which the kings of Judah appointed — and they
offered incense in the high places and in the cities of Judah and the districts surrounding Jerusalem, —
and those who offered incense to Baal and to the Sun and the Moon, and to Mazouroth and to all the
host of heaven.
Note 4) We have now the Hebrew names for the three major divisions of the night sky: 1)
Kimah, the “Cluster” of stars northward of the Zodiacal band; 2) Mazzaloth, the Band in which
the “Revolutions” of the Zodiac itself occur, from the Hebrew root n-z-l, “flow, roll on,
revolve”, Scholiast on LXX “zodiacal signs (zoidia)”, Gesenius-Tregelles, Jastrow, Talmudic
Dictionary s.v.; 3) Hadrei Teman, the “Chambers of the South” containing all the stars of the
celestial antipodes southward of the Zodiacal band.
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b) The Names of the Mazzaloth (Month Names) in the Hebrew Bible
The signs of the Zodiac as astrologers know them can be shown to have developed out of the Hebrew
Mazzaloth or month-names. These month-names go back into the second millennium BC and earlier in
Mesopotamia, and so do the Zodiac signs and symbols.
1) Aviv/Nisan
The root meaning of the Hebrew month-name Aviv (also transcribed Abib, from the root a-b) is
to “sprout”, and similarly in the case of Nisan (from the root n-s = n-tz), “shoot forth”. Aviv
shares the root with the word Ab, “father”, because the fathering of a child is represented
commonly in Hebrew as the production of a “seed”, viz. as in a sprouting plant. Ab, “father”,
literally means a “sprouter”. Also a sprout is called a “horn” in Hebrew (qeren), because of its
shape, thus the “sprouting” signified in the month-name Aviv might be viewed as a sprouting of
“horns”, that is, buds, or sprouts. In the original interpretation this month was dedicated to
Adam, the “father” (Ab) of the human race, and included for that very reason a reference to his
“seed” (firstborn son) Abel. (Cain was excluded in the genealogical scheme, as can be seen
from the Biblical genealogies, because he was the seed of the serpent by the adultery of Eve.
The Biblical genealogies never refer to Cain as a son, let alone as the seed [single representative
of the bloodline], of Adam.) The agricultural metaphor employed in this application explains the
early Babylonian name for the sign, the “Agricultural Laborer”. Adam was the first “agricultural
laborer” as he was condemned by God to work the ground in the sweat of his brow on account
of the Fall. He was, therefore, the first “producer of seeds” and the first “father/sprouter”. The
animal symbology employed in other astrological systems (including the Greek and Roman)
preferred to represent the “sprouter” (Ab) as a “sprouter of (animal) horns”, rather than a
“sprouter of (botanical) horns”, viz. buds, and made a male lamb with sprouting horns (Aries)
the corresponding Zodiac sign. This was appropriate because the implied presence of Abel in
the sign-name of “father Adam” suggested similarly the lamb as the month’s representative
symbol, on account of Abel’s being the first shepherd, and on account of his lamb-like slaughter
by Cain. The sign Triangulum just above the head of the Aries lamb was then taken to be a
representation of the sharp plow stone which Cain used to kill Abel. Here is a covert reference
also to the agricultural aspect of the sign, in this case in relation to Cain: he was an “agricultural
laborer” by profession like his putative father Adam.
2) Ziv
This is named literally the month “that emits rays”, from the root z-h-h, “shine gloriously, give
forth rays, be radiant”, that is, as in the case of the previous month, the month that “emits buds”.
Ziv (for zehiv) means, therefore, splendor, radiance, countenance, bloom (of light or vegetation),
and it is also used as a descriptive term meaning splendid, noble person. As also in the case of
Aviv/Nisan the “buds” or “rays” of this sign might be represented in theriomorphic terms as
“horns”. It is one sign on from the lamb of Aries, when the buds (horns) are longer (emitted,
sent forth in abundance), and is appropriately symbolized by the face (ziv = countenance) of a
long-horned (ziv = projection of buds/horns) bull. A noble person was termed a “bull” in the
ancient Near East. The moon in the Old Testament era of Israel’s history was accordingly in the
sign of Taurus, the Bull, at this time of year: in the stars of Taurus may easily be traced the red
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eye of a bull’s face (the sign’s chief star Aldebaran) and two long projecting horns. The root zh-h also means (in a transferred sense from the idea of glistening, be radiant) to be proud,
haughty, and wanton. Thus the redness of the lustful, or arrogant, or angry, eye of the bull. On
the bull’s back is the Pleiades cluster, which is a prime example of what the LXX terms desmos
pleiados, translating the Hebrew maadanoth kimah, the “delights, or delightful delicacies/fruits,
or, bonds, of a cluster”. Here too is a reference to the radiant blooms which characterize the
month of Ziv. The Mesopotamian name for this month was Aiaru, which was borrowed later by
the Hebrews (though not in the Scriptures) as Iyyar. This means “rosette”, reflecting the ancient
meaning precisely.
3) Sivan
Sivan is the Hebrew spelling of this month-name. In Israelite Old Testament times the moon
was in Gemini during the month of Sivan. The Babylonian spelling was Simanu. The root is
Heb. z-m-n, which means appoint, set a time for meeting, or for fellowship, or to join someone,
make preparations, etc. (z-m-n becomes z-w-n, equip, prepare, provide armor, then s-w-n,
whence the month-name). It is symbolized in Graeco-Roman astrology by two comrades or
brothers meeting (the Gemini twins), with their arms on each-other’s shoulders. They carry
weapons in their hands because the root z-m-n can mean “to equip or prepare for an
engagement” (military or otherwise), as also to “have in hand”, and the noun zeman means
“term”, as in term of military service etc.
4) Revii
This is the fourth month and is so named: Revii, also transcribed Rebii = “fourth”. Later (but not
in the Hebrew Bible) it was called Tammuz after the Babylonian god whose festival fell in this
month. The Scriptural name Revii is from the root r-b-‛ which is the same as r-b-tz. It means to
“crouch on all fours (like a beast), to lie foursquare, to lie carnally (with), to cover (of animal
reproduction), to lie (of water), to lie (in wait), to lie (of animals resting),” and the noun rebetz
from this same root means a “resting place (in death)”. Thus the sign through which the moon
passed during this month in Old Testament Israelite times was symbolized by a water-creature
(root: “lie [of water], lie [of animals]”), a crab or similar, with its brood (root: “lie carnally
[with], to cover [of animal reproduction]”), forming the Zodiac sign Cancer (the Crab), and was
taken to signify metaphorically a gathering or resting place of souls (root: “to lie (of animals
resting), to lie down in death”). The cluster of offspring (or souls) was the star-cluster Praesepe
within the Zodiac sign.
5) Hamishi
This is the fifth month and is so named: Hamishi = “fifth”. Later (but not in the Hebrew Bible)
it was called Av (Ab), Babylonian Abu. The root is h-m-sh, meaning, “be bold, manly, prepared
for battle”, with the possibility that the numeric sense arose from the fact that armed men were
anciently divided into companies of five and multiples thereof. In this month the moon in Old
Testament Israelite times was in the constellation Leo, the lion (Latin leo) being the animal most
noted for its boldness. Hence, no doubt, the origin of that animal sign in early Near Eastern and
later in Graeco-Roman astrology for the month Hamishi. The stars in this part of the sky
remarkably resemble a crouching (“battle-ready”) lion (“bold”). The Mesopotamian Abu (later
Hebrew Av) could be interpreted to mean “thick with fruit”, but equally “chief, leader (lit.
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father)” etc., and thus might be symbolized appropriately by the lion.
6) Elul
This is the month of the grape harvest, when the moon in Old Testament Israelite times was in
the constellation Virgo. The root of the month-name Elul is Hebrew alal, which is the same as
yalal and halal, meaning to “yell, shout, cry out” and was applied to the shouting of vinedressers when they trod the grapes at harvest time. Thus also Alela and Ulela from the same
root in Aramaic means “treading the wine or olive press, wine-pressing”. Alal also means “utter
a war-cry”. (And, as it happens, the “blood” [juice] of grapes is a common metaphor for blood
shed in battle.) Alal is onomatopoeic, and in the Near East the sound represented by this verb is
enunciated, within and outside the context of harvest and war, most commonly by women as a
token of joy or sorrow. In Arabic the root (halal) means also “run away from, abstain” from the
idea of crying out in horror, and “to be unsheathed” from its alternative (visual) sense “to emit
sharp rays of light (rather than sharp sounds)”, and hence, “to shine (of a weapon)”. In GraecoRoman astrological symbolism, accordingly, the sign for the month Elul is a maiden (a woman
who abstains) holding in her hand a harvested stalk, and/or holding an unsheathed sword..
7) Ethanim
This is the seventh month, when the moon in Old Testament Israelite times was in the sign of
Libra. Ethanim means the “enduring ones” (masculine plural), from the root y-t-n, “to endure,
continue, stretch out, prolong, eke out”, being often used of hard or difficult circumstances
(such as must be “endured”). Appropriately, therefore, in Near Eastern and then in GraecoRoman astrological schemes this Zodiac sign was represented by a set of scales, as in antiquity
these were commonly used to measure out rations in times of hardship, in order to “eke out” a
living. The word ethanim is also used to denote hard, enduring rocks of the kind which were
used as weights in scales. The scales of the sign Libra are tilted, one pan stretching down farther
than the other, and this reflects another sense of the Hebrew root of the month-name, viz. to
reach out beyond a rival (stretch out the neck) in competition. At this time of year came
continual rain-storms which flooded the wadis (narrow channels through the desert cliffs, in
some seasons dry and waterless) and made them flow continually: hence the word ethanim
means also perennial streams. The singular ethan, “mighty, enduring one”, might also be used
of an old patriarch who had suffered years of trial. A common depiction of the sign is one in
which the scales are held in the stretched out hand of the maiden featured in the preceding sign
Virgo, and in that case they are held to be the “scales” of justice (Virgo = the maiden Justice),
whose avenging sword (grape harvest, grapes of wrath) leads to just retribution (beginning of
winter) in the natural scheme of things. The Mesopotamian name for this month was Tashritu,
which was borrowed later by the Hebrews (but not in the Scriptures) in the form Tishri. This
means “beginning, inauguration” etc., the month being so named because it was the first month
in the (agricultural) year which started in the Fall.
8) Bul
This is the month in Old Testament Israelite times when the moon was in what is nowadays
referred to as the sign of Scorpio. The month is called Bul in Hebrew, from the root b-l,
meaning “gush, sweep, or carry away (of water)”, because of the increase in rainfall at this time
of year; an especially apt name for the month in a Near-Eastern desert context, when the
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flooding rains cause defiles to “gush” with water. From this same verbal root b-l is formed the
common Hebrew word for the Flood of Noah, Hebrew mabbul, the “Flood” or “Inundation”. In
Graeco-Roman astrology the water denoted in the month-name is represented as a serpent (as of
a serpent-shaped heavenly stream of water) in the constellation Ophiuchus, the “serpentwrestler”. He is wrapped around with a serpent, viz. the constellation Serpens, split into two
halves, one at each side of the wrestler. Alongside this sign also is Draco, the great Serpent (Gk.
drakon) falling down across the sky from the polar position. Draco is called Nahash Bariah in
Hebrew, the “Fleeing Serpent”, though the word “fleeing” (bariah) also means “split, broken
off, pass across” in Hebrew, as described supra. Ophiuchus is depicted accordingly “splitting” a
serpent in two, or with a serpent “passing across” him. The Serpent denoted by the Hebrew
name is depicted twice in Graeco-Roman astrology, once simply as Nahash = Draco, the
“Serpent”, once as the divided sign Serpens, Nahash Bariah, the “Split Serpent”. Ophiuchus is
eagle-headed or accompanied by an eagle, representing the Spirit (bird) in the Storm (eagle =
storm-bird). The neighboring constellation Aquila is the eagle. The desert land is symbolized in
Graeco-Roman astrology by the sign of the scorpion (Scorpio) underneath, that is to the south
of, the stars of Ophiuchus. Scorpio itself, crushed by the heel of Ophiuchus, and forming a
single sign there at the conjoined heel and heart of the scorpion (the star Antares), is the Hebrew
month-sign Bul. It signifies at one and the same time the “flood” (Heb. root b-l) of water
(snake) pouring on the hot, dry desert (scorpion), and, in medical terms, the dampening (snake =
water) of the heat of the flaming (scorpion-like) boil (Heb. root b-l, used of the “flowing” of
pus). Bul also means “stake, pole”, and represents, amongst other things, the central axis around
which the storm-winds blow in a hurricane or whirlwind. Hence Ophiuchus is represented
carrying (Heb. root b-l) a rod or cross around which the serpent (water-clouds) are circling.
