Pleiades is the rendering in the A. V. of n*:"2, 1cimdh,m Job ix,9; xxxviii, 31 : hut in Amos v. 8 our A. V. has "the seven star-." although the Geneva ver- sion translates the word "Pleiades" as in the other cases. In Job the Sept. has XXkudc, the order of the Hebrew words having been altered [see Okion . while in Amos there is no trace of the original, and it is diffi- cult to imagine what the translator- had before them. The Vulgate in each passage has a different rendering: ffyades in Job ix. '.i; Pleiades in Job xxxviii, 31 ; aim Arcturus in Amos v, 8. Of the other versions, the Peshito-Syriac and Chaldee merely adopt the Hebrew word: Aquila in Job xxxviii. Symmachus in Job xxxviii and Amos, and Theodotion in Amos, give •• Pleiades," while with remarkable inconsistency Aquila in Amos has ••Arcturus." The Jewish commentators are no less al variance. Rabbi David Kimchi in his lexicon says: " Rabbi Jonah wrote that it was a collec- tion of stars called in Arabic Al-Thuraiyd. Ami tin- wise rabbi Abraham Abcn-Ezra, of blessed memory, wrote that the ancients said Kimdh is seven stars, and they are at the end of the constellation Aries, and those which are seen are six. Ami he wrote that wliai was right in his eyes was thai il was a single star, ami that a great one. which i- called the left eye of Taurus; and A'r.w/ is a great star, the heart of the constellation Scor- pio." <ln .loli xxxviii, 31, Kimclii continues: " ( )ur rabbins of blessed memory have said (Berachoth,\viii, 2) Kimdh hath ureal cold ami hindeth up the fruits, and Kesil hath great heat andripeneth the fruits: there- fore I ie said, -or loosen the bands of Kesil;'' for it open- eth the fruits and bringeth them forth." In addition to the evidt nee "t rabbi Jonah, who identifies the He- brew Kimdh with the Arabic el-Thuraiyd, we have the testimony of rabbi Isaac Israel, quoted by Hyde in hi- not,- on the Taldes of Ulugh Beigfa i p. ol .;.;. ed. L665), to the same effect That el-Thuraiyd and the Pleiades are the same is proved by the word- of Aben- Ragel (quoted by Hyde, p. 33): "Al-Thuraiya i- the mansion of the moon, in the sign Taurus, and il is called the celestial hen with her chicken-." Willi this Hyde compares the 1 r. Pulsiniere, and Eng. //<» mid Chickens, which are "id name- tor tin- same stars; and Xiel.ulir (Descr.di VA rabie, p. 101) gives as the result of his inquiry of the Jew at Sana, "Kimeh, Pleiades, qu'on appelle aussi en Vllemagne la poule qui glousse." The ■■Ancients." whom Aheii-l'./ia quotes i on .loh xxxviii, 31), evidently understood by the Beven small stars at the end of the constellation Aries the Plei- ades, which are indeed in the left shoulder of the Bull,
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but so near the Eam's tail that their position might properly be denned with reference to it. With the statement that " those which are seen are six" may be compared the words of Didymus on Homer, rwi> Sk IlXudSwv ovauv iirrd, icavv d/javpbr 6 i'/37jojUoc da- riip, and of Ovid (Fast. iv, 170) :
"Quae septem dici, sex tamen esse solent." The opinion of Aben-Ezra himself has frequently been misrepresented. He held that Kimdh was a single large star, A Idebaran, the brightest of the Hyades, while Kesil [A. V. "Orion"] was Antares, the heart of Scor- pio. "When these rise in the cast," he continues, " the effects which are recorded appear." He describes them as opposite each other, and the difference in right ascension between Aldebaran and Antares is as nearly as possible twelve hours. The belief of Eben-Ezra had probably the same origin as the rendering of the Vulg. ilijnil, s. One other point is deserving of notice. The rabbins, as quoted by Kimchi, attribute to Kimdh great cold and the property of checking vegetation, while Kesil works the contrary effects. But the words of rabbi Isaac Israel on Job xxxviii, 31 (quoted by Hyde, p. 72), are just the reverse. He says, "The stars have operations in the ripening of the fruits, and such is the operation of Kimdh. And some of them retard and delay the fruits from ripening, and this is the operation of Kesil. The interpretation is, ' Wilt thou bind the fruits which the constellation Kimdh ripeneth and openeth ; or wilt thou open the fruits which the con- stellation A'esi7.contracteth and bindeth up?'" On the whole then, though it is impossible to arrive at any certain conclusion, it appears that our translators were perfectly justified in rendering Kimdh by "Pleiades." The " seven stars" in Amos clearly denoted the same cluster in the language of the 17th century, for Cot- grave in his French Dictionary gives " Pleiade, f., one of the seven stars." Hyde maintained that the Pleiades were again mentioned in Scripture