Pole, rod, Bul, is from the same Heb. root b-l. The cross is the constellation Cygnus, the Swan
or the Northern Cross, at the top of the rod: the cross-pole is symbolized as bird’s wings,
because it is an aerial (winged) rod, representing the whirlwind flying through heaven. Hence
also Ophiuchus is deemed to be “eagle-headed”. The whole sign was one unit in the ancient
system: it was the Eagle, or the Eagle-headed Man, or, the Man Holding the Power (Rod) of the
Eagle (Storm) in the act of crushing the Scorpion, and thus might be represented either by an
Eagle or a Scorpion. The Mesopotamian name for this month was Arachsamna. This was
borrowed by the Hebrews (though it does not appear in the Bible) as Marcheshvan. It means
simply the “eighth month”, which is its numerical order in the calendar beginning with Nisan.
This word “eight” (Heb. shemoneh) was connected with the word shemen,”healing ointment”,
and the pagans worshiped a god called Eshmun (same root), as the god of healing. Eshmun was
the Classical god Asclepius, whose figure was seen in Ophiuchus, Ophiuchus being the wrestler
of the serpent (Serpens) of evil and diseases, and the trampler of the Scorpion (Scorpio), which
inflicts boils by its sting.
9) Kislev
The next month (moon-position) is called Kislev in Hebrew, which name can be split two ways:
either k-s-l and l-w, or k-s and l-w. The root k-s-l in the first of these alternatives means “be
firm, unvarying, strong, mighty, steady, predictable” etc. and provides a word for a luminary, or
a predictable celestial object, a star, planet or constellation. The root k-s in the second means
“cut”, especially “cut wood”, and hence might also mean, as a noun, “something made of cut
wood”, giving rise to words for a chair or throne, for a vessel (made of cut wood), and also for
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the new moon, because new moons were recorded in antiquity by incisions on a piece of wood.
The second part of the month-name, the root l-w, means, “wrap or bend round, twist about,
wreathe (of a crown or garland etc.), surround, bind, bundle, be attached” etc., and hence also,
in a special sense, “be attached as an escort of mounted bowmen”. The full name might thus be
interpreted “bundling (l-w) of cut wood (k-s)”, which is an appropriate name for this winter
month, when fallen branches would be gathered for burning, as well as to make household items
as the fields did not need tending. In Graeco-Roman astrology the sign of this month was a
firm, solidly-bodied (k-s-l = firm, steady) mounted bowman or centaur, that is a bowman with
the body of a horse (l-w = escort as a mounted bowman), holding a curved (l-w = bend round)
wooden bow (k-s = object made out of lopped wood), and often crowned (l-w = garland or
crown). The horse might be more specifically a white horse (k-s = new moon, k-s-l = brightshining luminary).
10) Teveth
The name of this month, Teveth (also transcribed Tebeth), is formed from the root ṭ-b, meaning
“to sink, be submerged, to drip”, descriptive of the melting snows which characterize it. From
the same root ṭ-b is formed a word for “gazelle”. Thus appropriately in Near Eastern and
Graeco-Roman astrology the symbol for the month, when the moon in Old Testament Israelite
times was in the Zodiac sign of Capricorn, was a sinking (ṭ-b = sink) gazelle (ṭ-b = gazelle), or a
gazelle with the body of a fish (the latter representing a submerged creature). Capricornus in
Latin is a fish-tailed gazelle. The name, in this case too, has a Near-Eastern origin. The Latin
caper, “gazelle”, whence the name Capri-cornus, is the same as the Hebrew ‛-p-r, meaning a
typical reddish-colored gazelle, and the latter part of the name -corn(us) is Hebrew q-r-n,
“horn”, so the word Capricorn means “horned gazelle”.
11) Shevat
The month-name Shevat (also transcribed Shebat) is formed from the root sh-b-ṭ, which
provides words for a “shaft, rod, or pole”, and hence for a “rod of judgment” with which
convicts are beaten, and for a verb meaning “to beat, to strike”. In the Babylonian dialect it
provides also a verb for “lashing with rain or wind, striking with a gale”, as well as for the
“smiting” of divine judgment. Darkness in a gale and bruising of the body are comparable
effects of the discipline thus applied, whether human or divine, and termed by a common
metaphor in antiquity “the rod”. So arises the month-name when gales are common. The moon
in Old Testament Israelite times was at this time of year in the Zodiac sign Aquarius, which
symbolizes a “water-pourer”, and is accompanied by a great fish receiving the water into its
mouth (Piscis Austrinus), representing the formation of water-courses in the underworld as a
result of winter rains. The “water-pourer” was originally the Near Eastern shaduf, that is, a pole
for lifting out water into irrigation ditches. Thus the twin senses of “pole” and “pouring of
copious water” are combined in the Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman astrological sign. In this
case the water is poured from the sky onto earth (as though of a smiting by God), from above to
below, instead of from below to above, from the river or stream onto land as it is with the
shaduf.
12) Adar
This month-name is derived from the Hebrew root ’-d-r, which means literally, “to bind, to
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wrap round, and to cover”, and hence, from the idea of being covered over, “to be gloomy,
murky, and (of water) to be turbid”. It was the season of gloomy, cloud-covered skies, and of
turbid stream-water washed down from higher ground by the rain. In Old Testament Israelite
times the moon during this month was in the Zodiac sign of Pisces (the Fishes). The latter NearEastern and Graeco-Roman astrological sign reflects the dual meaning of the Hebrew name: 1)
fishes, symbolizing cloud and stream water (from ’-d-r = turbidity of water); 2) bound at their
tails (from ’-d-r = bind). There are two fishes in this sign because the month Adar is doubled in
some years, resulting in a First Adar and Second Adar. This happens every three years or so, in
order to keep the lunar cycle by which the months are regulated in line with the solar year,.and
then makes thirteen months in all in the year.
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THE CAMP OF ISRAEL WITH HEBREW MAZZALOTH NAMES
CAMP STANDARD SIGNS AND BREASTPLATE STONES
Zodiac signs corresponding to the Mazzaloth: Aviv = Aries, Ziv = Taurus, Sivan = Gemini,
Revii = Cancer, Hamishi = Leo, Elul = Virgo, Ethanim = Libra, Bul = Scorpio, Kislev =
Sagittarius, Teveth = Capricorn, Shevat = Aquarius, Adar = Pisces
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c) The Triplicities, the Camp Order and the first four Seals
That the tribal order in the Camp, with corresponding stones and star-signs, was based on the trigons or
triplicities is proven by the pattern that can be found in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, recording
the opening of the Seven-Sealed Book. There the Cherubim or “living creatures” are the same as in the
camp standards: Lion, Bull, Man, Eagle. When each of the Cherubim announces a Seal in that order,
the contents of the vision opened by the Seal reflect the Zodiac signs in the same triplicity as that
particular Cherub. That is: the Lion Cherub (Hamishi-Leo) announces a Seal containing references to
the ram of Aviv-Aries and the mounted archer of Kislev-Sagittarius (the “Fire Triplicity”); the Bull
Cherub (Ziv-Taurus) announces a Seal containing references to Elul-Virgo and Teveth-Capricorn (the
“Earth Triplicity”); the Man Cherub (Shevat-Aquarius) announces a Seal containing references to
Sivan-Gemini and Ethanim-Libra (the “Air Triplicity”); and the Eagle (Bul-Scorpio) announces a Seal
containing references to Revii-Cancer and Adar-Pisces (the “Water Triplicity”). Notice that the
“horses” in this section of Revelation are cherub-like “horses”, serving as the “vehicles” upon which
spiritual forces ride. Cherubim are creatures composed of the body-parts of different animals, and
similarly in the case of the “horses” in pagan Graeco-Roman astrology: in one case the “horse” is a
man-cum horse (the centaur in Sagittarius), in the next a gazelle-cum-fish (the goat-fish in Capricorn),
in the next a giant fish or marine creature combining parts of different animals (Piscis Austrinus in
Aquarius), and in the last one of a pair of smaller mixed-form fishes, or “hippocentaurs”, a mixture of
an horse and a fish or marine creature, upon which a god or goddess might ride.
Revelation Chapter 6 (KJV):
1 And I saw when the Lamb (Aviv = Aries, the male lamb or ram, with budding horns) opened one of
the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts (Hamishi = Leo, the Lion)
saying, Come and see. 2 And I saw, and behold a white (or, shining, dazzling, bright) horse (cf. k-s-l in
the name Kislev means “a celestial luminary”): and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was
given unto him (Kislev = Sagittarius, the mounted bowman, with a crown): and he went forth
conquering, and to conquer (cf. k-s-l in the name Kislev means “to be firm, mighty”).
3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast (Ziv = Taurus, the Bull) say,
Come and see. 4 And there went out another horse that was red (Teveth = Capricorn, cf. ṭ-b in the name
Teveth = the Latin caper or red-colored gazelle): and power was given to him that sat thereon to take
peace from the earth (Elul = Virgo: Elul means the shouting of the grape-harvest, taking peace away),
and that they should kill one another (the gazelle is sinking in death): and there was given unto him a
great sword (Elul = the “unsheathing” of the sword of bloodshed, represented by the grape-harvest).
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast (the Man of Shevat = Aquarius) say,
Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse (Shevat means “bruising punishment by the
blackness of a gale”); and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand (Ethanim = Libra, the
Scales of hard times). 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for
a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny (two pennies = Gk. “two denariuses”, each denarius,
or Roman penny, having on it a depiction of the sign Gemini, that is Sivan-Gemini, the “soldier’s
ration” in ancient Rome); and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine (as they are not measured out in
scales).
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7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast (the Eagle of Bul =
Scorpio) say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse (“pale”, that is, one of the offyellow colored fishes of Adar-Pisces, the sign of clouded, murky, waters): and his name that sat on him
was Death (Bul means the flowing of pus of the deadly boil [“O Death, where is thy sting?” as of the
scorpion’s sting producing a boil]), and Hell (the “resting-place” of souls in death of Revii-Cancer)
followed with him (there being two fishes or “horses” in Adar-Pisces). And power was given unto them
over the fourth part (Revii = fourth) of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death,
and with the beasts of the earth (the three other horses in one).
d) The midsummer Mazzaloth of the Tribal Banners
In the diagram supra, the Camp Banners Lion, Bull, Man, Eagle are shown, representing the Mazzaloth
of the Camps. There were four Camps and each Camp was comprised of three tribes, with a chief tribe
for each Camp: the four chief tribes were Judah, Dan, Ephraim and Reuben. However, each one of the
twelve tribes had its own Mazzaloth sign and stone, and each of the four chief tribes, therefore, had its
own tribal Mazzaloth sign, as well as bearing the Camp Mazzaloth sign on its Camp banner: the
individual tribal Mazzaloth of the four chief tribes were: Judah = Hamishi = Leo (the same, in this case,
as the Camp sign), Dan = Revii = Cancer, Ephraim = Sivan = Gemini, Reuben = Ziv = Taurus (the
same, in this case too, as the Camp sign). These four personal tribal signs (Leo, Cancer, Gemini,
Taurus) are adjacent signs in the Zodiac, as they are adjacent in the Camp formation (in anti-clockwise
order around it), and, in fact, these are the four Zodiac signs through which the sun in midsummer has
historically been located, as it has slipped back because of precession from the time of Adam to the
present. In the 2000 years or so from Adam to the Flood of Noah the sun in midsummer was in the sign
of Leo, in the 2000 years or so between the Flood and Jesus Christ, that is in the era of ancient Israel,
the sun in midsummer had slipped back to a location within the sign of Cancer, in the 2000 years or so
of the Church Ages it had slipped back to a location within the sign of Gemini, and very recently, at the
close of the 20th century, it has moved back into the sign of Taurus. This (Ziv-Taurus) is the last sign in
the Camp order. It represents the end of God’s dealing with man. The junction of Taurus and Gemini is
where the Milky Way crosses the plane of our orbit round the sun. An observer of the night sky notices
the long path of light-clouds formed from the constituent stars of our Galaxy sweeping down from the
celestial pole between and around Gemini and Taurus, and so southward to the horizon. In ancient
times this part of the Zodiac was known as the Cosmic Cross, where the Milky Way crosses the ecliptic
(the ecliptic being the apparent path of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac). The Temple in
Jerusalem, following the pattern and geographical alignment of the Tabernacle in the Camp, had
against its southern wall the seven-branched lampstand, which represented the seven planets (sun,
moon and five visible planets) as they arced across the southern sky. That side of the Camp comprised
the “Earth” trigon of Ziv-Taurus, Elul-Virgo and Teveth-Capricorn. (Consult the Camp diagram.) In
Sefer ha-Yetzirah, Taurus is Aleph (Alpha in Greek) the “Ox”, and Capricorn is Ayin (Omega in Greek),
the Eye. In Revelation Chapter 1 Jesus is standing in John’s vision “in the midst” of the lampstand in
the earthly Temple, on the “Day of the Lord”, when the world is due to burn by fire, arrayed as the
heavenly “Judge”, the Ancient of Days and One Like the Son of Man of Daniel 7. Jesus speaks with a
thunderous and resonating voice (cf. Elul-Virgo, the thunderous shout of the grape-harvest typing the
end of the world) and says, “I am Alpha and Omega” (with reference to Taurus and Capricorn). All
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three signs of the trigon on the southern Camp side are cross-referenced here. The Hebrew letters
corresponding to the three Zodiac signs Virgo, Taurus and Capricorn, according to Sefer ha-Yetzirah,
are Yod, Aleph and Ayin, or in Greek, Iota, Alpha, Omega. The Greek letters (and Jesus is speaking
Greek in Revelation 1, “I am Alpha [Greek letter A] and Omega [Greek letter O]”) spell out the Divine
Name, Iao, Jehovah. In other words Jesus IS Jehovah, the First and the Last. The Magi believed the
world would burn by fire when all seven luminaries (typed by the lampstand in the Temple) were in the
astrological sign of “Cancer”, viz. in the midsummer astronomical sign, currently Taurus. All seven
luminaries lined up there in 1999 at the Cosmic Cross-roads. In other words the Temple in Jerusalem
was configured to represent the astronomical configuration at the end of the world, when the sun
entered Taurus, along the center of the plane of the Milky Way, at the Cosmic Cross. Stonehenge
similarly is built on an alignment which allowed observers to observe where the sun rose at
midsummer, that is, to observe which sign of the Zodiac the sun was located in at midsummer.
Obviously this astronomical location was believed to be of some over-arching significance. They were
looking for the time when the midsummer sun was located at the Cosmic Cross in Taurus, which is
where it is now. The heavenly Cross-roads marks the place in the sky where the great wheel of our
Galaxy, the Milky Way, crosses the plane of earth’s orbit round the sun. Our planet earth orbits the sun
in 365.25 days (making one year), but before the Flood of Noah its orbit was 360 days precisely. At the
same time the sun and all the other stars in the Milky Way continue to orbit the center of the Milky Way
Galaxy. The time it would take a star, traveling at the same speed as our sun, to orbit the outer edge of
the Milky Way Galaxy, is approximately 360,000,000 (360 million) years. Each of God’s Days of
Creation in Genesis 1 are 360 million years long, and are the same, therefore, as one “Galactic Day”.
That is God’s time. Where the world of God’s time intersects with the world of our time is the Cosmic
Cross. When we reach that point in earth’s history (and we have already reached it, if we have the eyes
to see), then the individuals who have been redeemed by God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as shown in
Revelation Chapter 1, can turn by faith “right” up the Milky Way, leaving the path of our time-world at
the Cosmic Cross-roads, and ascend in the Rapture to the “Day of the Lord”.
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THE ORIGINAL PRE-DILUVIAN ZODIAC
The Zodiac Signs were originally instituted by Adam, Seth and Enoch before the Flood. Their meaning
was transmitted to Noah who preserved it, according to the Enoch and Hermetic literature, on an
Emerald Prism, left hidden in Egypt. The Egyptians called Adam’s son, Seth “Agathodaimon”, i.e.
“The Good, or Beneficent, Spirit”, and Seth’s descendant Enoch “The First Thoth (Hermes)”. The
builder of the Great Pyramid, the Pharaoh Khufu or Cheops, is said in native Egyptian literature to have
used the secret writings of “Thoth” (i.e. of Enoch) to build the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. He found the
knowledge of the whereabouts of these writings of Thoth in the possession of a humble seer of very
advanced age. For the identity of this seer, go to: http://www.christianhospitality.org/resources/6-dayscreation-online/content/6-days-creation33.html#Section626-36. Thus the secrets of the star-signs were
preserved after the Flood in Egypt and used to construct the Great Pyramid. This Egyptian tradition,
combined with the witness of the Enoch and Hermetic literature, confirms the testimony of Josephus
that the antediluvian patriarchs discovered the secrets of the Zodiac and that their discoveries were
inscribed on a monument of stone which remained standing to Josephus’ own time in Northern Egypt
(the Siriadic land as he calls it). The Siriadic Land is where the Great Pyramid of Gizeh is located. In
the picture of the Zodiac from Denderah in Egypt reproduced below the zodiacal circle is marked in
red. It is remarkable that the symbol of the Ogdoad or “Group of Eight” (representing the Eight persons
saved in the Ark of Noah), an oval with eight persons within it at a position corresponding to one
o’clock, is located beneath the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, which are the star-signs of Noah and
Shem respectively (Capricorn = Noah, Aquarius = Shem, see below). The divine members of the
Ogdoad were referred to in Egypt as the eight original progenitors of mankind, four male and four
female, who emerged out of the waters of Chaos and founded the regenerated world upon the peak of a
primeval mountain projecting out of the waters. All the “gods” (primeval kings) of Egypt traced their
descent from them. The Armenian historians (following Moses of Khorene, History of the Armenians,
I. vii.) record that the Egyptians called one of these Ptah (“Hephaistos” = Ham, the progenitor of the
Egyptian race) and said that his son was Ra (“the Sun” = Cush), and his son Geb (“Chronos” =
Nimrod).
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The Original Meaning of the Zodiac Signs
Evidence of a correspondence between the Prediluvian Patriarchs and the signs of the Zodiac is found
in the Jewish synagogue inscription from Engedi (below).
The synagogue itself was destroyed around AD 530 so this inscription dates some time from the early
Byzantine period. It lists the Prediluvian Patriarchs first from Adam to Japheth in two rows, then
immediately following the names of the signs of the Zodiac in two rows, then the names of the Hebrew
months. Thus:
1. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,|
2. Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth,|
3. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo,|
4. Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Aquarius, Pisces.|
5. Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul,|
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6. Tishrei, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat|
7. And Adar.
The three final Zodiac names are written in a curious way thus: gdy wdly dgym i.e. literally “Capricorn
AND Aquarius Pisces”. Considering that these correspond positionally to Noah AND Shem, Ham-andJapheth (the last two corresponding to the two linked fishes of Pisces), the odd phraseology is
understandable. The parallelism with the months too is complete when it is realised that the last month
Adar was duplicated in certain years (Adar and Ve-Adar) to bring the lunar months in line with the
solar calendar. Here implicitly in line 7 (“And Adar” — Ve-Adar in the original Hebrew) is a reference
to the two Adars corresponding to the two fishes of Pisces and the two coeval Patriarchs Ham and
Japheth.
The Zodiac Signs, therefore, were allocated to Adam and his descendants as follows:
Adam, represented by his firstborn son, Abel = Aries
Aries is the sign representing the first generation, that of Adam himself, and Aries is the first sign of the
Zodiac in every astrological system. However, there is no trace of Adam personally in the sign. The
reason for this is as follows. Adam, at the beginning of his conscious life, was translated (“taken by
God” like Enoch) into the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2. 15), and then, after the Fall, was transported
back again to till the land from which he was earlier translated (Genesis 3. 23). Adam himself,
therefore, appears, not in the Lamb-sign, Aries, but in the neighboring sign of Auriga, raised up, as it
were, above the Lamb, and over the horn of the Bull, Taurus (see the following sign). Adam has been
taken up and out of the sign Aries. On the disappearance of Adam, the brothers Cain and Abel were left
alone at the Gate of the Garden to resolve their differences. Thus, Aries, the Lamb, represents Adam’s
firstborn Abel, the shepherd. The firstborn son in Oriental thought is the bearer of the father’s name.
Abel was, in this sense, the new Adam. The Hebrew name of the sign, Taleh, “Lamb”, means literally
“One Lying on the Ground” (from the root t-w-l, to lie prostrate on the ground, to be cast headlong on
the ground). Accordingly, the Lamb in Aries is depicted recumbent, i.e. lying on the ground. Abel was
cast headlong on the ground when he was murdered by Cain. Abel types the Lamb, Jesus, who was
sacrificed (murdered) to atone for the sins of the world, and who was, and is, the dying Seed of the
Woman (Messiah), and the Spiritual Adam (I Corinthians 15. 45). The Lamb is depicted looking behind
him, apprehensively. Above the Lamb’s head hangs the sign Deltoton, or Triangulum, representing the
sharp, triangular, stone (in ancient star-lore, a plough-stone), with which Cain, the plough-man, struck
and killed him.
Seth = Taurus
Seth was so named because his mother, Eve, exclaimed at his birth “God has appointed me another [or
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different] seed in place of Abel whom Cain slew”. (The Hebrew form of the name Seth is “Shet”,
meaning “He appointed”.) Similarly God appointed (by adoption) another Seed, by another Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, in place of the crucified Jesus, namely, “One like the Son of Man”, in place of the
mortal Jesus, the “Son of Man”, to be raptured up to heaven and take the kingdom in the Millennium.
(Daniel 7. 13, Revelation 1. 13, 14. 14). This “One like the Son of Man” was identified by revelation
to Daniel the Prophet as “the People of the Saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7. 27, 22). The “other”
Seed is really the same Seed in another form, that is, the Messiah, embodied by the Holy Spirit in the
saints. The exchange of Seth for Abel because of the latter’s murder by Cain is exactly symbolized in
the conjoined sign Taurus-Auriga: the jealous bull (the bull part of the sign Taurus, Cain) attacks two
children who are protected by the shepherd Auriga and Capella, the latter being the children’s mother:
i.e. Auriga = Adam and Capella = Eve, and the two children of Eve are Seth and Abel. The Hermetic
literature states that Agathodaimon is the Biblical patriarch Seth. In Egypt Agathodaimon was equated
with Osiris and Osiris was believed to be represented in the Zodiac by the sign of Taurus.
Enosh = Gemini
The name Enosh means “Human Companionship”. It is represented in the Zodiac by two equivalent
males, two men embracing in fellowship, or sometimes (more rarely) a male and female pair (Gemini).
Cainan = Cancer
Cainan means “Gathering Together into a Home, Nest or Community”. It is represented in the Zodiac
by a crab or similar creature gathering together its offspring with its pincers (the offspring being the
cluster of stars known as Praesepe).
Mahalalel = Leo
Mahalalel means “Public Recognition, or Acclaim, of the Divine Leader”, symbolized in the Zodiac by
a Lion, the “universally recognized King of Beasts”.
Jared = Virgo
Jared means “descent” or “fall” (from the root y-r-d), or, when used of branches, “felling”. The star
sign originally denoted, and is sometimes still represented as, a Felled Branch. Anciently, Jared’s name
was taken to signify prophetically the prediluvian descent of the sons of God and their indiscriminate
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commingling with the daughters of men in Gen. 6. This, in turn, was a historical development and
reduplication of the fall of Eve in Gen. 3. As Eve was seduced by the fallen angel Satan working
through the serpent (2 Cor. 11. 3, cp. Rev. 12), so the daughters of men were seduced by the fallen sons
of God in Gen. 6. God promised, however, that a Seed of the Woman would come one day who would
crush the serpent’s head, and who would be wounded in the heel himself in the process (Gen. 3. 15).
This great Bible theme is symbolized by the sign of Virgo which represents a sexually mature virgin,
holding an aphrodisiacal vine-plant, who is (or is to be) the mother of a “Seed” (Spica). The botanical
imagery is clear throughout. The Virgin, lying on her side, is actually identified with the Fallen Tree or
Felled Branch which is to bring forth the promised Seed. Sometimes the Branch is a Palm Branch, the
Palm being a tree which reproduces by fertilizing itself, i.e. by “virgin birth”. Though the reference in
the name might be secondarily to the commingling of sons of God with human women before the
Flood, it signifies primarily the Virgin Birth of the Promised Seed of the Woman, i.e. the “Descent” of
the Son of God from Heaven, and His Incarnation, of which the prediluvian descent of evil spirits was a
Satanic perversion (cp. Protevangelion 10. 5-7).
Enoch = Libra
Enoch means to begin to teach, instruct, train, tame, break in, or to initiate an animal or human
(originally, by control of the jaws, or by rubbing the palate), or, by derivation, to dedicate a building. It
is symbolized by the sign of Libra, meaning the beginning of the acquisition of judgment or
discernment, and originally this sign formed the jaws of the claws of the Scorpion (representing Divine
Judgment by the Word). The sign depicts the commencement of the weighing, one scale being lower
than the other, i.e. specifically the beginning of judgment or discernment.
Methuselah = Scorpio
Methuselah means “Armed Man,” “Security Man,” lit. “Man of a Sting, or, Dart.” It is symbolized by
Scorpio, a creature armed with a sting, which it throws at its victim, like a dart, using its bow-like tail.
Lamech = Sagittarius
Lamech comes from a root l-m-k. The meaning is “to melt, sink down, cringe, bow, be bent, vanish
away, fade out or dissolve”, so that l-m-k is a variant of n-m-k, “to dissolve” (as elsewhere in Hebrew l
and n are interchangeable, e.g. lachatz and nachatz both mean “to press”). The root n-m-k is cognate to
the words makak and maqaq which are used to describe a melting, bending or bowing effect. The name
Lamech is a noun formed from this root and means, therefore, “Bowing” or “Bending,” being aptly
sybolized by the bent bow of Sagittarius, and in some zodiacs the asterism is represented, accordingly,
simply by a bent bow. The loaded bow is also a symbol of male fertility — hence the equine body of
Sagittarius in other zodiacs. Another connotation is “Fading Out”, so that Sagittarius is specifically the
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Shooter of Meteoric Arrows, which burn out in the atmosphere. From the root meaning arises the
further signification “subdue, level, cause to bow down, overthrow” and hence the name Lamech is
interpreted to mean “the strong, the mighty, the wild and invincible overthrower”. This meaning, too, is
aptly portrayed by the figure of a wild centaur, stepping forward into combat, in the act of firing a bow,
levelling his enemies with a shower of meteoric arrows.
Noah = Capricorn
Noah means “Rest or Relief”, literally the “Reclining of an Animal”. It is symbolized by the reclining
ungulate, goat, sheep or antelope of Capricorn, which in some Zodiacs is simply a reclining ungulate,
but in others is depicted with the tail of a fish, representing the two phases of Noah’s life, pre- and postFlood. The Flood was believed to have been foretold by a gathering of all the planets in the sign of
Capricorn.
Aquarius = Shem
Shem means “Name”, particularly the Name of God. A person’s name is the label attached to his
person, otherwise the “handle” to his spirit. When the Hebrews wished to bring the Spirit of God into
their midst, they “called on His Name”. Knowledge of the Name gave one familiarity, and therefore cooperation, with the Person. The symbol of this concept in the Zodiac is the Shaduf or Water-drawer.
This is a long pole with a water-bucket on its end, balanced on a fulcrum, used by Near-Eastern
peasants to draw water from the river and turn and pour it into an irrigation ditch. Water symbolizes
Spirit (Person, Soul), and the Shaduf or Water-drawer, is the Handle (Name) employed to get a hold on
the water (Spirit). The long string of stars in Aquarius is precisely the shape of a Shaduf. The
constellation is known accordingly in Hebrew as the “Water-bucket” (Deli).
Japheth and Ham = Pisces
Japheth means “Multiplication of Progeny or Numerical Expansion”. It is represented by crossed fishes
in Pisces, a fish being symbolic of numerical increase of progeny. There is a further reference in the
sign to the Flood through which Japheth passed (like a fish, cf. Capricorn), and to the fact that there
was a conflict between Japheth’s descendants and the Hamites, specifically with Ham’s son Canaan and
his progeny, who, though bound by family kinship to Japheth (the Band, the asterism Risha, in the sign
of Pisces), yet tended in an earthly and opposite direction (symbolized by the fish in Pisces swimming
along the ecliptic, i.e. the worldly path, contrary to the direction of the other fish, which is swimming
towards the zenith, i.e. Heaven).
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THE BLESSINGS OF THE SONS OF
ISRAEL AND THEIR PREFIGURING IN
THE ZODIAC
THE SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES, PLUS THE TARGUMS AND LXX
THE NAMING OF THE SONS AT THEIR BIRTH
Genesis Chapter 29
32 And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the
LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
33 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated,
he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.
34 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto
me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.
35 And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she
called his name Judah; and left bearing.
Chapter 30
1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob,
Give me children, or else I die.
2 And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld
from thee the fruit of the womb?
3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may
also have children by her.
4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son.
6 And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son:
therefore called she his name Dan.
7 And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son.
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8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she
called his name Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.
10 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.
11 And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.
12 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son.
13 And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.
14 ¶And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought
them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.
15 And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take
away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son’s
mandrakes.
16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou
must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that
night.
17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.
18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and
she called his name Issachar.
19 And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son.
20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me,
because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.
21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
22 ¶And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:
24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.
Genesis Chapter 35
16 ¶And they journeyed from Beth–el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel
travailed, and she had hard labour.
17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou
shalt have this son also.
18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben–oni:
but his father called him Benjamin.
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth–lehem.
20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.
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THE BLESSING OF JACOB
Gen. 49:
1 ¶ And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which
shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity,
and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst
thou it: he went up to my couch. {thou shalt...: Heb. Do not thou excel} {he went...: or, my couch is
gone}
5 ¶ Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. {instruments...: or,
their swords are weapons of violence}
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united: for in
their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. {digged...: or, houghed
oxen}
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob,
and scatter them in Israel.
8 ¶ Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;
thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a
lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come;
and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in
wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 ¶ Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border
shall be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: 15 And he saw that rest was good, and
the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
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17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider
shall fall backward. {an adder: Heb. An arrow-snake}
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 ¶ Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
{branches: Heb. Daughters}
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24 But his bow abode in
strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from
thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) 25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and
by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth
under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: 26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above
the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head
of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide
the spoil.
28 ¶ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed
them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
THE BLESSING OF MOSES
Deut. 33:
1 ¶ And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his
death.
2 And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from
mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
{a fiery...: Heb. A fire of law}
3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall
receive of thy words.
4 Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
5 And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered
together.
6 ¶ Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.
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7 And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto
his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his enemies.
8 ¶ And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove
at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;
9 Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his
brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.
10 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and
whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. {They shall teach: or, Let them teach} {they shall put: or, let
them put} {before...: Heb. At thy nose}
11 Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that
rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.
12 ¶ And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD
shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.
13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the
dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the
moon, {put: Heb. Thrust} {moon: Heb. moons}
15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
16 And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt
in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that
was separated from his brethren.
17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them
he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
and they are the thousands of Manasseh. {unicorns: Heb. an unicorn}
18 ¶ And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents.
19 They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for
they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.
20 And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm
with the crown of the head.
21 And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated;
and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with
Israel. {seated: Heb. cieled}
22 ¶ And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.
23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the LORD:
possess thou the west and the south.
24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and
let him dip his foot in oil.
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25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. {Thy shoes: or, Under
thy shoes}
TARGUM OF JONATHAN BEN UZZIEL ON GENESIS WITH PARALLEL PASSAGES FROM
THE TARGUM OF JERUSALEM
XLVIII. And after these things it was told Joseph, Behold, thy father is lying ill. And he took his two
sons with him, Menasheh and Ephraim. And it was announced to Jakob, saying, Behold, thy son Joseph
hath come to thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
And Jakob said to Joseph: El Shadai revealed Himself to me at Luz, in the land of Kenaan, and blessed
me. And He said to me, Behold, I will increase thee and multiply thee, and make thee an assemblage of
tribes, and will give this land to thy sons after thee for an everlasting inheritance. And now, thy two
sons who have been born to thee in the land of Mizraim before I came to thee into Mizraim are mine;
Ephraim and Menasheh as Reuben and Shimeon shall be reckoned unto me. And thy children whom
thou mayest beget after them shall be thine; by the name of their brethren shall they be called in their
inheritance. And I beseech thee to bury me with my fathers. Rahel died by me suddenly in the land of
Kenaan, while there was yet much ground to come to Ephrath; nor could I carry her to bury her in the
Double Cave, but I buried her there, in the way of Ephrath which is Bethlechem.
And Israel looked at the sons of Joseph and said, From whom are these born to thee? And Joseph
answered his father, They are my sons which the Word of the Lord gave me according to this writing,
according to which I took Asenath the daughter of Dinah thy daughter to be my wife.
And he said, Bring them now near to me, and I will bless them. But Israel’s eyes were heavy from age,
and he could not see. And he brought them to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel
said to Joseph, To see thy face I had not reckoned, but, behold, the Lord hath also showed me thy sons.
And Joseph brought them out from (between) his knees, and worshipped on his face upon the ground.
And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right side, which was Israel’s left, and Menasheh on his
left side, which was Israel’s right, and brought them to him.
And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the head of Ephraim, though be was the
younger; and his left hand upon the head of Menasheh, altering his hands, for Menasheh was the
firstborn. [JERUSALEM. He altered his hands.] And he blessed Joseph, and said:
The Lord, before whom my fathers Abraham and Izhak, did serve; the Lord who hath fed me since I
have been unto this day, be pleased that the angel whom thou didst ordain for me, to redeem me from
all evil, may bless the children; and let my name be called upon them, and the names of my fathers
Abraham and Izhak. And as the fishes of the sea in multiplying are multiplied in the sea, so may the
children of Joseph be multiplied abundantly in the midst of the earth.
And Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand upon Ephraim’s head; and it was evil before him,
and he uplifted his father’s hand to remove it from off the head of Ephraim, that it might rest on the
head of Menasheh. And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn; lay thy
right hand on his head. But his father was not willing, and said, I know, my son, I know that he is the
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firstborn, and also that he will be a great people, and will also be multiplied; yet will his younger
brother be greater than he, and his sons be greater among the nations. And he blessed them in that day,
saying, In thee, Joseph my son, shall the house of Israel bless their infants in the day of their
circumcision, saying, The Lord set thee as Ephraim and as Menasheh. And in the numbering of the
tribes the prince of Ephraim shall be numbered before the prince of Menasheh. And he appointed that
Ephraim should be before Menasheh.
And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, my end cometh to die. But the Word of the Lord shall be your
Helper, and restore you to the land of your fathers; and I, behold, I have given to thee the city of
Shekem, one portion for a gift above thy brethren, which I took from the hand of the Amoraee at the
time that you went into the midst of it, and I arose and helped you with my sword and with my bow.
[Jerusalem. And I, behold, I have given thee one portion above thy brethren, the robe of the first Adam.
Abraham the father of my father took it from the hands of Nimrod the Wicked, and gave it to Izhak my
father; and Izhak my father gave it to Esau, and I took it from the hands of Esau my brother, not with
my sword nor with my bow, but through my righteousness and my good works.]
XLIX. And Jakob called his sons and said to them, Purify yourselves from uncleanness, and I will show
you the hidden mysteries, the ends concealed, the recompense of reward for the righteous, the
retribution of the wicked, and the bower of Eden, what it is. And the twelve tribes of Israel gathered
themselves together around the golden bed whereon he reclined, and where was revealed to him the
Shekina of the Lord, (though) the end for which the king Meshiha is to come had been concealed from
him. Then said he, Come, and I will declare to you what shall befall you at the end of the days. Gather
yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jakob, and receive instruction from Israel your father.
Reuben thou art my firstborn, the beginning of the strength of my generation, and the chief event of my
thoughts To thee belonged the birthright, and the high priesthood, and the kingdom: but because thou
hast sinned, my son, the birthright is given to Joseph, and the, kingdom to Jehuda, and the priesthood to
Levi. I will liken thee to a little garden in the midst of which there enter torrents swift and strong,
which it cannot bear, but is overwhelmed. Be repentant then, Reuben my son, for thou hast sinned, and
add not; that wherein thou hast sinned it may be forgiven thee; for it is reckoned to thee as if thou
wentest in to have to do with the wife of thy father at the time that thou didst confound my bed upon
which thou wentest up.
Shimeon and Levi are brothers of the womb; their thoughts are of sharp weapons for rapine. In their
counsel my soul bath not had pleasure, and in their gathering against Shekem to destroy it mine honor
was not united; for in their anger they slew the prince and his ruler, and in their ill will they demolished
the wall of their adversary. And Jakob said, Accursed was the town of Shekem. when they entered
within it to destroy it in their violent wrath; and their hatred against Joseph, for it was relentless. If, said
Jakob, they dwell together, no king nor ruler may stand before them. Therefore will I divide the
inheritance of the sons of Shimeon into two portions; one part shall come to them out of the inheritance
of the sons of Jehuda, and one part from among the rest of the tribes of Jakob; and the tribe of Levi I
will disperse among all the tribes of Israel.
Jehuda, thou didst make confession in the matter of Tamar: therefore shall thy brethren confess thee,
and shall be called Jehudain from thy name. Thy hand shall avenge thee of thy adversaries, in throwing
arrows upon them when they turn their backs before thee; and the sons of thy fathers shall come before
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thee with salutations. I will liken thee, my son Jehuda, to a whelp, the young of a lion; for from the
killing of Joseph my son thou didst uplift thy soul, and from the judgment of Tamar thou wast free. He
dwelleth quietly and in strength, as a lion; and as an old lion when he reposeth, who may stir him up?
Kings shall not cease, nor rulers, from the house of Jehuda, nor sapherim teaching the law from his
seed, till the time that the King the Meshiha, shall come, the youngest of his sons; and on account of
him shall the peoples flow together How beauteous is the King, the Meshiha who will arise from the
house of Jehuda! He hath girded his loins, and descended, and arrayed the battle against his
adversaries, slaying kings with their rulers; neither is there any king or ruler who shall stand before
him. The mountains become red with the blood of their slain; his garments, dipped in blood, are like
the outpressed juice of grapes. How beautiful are the eyes of the king Meshiha, as the pure wine! He
cannot look upon what is unclean, nor on the shedding of the blood of the innocent; and his teeth, purer
than milk, cannot eat that which is stolen or torn; and therefore his mountains are red with wine, and
his hills white with corn, and with the cotes of flocks.
Zebulon shall dwell upon the banks of the sea, and have dominion over the havens he will surmount the
breakers of the sea with ships and his border extend unto Zidon.
Issakar is an ass in the law; a strong tribe, knowing the order, of the times; and he lieth down between
the, limits of his brethren. And he saw the rest of the world to come that it is good, and the portion of
the land of Israel that it is pleasant; therefore bowed he his shoulders to labor in the law, and unto him
shall come his brethren bearing presents.
From the house of Dan there is to arise a man who will judge his people with the judgment of truth. All
the tribes of Israel will hearken to him together. A chosen man shall arise from the house of Dan, like
the basilisk which lieth at the dividing of the way, and the serpent’s head which lurketh by the way, that
biteth the horse in his heel, and the master from his terror is thrown backward. Even thus will
Shimshon bar Manovach slay all the heroes of Philistia, the horsemen and the foot; he will hamstring
their horses and hurl their riders backwards.
When Jakob saw Gideon bar Joash and Shimshon bar Manovach, who were established to be
deliverers, he said, I expect not the salvation of Gideon, nor look I for the salvation of Shimshon; for
their salvation will be the salvation of an hour; but for Thy salvation have I waited, and will look for, 0
Lord; for Thy salvation is the salvation of eternity.
The tribe of Gad with the rest of the tribes will, armed, pass over the streams of Arnona and subdue
before them the pillars of the earth, and armed will they return into their limits with much substance
and dwell in peace beyond the passage of Jardena; for so will they choose, and it shall be to them to
receive their inheritance.
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Happy is Asher whose fruitage is plenteous, and whose land aboundeth in balsams and costly perfumes.
Naphatali is a swift messenger, like a hind that runneth on the tops of the mountains, bringing good
tidings: he it was who announced that Joseph was living; he it was who hasteneth to go into Mizraim,
and bring the contract of the double field in which Esau had no portion; and when he shall open his
mouth in the congregation of Israel to give praise, he shall be the chosen of all tongues.
Joseph, my son, thou hast become great; Joseph, my son, thou hast become great and mighty; the end
(determined) on thee was (that thou shouldst) be mighty, because thou didst subdue thy inclination in
the matter of thy mistress, and in the work of thy brethren. Thee will I liken to a vine planted by
fountains of water, which sendeth forth her roots, and overrunneth the ridges of stone, and covereth by
her branches all unfruitful trees; even so didst thou my son Joseph subject by thy wisdom and thy good
works all the magicians of Mizraim; and when, celebrating thy praises, the daughters of princes
walking on the high places cast before thee bracelets and chains of gold, that thou shouldst lift up thine
eyes upon them, thine eyes thou wouldst not lift up on one of them, to become guilty in the great day of
judgment. And all the magicians of Mizraim were bitter and angry against him, and brought
accusations against him before Pharoh, expecting to bring him down from his honor They spake against
him with the slanderous tongue which is severe as arrows. But he returned to abide in his early
strength, and would not yield himself unto sin, and subdued his inclinations by the strong discipline he
had received from Jakob, and thence became worthy of being a ruler, and of being joined in the
engraving of the names upon the stones of Israel. From the Word of the Lord shall be thy help; and He
who is called the All-Sufficient shall bless thee with the blessings which descend with the dew of
heaven from above, and with the good blessing of the fountains of the deep which ascend and clothe
the herbage from beneath. The breasts are blessed at which thou wast suckled, and the womb in which
thou didst lie, The blessings of thy father be added to the blessings wherewith my fathers Abraham and
Izhak have blessed me, and which the princes of the world Ishmael and Esau and all the sons of
Keturah have desired: let all these blessings be united, and form a diadem of majesty for the head of
Joseph, and for the brow of the man who became chief and ruler in Mizraim, and the brightness of the
glory of his brethren.
Benjamin is a strong tribe, (like) the wolf (with) his prey. In his land will dwell the Shekina of the Lord
of the world, and the house of the sanctuary be builded in his inheritance. In the morning will the
priests offer the lamb continually until the fourth hour, and between the evenings the second lamb, and
at eventide will they divide the residue remaining of the offering, and eat, every man, his portion.
[Jerusalem Targum. And our father Jakob called his sons, and said to them, Gather together, and I will
teach yon the concealed end, the secret mysteries, the recompense of reward for the just, and the
punishment of the wicked, and the blessedness of Eden, what it is. And the twelve tribes of Jakob
assembled and surrounded the golden bed whereon our father Jakob lay, desiring that he should teach
them (at the) end in benediction and consolation. Then was revealed to him the secret that had been
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hidden from him, and then was opened the door which had been shut to him. Our father Jakob turned
therefore and blessed his sons, every man according to his good did he bless him.
[When the twelve tribes of Jakob were assembled, and surrounded the golden bed whereon our father
Jakob lay, they expected that he would make known to them the order of blessing and consolation: but
they were hidden from him. Our father Jakob answered and said to them: From Abraham my father’s
father arose the profane Ishmael and all the sons of Keturah; and from Izhak my father arose the
profane Esau, my brother; and I am afraid lest there should be among you a man whose heart is
separated from his brethren to go and worship before strange idols. The twelve tribes of Jakob
answered all together, and said, Hear us, Israel our father! The Lord our God is one Lord! And Jakob
our father answered, and said, May His Great Name be blessed for ever and ever!
[REUBEN, my firstborn art thou, my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow. To thee my son Reuben
would it have pertained to receive three portions above thy brethren, birthright, priesthood, kingdom:
but because thou hast sinned, Reuben, my son, the birthright is given unto Joseph, the kingdom to
Jehuda, and the high priesthood to the tribe of Levi. I will liken thee, my son Reuben, to a little garden
into the midst of which there enter rapid torrents, which it cannot bear, but is carried away before them.
Be repentant then, my son Reuben, with good works, for thou hast sinned; and sin no more, that that
which thou hast sinned may be forgiven thee.
[5. Shimeon and Levi are brothers of the womb, men who are masters of sharp weapons; they made
war from their youth; in the land of their adversary they wrought out the triumphs of war. In their
counsels my soul found no pleasure; and in their gathering together at the city of Shekem to destroy it,
they were not favorable to my honor; for in their anger they slew kings with princes, and in their
willfulness they sold Joseph their brother, who is compared to the ox. Accursed was the town of
shekem when Shimeon and Levi entered to destroy it in their wrath, for it was strong, and in their
anger, for it was cruel. And Jakob our father said, If these remain together, no people or kingdom can
stand before them. I will divide the tribe of Shimeon, that they may become preachers and teachers of
the law in the congregation of Jakob; and I will disperse the tribe of Levi in the houses of instruction
for the sons of Israel
[8. JEHUDA, thee shall all thy brethren praise, and from thy name shall all be called Jehudaee; thy
hand shall avenge thee of thy adversaries; all the sons of thy father shall come before thee with
salutation. I will liken thee, my son Jehuda, to a whelp the son of a lion: from the slaying of Joseph
thou wast free, from the judgment of Tamar thou, my son, wast acquitted. He remaineth tranquil in the
midst of war, as the lion and as the lioness; nor is there people or kingdom that can stand against thee.
Kings shall not cease from the house of Jehuda, nor sapherim teaching the law from his children’s
children, until the time that the King Meshiha shall come, whose is the kingdom, and to whom all the
kingdoms of the earth shall be obedient. How beauteous is the King Meshiha, who is to arise from the
house of Jehuda!
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[Binding his loins, and going forth to war against them that hate him, he will slay kings with princes,
and make the rivers red with the blood of their slain, and his hills white with the fat of their mighty
ones; his garments will be dipped in blood, and he himself be like the juice of the winepress. More
beautiful are the eyes of the king Meshiha to behold than pure wine; they will not look upon that which
is unclean, or the shedding of the blood of the innocent. His teeth are employed according to the
precept rather than in eating the things of violence and rapine; his mountains shall be red with vines,
and his presses with his wine, and his hills be white with much corn and with flocks of sheep.
[14. ISSAKAR is a strong tribe, and his limits shall be in the midst between two boundaries. And he
saw the house of the sanctuary, which is called Quietness, that it is good, and the land that its fruits are
rich; and bared his shoulders to labor in the law, and to him shall be all his brethren bringing tribute.
[17. (Of DAN) He will be the deliverer who is to arise, strong will he be and elevated above all
kingdoms. And be will be like the serpent that lieth in the way, and the basilisk which lurketh at the
dividing of the road, which striketh the horse in his heel, and thinketh by the terror of him to throw his
rider backward. He is Shimshon bar Manovach, who will be a terror upon his adversaries, and a fear
upon them that hate him, and who will slay kings with princes. Our father Jakob said, My soul hath not
waited for the redemption of Gideon bar Joash which is for an hour, nor for the redemption of
Shimshon which is a creature redemption, but for the Redemption which Thou hast said in Thy Word
shall come for Thy people the sons of Israel, for this Thy Redemption my soul hath waited.
[19. From the house of GAD will go forth hosts arrayed in arms. They will bring Israel over Jardena
put them in possession of the land of Kenaan, and afterwards return in peace to their tabernacles.
[Of happy Asher how fertile is the land! His land shall satisfy with dainties the kings of the sons of
Israel.
[Naphtali is a swift messenger declaring good tidings. He first declared to our father Jakob that Joseph
was yet in life, and he went down to Mizraim in a little time, and brought the contract of the Double
Field from the palace of Joseph. And when he openeth his mouth in the congregation of Jakob, his
tongue is sweet as honey.
[22. My son who hast become great, JOSEPH, my son, who hast become great, and waxed mighty, that
thou wouldst become mighty was foreseen. Thee, Joseph, my son, will I liken to a vine planted by
fountains of water, which sendeth her roots into the depth and striketh the ridges of the rocks, uplifting
herself on high and surmounting all the trees. So hast thou, O Joseph my son, risen by thy wisdom
above all magicians of Mizraim, and all the wise men who were there, what time thou didst ride in the
second chariot of Pharoh, and they proclaimed before thee and said, This is the father of the king, Long
live the father of the king, Great in wisdom, though few in years. And the daughters of kings and of
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princes danced before thee at the windows, and beheld thee from the balconies, and scattered before
thee bracelets rings collars, necklaces, and all ornaments of gold, in hope thou wouldst uplift thine eyes
and regard one of them. But thou my son Joseph wast far from lifting thine eyes on any one of them,
though the daughters of kings and of princes spake one to another, This is the holy man Joseph, who
walks not after the sight of his eyes nor after the imagination of his heart; because the sight of the eyes
and the imagination of his heart make the son of woman to perish from the world. Therefore will arise
from thee the two tribes Menasheh and Ephraim, who shall receive portion and inheritance with their
brethren in the dividing of the land. The magicians of Mizraim and all the wise men spake against him,
but could not prevail over him; they spake evil of him before his lord, they accused him before Pharoh
king of Mizraim, to bring him down from his dignity; they spake against him in the palace of Pharoh
with a slanderous tongue severe as arrows. But the strength of his confidence remained in both his
hands and his arms, and he sought mercy from the strength of his father Jakob, under the arms of
whose power the tribes of Israel are led, and do come. Blessed are the breasts that suckled thee, and the
womb in which thou didst lie. The blessing of thy father be added upon thee, upon the blessings
wherewith thy fathers Abraham and Izhak who are like mountains blessed thee, and upon the blessing
of the four mothers’ Sarah, Rivekah, Rahel, and Leah, who are like hills; let all these blessings come,
and make a diadem of majesty upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the man who became a
chief and ruler in the land of Mizraim, and the brightness of the glory of his brethren.
[17. (Of BENJAMIN) I will liken him to a ravening wolf. In his limits will the sanctuary be builded,
and in his inheritance the glory of the Shekina of the Lord will dwell. In the morning will the priests
offer the continual lamb and its oblations, and at the going down of the sun will the priests offer the
continual lamb and its oblations, and at evening divide the offerings of the sons of Israel.]
LXX:
Gen. 49:
3 Ruben, thou art my first-born, thou my strength, and the first of my children, hard to be endured, hard
and self-willed.
4 Thou wast insolent like water, burst not forth with violence, for thou wentest up to the bed of thy
father; then thou defiledst the couch, whereupon thou wentest up.
5 Symeon and Levi, brethren, accomplished the injustice of their cutting off.
6 Let not my soul come into their counsel, and let not mine inward parts contend in their conspiracy,
for in their wrath they slew men, and in their passion they houghed a bull.
7 Cursed be their wrath, for it was willful, and their anger, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob,
and scatter them in Israel.
8 Juda, thy brethren have praised thee, and thy hands shall be on the back of thine enemies; thy father’s
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sons shall do thee reverence.
9 Juda is a lion’s whelp: from the tender plant, my son, thou art gone up, having couched thou liest as a
lion, and as a whelp; who shall stir him up?
10 A ruler shall not fail from Juda, nor a prince from his loins, until there come the things stored up for
him; and he is the expectation of nations.
11 Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his ass to the branch of it, he shall wash his robe in wine,
and his garment in the blood of the grape.
12 His eyes shall be more cheering than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 Zabulon shall dwell on the coast, and he shall be by a haven of ships, and shall extend to Sidon.
14 Issachar has desired that which is good; resting between the inheritances.
15 And having seen the resting place that it was good, and the land that it was fertile, he subjected his
shoulder to labor, and became a husbandman.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one tribe too in Israel.
17 And let Dan be a serpent in the way, besetting the path, biting the heel of the horse (and the rider
shall fall backward),
18 waiting for the salvation of the Lord.
19 Gad, a plundering troop shall plunder him; but he shall plunder him, pursuing him closely.
20 Aser, his bread shall be fat; and he shall yield dainties to princes.
21 Nephthalim is a spreading stem, bestowing beauty on its fruit.
22 Joseph is a son increased; my dearly loved son is increased; my youngest son, turn to me.
23 Against whom men taking evil counsel reproached him, and the archers pressed hard upon him.
24 But their bow and arrows were mightily consumed, and the sinews of their arms were slackened by
the hand of the mighty one of Jacob; thence is he that strengthened Israel from the God of thy father;
25 and my God helped thee, and he blessed thee with the blessing of heaven from above, and the
blessing of the earth possessing all things, because of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb,
26 the blessings of thy father and thy mother — it has prevailed above the blessing of the lasting
mountains, and beyond the blessings of the everlasting hills; they shall be upon the head of Joseph, and
upon the head of the brothers of whom he took the lead.
27 Benjamin, as a ravening wolf, shall eat still in the morning, and at evening he gives food.
Deut. 33:
6 Let Ruben live, and not die; and let him be many in number.
7 And this is the blessing of Juda; Hear, Lord, the voice of Juda, and do thou visit his people: his hands
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shall contend for him, and thou shalt be a help from his enemies.
8 And to Levi he said, Give to Levi his manifestations, and his truth to the holy man, whom they
tempted in the temptation; they reviled him at the water of strife.
9 Who says to his father and mother, I have not seen thee; and he knew not his brethren, and he refused
to know his sons: he kept thine oracles, and observed thy covenant.
10 They shall declare thine ordinances to Jacob, and thy law to Israel: they shall place incense in the
time of thy wrath continually upon thine altar.
11 Bless, Lord, his strength, and accept the works of his hands; break the loins of his enemies that have
risen up against him, and let not them that hate him rise up.
12 And to Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in confidence, and God overshadows
him always, and he rested between his shoulders.
13 And to Joseph he said, His land is of the blessing of the Lord, of the seasons of sky and dew, and of
the deeps of wells below,
14 and of the fruits of the changes of the sun in season, and of the produce of the months,
15 from the top of the ancient mountains, and from the top of the everlasting hills,
16 and of the fullness of the land in season: and let the things pleasing to him that dwelt in the bush
come on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of him who was glorified above his brethren.
17 His beauty is as the firstling of his bull, his horns are the horns of a unicorn; with them he shall
thrust the nations at once, even from the end of the earth: these are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and
these are the thousands of Manasse.
18 And to Zabulon he said, Rejoice, Zabulon, in thy going out, and Issachar in his tents.
19 They shall utterly destroy the nations, and ye shall call men there, and there offer the sacrifice of
righteousness; for the wealth of the sea shall suckle thee, and so shall the marts of them that dwell by
the seacoast.
20 And to Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlarges Gad: as a lion he rested, having broken the arm and
the ruler.
21 And he saw his firstfruits, that there the land of the princes gathered with the chiefs of the people
was divided; the Lord wrought righteousness, and his judgment with Israel.
22 And to Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp, and shall leap out of Basan.
23 And to Nephthali he said, Nephthali has the fulness of good things; and let him be filled with
blessing from the Lord: he shall inherit the west and the south.
24 And to Aser he said, Aser is blessed with children; and he shall be acceptable to his brethren: he
shall dip his foot in oil.
25 His sandal shall be iron and brass; as thy days, so shall be thy strength.
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The chief tribes of the four Camps are Judah (the eastern Camp, under the Zodiac sign Leo), Reuben
(the southern Camp, under the Zodiac sign Taurus), Ephraim (the western Camp, under the Zodiac sign
Aquarius) and Dan (the northern Camp, under the Zodiac sign Scorpio).
These tribes are prefigured in the Zodiac as follows:
LEO (Heb. Aryeh) = JUDAH
Judah (whose name means recognition with favor, or appointment for leadership, or praise) is
compared to a Lion many times in Scripture. The root meaning of his name is to point out with the
hand, acknowledge as one who is praiseworthy, or as one who has ability to guide and lead. He was the
ancestor of the tribe from which the royal line of the Jews was to spring, the House of David. Hence his
sign was the universally recognized symbol of power and royalty, the Lion (Leo).
TAURUS (Heb. Shor) = REUBEN
Reuben was the firstborn of Leah and Leah means “wild cow”. Reuben was, therefore, the firstborn of
the cow and was accordingly symbolized as a bull, particularly a young bull, i.e. the sign Taurus. The
name of Reuben means “Beware (or watch) the young one (of animal or man)”. Taurus is depicted as
an angry bull charging. In fact Taurus is charging and attacking a shepherd (depicted in the conjoined
constellation Auriga), who holds in his arms a ewe (the star Capella) and her two offspring. Reuben
accordingly assaulted his father Israel (who was a shepherd) by lying with Israel’s concubine Bilhah.
This attack, an attack of lust (bull), committed by the firstborn son of Israel’s less favored wife, Leah,
was also an assault on Israel’s beloved, and therefore rival, wife, Rachel (whose name means ewe) with
her two offspring, Joseph and Benjamin (both favored like their mother), inasmuch as Bilhah was the
handmaid of Rachel. Hence in the heavenly sign, the ewe (Rachel, Capella), recognizing the danger of
Leah’s jealous (bullish), young champion, Reuben (Taurus), cowers for protection with her two
children in the bosom of the shepherd Israel (Auriga).
AQUARIUS (Heb. Deli) = EPHRAIM
Aquarius is the figure of a man pouring out water, the heavenly irrigator. It represents the tribe of
Ephraim, whose name means “He [God] has made productive or fruitful”, i.e. very productive, the form
of the Hebrew name conveying the sense of “Double Fruitfulness”. It was, and still is, usual in the Near
East for the fruitfulness of the land to depend on human irrigation. The Hebrew name of the sign Deli
(the water vessel) has connotations, likewise, of fertility and reproduction. As the recipient of the
blessing of the firstborn, Ephraim inherited his father’s mantle and, indeed, his name, so this tribe is
frequently called simply Joseph (e.g. in Rev. 7). The name Joseph, too, means “Prolific”, “Increasing”
or “Multiplication”, and Joseph himself is, therefore, equally and appropriately represented by the sign
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of the Irrigator. In view of this, it is remarkable that the stream of productive water in the celestial sign
is flowing into the belly of the great Southern Fish (the constellation Piscis Australis), which anciently
was believed to represent the mother of the two fishes of Pisces. This sign, Piscis Australis, therefore, is
a figuration of Asenath, the Egyptian wife of Joseph and mother of Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph was
identified with the Egyptian god Serapis, and the consort of this god was Isis, the Great Goddess of
Egyptian paganism. Accordingly, the Greeks and Romans identified Piscis Australis with their
equivalent Great Goddess, Aphrodite or Venus, and hence their belief that the emblem of this divinity
was to be found amongst the stars of “The Fishes” (which designated conjointly Piscis Australis and
Pisces). The child of this goddess was called Eros or Cupid, meaning, union of natural affection, and
this union was signified in the stars by the band in the sign of Pisces, by which the two fishes were
united.
SCORPIO (Heb. Akrav) = DAN
Dan means divine judgment or divine punishment. It is represented in the Zodiac by the sign of a
scorpion. This creature causes torment or punishment by its deadly sting. In Hebrew the word Scorpion
(akrav) actually means, as well as the creature so designated, an instrument of judicial punishment, a
scourge fitted with sharp points. The Latin word Scorpio (scorpion) is derived directly from the
Hebrew name (‘-k-r-b, pronounced akrav, with the initial hard breathing transformed, as commonly
elsewhere, into s and b into p). Similarly in Latin, scorpio designates both the creature and a scourge
with sharp points. The Hebrew name is a conflation of two other Hebrew words, akar (wound) and
akev (heel), so the scorpion is the “heel-wounder”, representing the serpentine evil seed which is
prophesied in Gen. 3 to wound the heel of the Messiah, the Seed of the Woman. In the blessing of
Jacob, accordingly, Dan is described as a serpent in the path who bites the heels of a horse so that its
rider falls backward. Here we have in one phrase references to the scorpion (heel-wounder), the centaur
(horse) which is in conflict with Scorpio in the Zodiac, and the Seed of the Woman who is attacked by
the seed of the serpent (the rider of the horse). Hence the sign of the basilisk-serpent on the standard of
Dan. In the celestial sphere, Scorpio is attacking the heel of the conjoined constellation, the “Serpentwrestler”, Ophiuchus, representing the Seed of the Woman, who is in the process of crushing Scorpio
with his heel. In fact, the stars of Ophiuchus intermingle with those of Scorpio in the section where the
foot of the former crushes the heart of the latter (the star Antares or “Heart of the Scorpion”). In Egypt,
Ophiuchus was represented with the head of a bird of prey which the Hebrews and Greeks called an
Eagle, this bird being the particular enemy of the serpent. Hence, because of the fusion of the signs, it
was possible for Scorpio to be replaced by an Eagle. For example, in the figures of the four Cherubim,
we have a Lion (Leo), a Bull (Taurus), a Man (Aquarius) and an Eagle (Ophiuchus/Scorpio).
The Birth Signs of the sons of Israel are reflected in their names as follows:
Reuben = Leo, Heb. Aryeh, the “Lion”. The name Reuben means “Behold a son [male child]” or “He
[God] has looked on my [the mother Leah’s] affliction”. The Hebrew name of the Zodiac sign Aryeh
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includes within it the word ary = “Behold!” The second component, -h, could be interpreted as a
grammatical (“paedagogic”) suffix conveying no particular information. In that case Aryeh means: 1)
“Behold!” 2) “Lion”, but in Hebrew “lion” also means “hero, notable male”, and the lion indicated in
the star-sign is a young male (cf. the Targum on Numbers 2). These two meanings are expressed in
Leah’s interpretation of the name Reuben, “(1) Behold (2) a son [male child].” Alternatively, the final
-h could be interpreted as the cry of woe “ha!” or “he!” and Aryeh would then mean “Behold the cry of
woe”. Leah’s alternative interpretation, “He has looked on my affliction”, expresses the same concept
in different words. The lion is known for its keen sight, as well as for its male qualities of bravery and
strength. It is recognized (sight) as the king (male) of the beasts.
Simeon = Aries, Heb. Taleh = “Lamb, Young One”, from the root, tl, or twl, “to hang down, drop,
shake, lie on the ground”. From the same root is formed the word tallit, the long, hanging, “prayershawl” of the kind commonly used by Hebrews, especially the priest or leader in prayer. Simeon means
“Answer to prayer [lit. Hearing]”, interpreted by the mother Leah to mean “Heard by God because I
was hated”. The element “hated” is found in the verbal form tiltel from the same root, meaning “to
shake, unsettle, send into exile”.
Levi = Sagittarius, Heb. Kasshat, the “Bowman”. Levi comes from the root lwh, meaning “to bend,
curve, coil, be attached, join”. Hence the curved bow of the sign Sagittarius the Archer is the Zodiac
sign of Levi. This is a mounted archer (a centaur, a bowman and horse fused into one), and the root lwh
also means “to be a military escort”, such an escort in the ancient world commonly comprising
mounted archers.
Judah = Taurus, Heb. Shor, the “Bull”. Judah, Heb. Yehudah, comes from the Heb. root ydh, lit. “to
cast, direct (at)” then, “to direct words, praise, confession (at), to praise, acknowledge, confess”. So of
Judah it is said, “him shall his brethren praise.” The name is found in both senses in the constellation
Taurus: the bull in the star-sign is directing its horns upward at Auriga, and in Hebrew the expression
“to lift up the horn” means “to exult, triumph” or “cause (one) to triumph, be exalted, etc.” by praise,
acknowledgment, confession, or otherwise. Judah is identified implicitly with Auriga, or with one or
the other of Auriga’s dependent asterisms, viz. those known as “the Kids”, who shelter in Auriga’s
bosom, as the constellation Auriga is conjoined to Taurus by the shared star El Nath at the end of the
northern horn of Taurus, and formed one constellation in antiquity: accordingly, the praise (horn) of the
bull is directed at Auriga (“him [Auriga] shall his brethren [Taurus] praise”).
Issachar = Virgo, Heb. Betulah, the “Virgin”. The young woman (Virgo) carries a branch (of
mandrakes) and a stalk of harvested wheat, because at the harvest-time (stalk of harvested wheat)
Issachar (whose name means hired man) was conceived by Leah after hiring her husband for the night
from Rachel, Rachel receiving as her hire the mandrakes which Leah’s son had found in the fields. The
mandrakes were desired by Rachel because she hoped their aphrodisiac powers would help her
conceive, when before this she had been barren (Virgo = virgin). And, indeed, she did conceive
immediately thereafter, bringing forth her firstborn son, Joseph, typing the Promised Seed, the Messiah
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Jesus, born from the Virgin (Virgo) Mary. Rachel (Virgo) is seen in the sign carrying off the mandrakes,
to represent the hiring from which Issachar received his name, and bearing the Seed (the star Spica, Ear
of Corn), as a prophecy of the coming Messiah. A subjoined constellation, Coma, the “Hair” of the
Virgin (representing the hair of the wheat plant [“mother”] which bears the Seed), was in ancient times
depicted as a Virgin bearing a young boy on her lap. The Arabs said this young boy was Jesus, the
Messiah, and claimed that an ancient prophecy of the Magi foretold that a great star would beam forth
in this sign at the time the Messiah was born. This was the Star of Bethlehem. Indeed, precisely when
Jesus was born (historically, in April, not December), at midnight, Virgo and Coma were on the
meridian, directly above Bethlehem. The Virgin (Rachel) in Virgo, Betulah in Hebrew, is holding the
plant used to make the (mandrake) wine in one hand (its chief star being called Vindemiatrix, the VineHarvester), and in Israelite times the sign Virgo was where the sun was located at the time of the
harvesting of vines (the Hebrew month Tishri, September-October). In fact Betulah, the Hebrew name
of the sign, means, as well as “virgin”, “branch” or “shoot of a plant”. The Virgin in the star-sign is the
Branch personified. So also in Latin virgo (virgin) is cognate to virga, branch.
Zebulun = Capricorn, Heb. Gedi, the “Goat”. The Zodiac sign depicts a goat-fish, representing a
fertile (goat) fountain (fish), spring-water being of particular importance in the Near East to ensure the
fertility of fields sown with crops. Zebulun (Heb. Zevulun) is from the root zbl meaning “to fertilize”
(by spreading manure in the form of dead foliage etc. on the fields), and zevul (same root) is also,
specifically, the manure from goats.
Dan = Gemini, Heb. Teomim, the “Twins”. Dan means “to hold counsel, debate, decide, judge,
punish”. The heavenly debate, and the punishment following, is represented by two figures, the Twins
(two minds in debate), holding weapons (punishment).
Gad = Libra, Heb. Moznayim, the “Scales”. Gad, from the root gd, means forager or grazer or foraging
troop. The root meaning of the word incorporates, as well as the idea of grazing or cropping (literally),
the idea of picking (mentally), selecting or choosing, hence it comes to denote the Divine Election or
Decree (commonly mistranslated “fate, luck”). The Divine Decree is symbolized by the heavenly
Scales of Libra.
Naphtali = Aquarius, Heb. Deli, the Water-bucket. The name Naphtali is derived from the root ptl,
meaning “to twine”, whence patil, “thread”. Naphtali literally means “My [the mother’s] strugglings,
lit. twinings”, as if the mother was struggling on a rope. It is symbolized by the Water-bucket on the
rope of the shaduf (by which water is raised from rivers in the Near East) depicted in the sign of
Aquarius (a long sprawling line of stars exactly duplicating the long handle on a fulcrum of the shaduf).
Asher = Cancer, Heb. Sartan, the Crab. Asher means “to direct or lead one on the path to success,
prosperity etc.” The Crab in the sign of Cancer is precisely directing or leading its young offspring
(symbolized by the cluster Praesepe) with its two pincers.
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Joseph = Scorpio, Heb. Akrav, the Scorpion. The name Joseph is interpreted two ways: 1) from the
Hebrew asaph, “He causes to be removed” and 2) from the Hebrew yasaph, “He piles on top, adds
more etc.” Joseph is symbolized by the sign of Scorpio which depicts the removing of the hated
Scorpion by the piling on top of the foot of Ophiuchus, the Serpent-wrestler. The Scorpion, in addition,
is a symbol of sterility, and crushing it represents fertility: the name Joseph means more precisely “He
(God) shall add another son”.
Benjamin = Pisces, Heb. Dagim, the “Fishes”. Benjamin had two names: 1) Ben-oni, “Son of my [the
mother’s] sorrow, affliction” and 2) Ben-jamin, “Son of the right hand, i.e. blessed, favored”. Fishes
symbolize offspring (the Heb. nin means both “fish” and “offspring” from the root nwn, “be prolific”).
Here we have two fishes in the star-sign, and also two sons in the names Ben-oni and Ben-jamin. One
fish in the star-sign is travelling horizontally along the ecliptic (the sun’s path through the sky),
representing the path through this world of sorrow and death (Ben-oni, “Son of my sorrow”), and the
other fish is swimming vertically towards the zenith, representing the upward path to heaven obtained
only by the unmerited grace and favor of God (Ben-jamin, “Son of the right hand, i.e. blessed,
favored”).
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THE ORDER OF THE STONES
In the Palestinian Targum and, more explicitly, in Sefer ha-Zikhronot, we find the first three stones of
the Breastplate in Ex. 28 (1. Heb. Odem [Gk. Sardion], 2. Heb. Pitdah [Gk. Topazion], 3. Heb. Bareket
[Gk. Smaragdos]) ascribed to the tribes on the East side of the Camp (Judah, Issachar and Zebulun).
Likewise for the other sides of the Camp: — The stones of the second row of the Breastplate (4. Heb.
Nophek [Gk. Anthrax], 5. Heb. Sappir [Gk. Sappheiros], 6. Heb. Yahalom [Gk. Iaspis]) are ascribed to
the 3 tribes on the South side of the Camp (Reuben, Simeon and Gad). The Breastplate stones of the
third row (7. Heb. Leshem [Gk. Ligourion], 8. Heb. Shevo [Gk. Achates], 9. Heb. Achlamah [Gk.
Amethystos]) are ascribed to the 3 tribes on the West side of the Camp (Ephraim, Manasseh,
Benjamin). Finally the Breastplate stones of the fourth row (10. Heb. Tarshish [Gk. Chrysolithos], 11.
Heb. Shoham [Gk. Beryllion], 12. Heb. Yashpheh [Gk. Onychion]) are ascribed to the 3 tribes on the
North side of the Camp, Dan, Asher and Naphtali.
In the New Testament, Rev. 21, we find twelve stone and twelve tribe names, arranged around the four
walls of the New Jerusalem, three on each side. This is a fourfold arrangement, comparable to that of
the Camp in Num. 2, where the tribal banners, according to the Palestinian Targum, identified tribes
with the Breastplate stones of Ex. 28, and likewise, more explicitly, in Sefer ha-Zikhronot. Furthermore
7 (8 in some texts) of these 12 stones in Rev. 21 have names identical to those used in the Greek
translation of the Old Testament (LXX) in Ex. 28. This is of prime importance for the identification of
the stones with modern gems, because the Roman scholar Pliny in his Natural History (Bk. 37), writing
in the same era as John the Revelator, used the very same names as John for the stones he studied, and
gave much information about each stone which helps modern mineralogists identify them with their
modern equivalents. So, working back through Revelation (with Pliny to give further details) and the
same Greek names used in the LXX to translate the Hebrew gem names, we can identify the original
Hebrew stones of the Breastplate with modern gems. The first two names in Rev 21, Iaspis and
Sappheiros correspond to two of the 3 stones on the South side of the Camp (Palestinian Targum),
namely Iaspis = Heb. Yahalom and Sappheiros = Heb. Sappir. In some texts of the Book of Revelation
(164, 165, 166 [Hoskier]) the 3rd stone name (Chalcedon) is given as Anthrax, which equates with the
other stone name on the South side of the Camp (Anthrax = Heb. Nophek). Furthermore the 4th and 6th
stones (Smaragdos and Sardios) correspond to 2 of the 3 stones on the East side of the Camp
(Smaragdos = Heb. Bareket, Sardios [also spelt Sardion] = Heb. Odem). Similarly Chrysolithos
(Tarshish), Beryllos (Shoham) are on the North side and the last stone, Amethystos (Achlamah) is on
the West side. The four stone names which are not identical to those found in the LXX can be shown
from ancient sources (cited in the list infra and more fully in the section Birthstones) to be alternative
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terms for the corresponding stones in the LXX. This shows the stones in Rev 21 are reflecting the
Camp Order of the tribes and stones, in a continuous line, and in the order South Side (from west to
east), East Side (from south to north), North Side (from east to west), and West Side (from north to
south):
Iaspis (Amethyst) = Yahalom (as in LXX)
Sappheiros (Lapis Lazuli) = Sappir (as in LXX)
Chalcedon or Anthrax (Spinel) = Nophek (Anthrax in LXX)
Smaragdos (Chrysoberyl) = Bareket (as in LXX)
Sardonyx (Sardonyx) = Pitdah (Pitdah = Topazion in LXX, but Epiphanius says the original Topazion
was an “Alabastron”, that is, an Onyx, with an inner red layer, which was later known as a
Sardonyx.)
Sardios (Carnelian) = Odem (as in LXX)
Chrysolithos (Golden Sapphire) = Tarshish (as in LXX)
Beryllos (Emerald) = Shoham (as in LXX)
Topazion (Brocatella) = Yashpheh (Yashpheh = Onychion in LXX, but see supra on Topazion as a form
of Onyx, that is, an Onychion)
Chrysoprasos (Jacinth) = Leshem (Leshem = Ligourion in LXX, but the Ligourion or Lynkourion is a
Chrysopastos, which, in turn, is identified as a Chrysoprasos in Marbodus)
Hyakinthos (Agate) = Shevo (Shevo = Achates in LXX, but Epiphanius says the Achates was also
termed an Hyakinthos)
Amethystos (Almandine) = Achlamah (as in LXX)
The Camp Order was derived from the Birth Order of the sons of Israel, grouped in chronological
order, but also according to their mothers. This order is as follows:
Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun [These are from Leah]
Dan Naphtali [These are from Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid]
Gad Asher [These are from Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid]
Joseph Benjamin [These are from Rachel]
Arranged in four rows of three, the order is then:
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Reuben Simeon Levi
Judah Issachar Zebulun
Dan Naphtali Gad
Asher Joseph Benjamin
This is the Birthstone Order of the patriarchs’ names as inscribed on the stones of the Breastplate
The Camp Order is formed from this scheme in five stages:
1) Levi is removed from the other tribes to serve the sanctuary. This leaves a gap in the first row which
can not be supplied by any other of Leah’s own children and is therefore supplied by the firstborn child
of Leah’s handmaid, Gad. So Gad takes the position of Levi.
2) Joseph splits into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, with Ephraim promoted to the firstborn
position. So the fourth row of the original scheme now reads: Ephraim Manasseh Benjamin.
3) Asher is forced out of the fourth row by the expansion of Joseph into two. Asher then fills the gap
left by Gad in the third row of the original scheme, this row being now composed of Dan, Naphtali and
Asher. These are all children of Jacob’s concubines, but the order has to be adjusted a little to allow for
primogeniture considerations: Dan is the only firstborn in the row (the firstborn of Bilhah) and
therefore retains first place. Naphtali and Asher are both secondborn children of the concubines, but
Asher is the (second child) of Leah’s handmaid, i.e. of the first wife’s concubine, therefore he is
promoted to a position immediately following Dan in the row, whilst Naphtali is the (second) child of
Rachel’s handmaid, i.e. of the second wife’s concubine, therefore he takes last position in the row.
4) The children of the second wife, Rachel, i.e. Ephraim Manasseh and Benjamin, are promoted to a
position above those of the concubines, so Ephraim Manasseh and Benjamin now form the third row
and Dan Asher and Naphtali the fourth row.
5) Finally Judah’s row is promoted over that of Reuben, because of Reuben’s loss of the birthright.
So the order now is:
Judah Issachar Zebulun
Reuben Simeon Gad
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Ephraim Manasseh Benjamin
Dan Asher Naphtali
This is the Camp Order in Numbers 2, ordered strictly according to natural status of the remaining
children. The firstborn (some of them promoted firstborn) at the head of each line in the list above,
when they come to be physically located in the camp, take the commanding, central, position on each
of the four sides of the camp, with their companion tribes in wing positions on either side. The verbal
listing, however, gives pre-eminence to these same firstborn by listing them first in order of mention, as
above.
THE TRIBE-GATE ORDER OF EZEKIEL 48 AND THE TRIBE ORDER
OF THE 144,000 (REV. 7) DERIVED FROM THE BIRTHSTONE
ORDER ON THE BREASTPLATE
The names of the 12 sons of Israel attached to the gates of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 48 are those of the
patriarchs at their birth, and as inscribed on the stones of the Breastplate. They include Joseph (but not
Ephraim and Manasseh, who replace Joseph in the Camp Order) and Levi (who was reserved to the
central Sanctuary in the Camp Order). Yet, the four walls of the city are analogous to the four sides of
the Camp. The Gate Order in Ezekiel 48 is, in other words, a combination of elements of the Birth
Order and the Camp Order. When the Zodiac positions of the Birthstones in Sefer ha-Zikhronot are
applied to the appropriate patriarchs’ names in the Gate Order, — each patriarch being allocated a
Zodiac sign according to his Birthstone, not by the Camp Order allocation of the stones and signs to the
tribes, — we find that the three names on each side of the city form a triangle similar to the triangle in
the Camp Order, except that one angle of the triangle in each case is off the isosceles position of the
Camp Order by a single Zodiac sign. (See the Flash video of the Camp Order and Gate Order, click
here, or see the images infra.) This produces in each case an acute-angled triangle where one side runs
along the same line as the Camp Order, but the two other sides are different. Since the order of stones
in the New Jerusalem of Revelation, the Eternal Order, is the same as in the Camp Order, this indicates
that the Ezekiel 48 Gate Order, is almost, but not quite, identical to the Eternal Order of the Heavenly
City. It is the Gate Order of Israel on earth during the millennial reign of Christ and His Bride, based on
the natural right of Israel to rule the nations of the earth at that time (Birthstone). It is one stage
removed yet from the Eternal Order of the New Jerusalem, as the Heavenly City only descends from
God after the Millennium: hence one angle of each triangle is off by a single Zodiac sign.
GATE-ORDER IN EZEKIEL 48, TRIBES AND STAR-SIGNS
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THE 144,000 OF REVELATION 7
Revelation 7:4-8 4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an
hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 5 Of the tribe of Juda
were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad
were sealed twelve thousand. 6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of
Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. 7 Of
the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of
the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. 8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve
thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed
twelve thousand.
The order of tribes here is:
Judah
Reuben
Gad
Asher
Naphtali
Manasseh
Simeon
Levi
Issachar
Zebulun
Joseph
Benjamin
This is the Tribe Order of the 144,000 Messianic Israelites of Revelation 7. The Order is based on the
Gate Order of Ezekiel 48, with the name Dan omitted, and the name Joseph standing in place of
Ephraim as in Ezek. 48 (because of the idolatrous sanctuaries anciently located in their territories at
Dan in the tribal territory of Dan, and Bethel in the tribal territory of Ephraim, which led to the
obliteration of those tribes’ names “under heaven”, see Deteronomy 29. 18-20). The 144,000 Order
runs round anticlockwise, beginning with Judah in first place on the middle gate of the North Side of
the City in Ezek. 48 (because the 144,000 are the Temple Guard of the Messiah Son of David). The
place of the missing tribe of Dan is supplied by adding Manasseh next to, and immediately before,
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The Highpriest’s Breastplate
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Simeon, this place being given to Manasseh because Manasseh substituted for Simeon according to the
Blessing of Jacob. Likewise Levi is moved to a position immediately following Simeon, as in the birth
order of the sons of Israel, because, with the omission of Dan, Levi would otherwise have been left in
the last position of the 12 sons, a place inappropriate for Levi, but natural for Benjamin, the last of the
12 in the birth order.
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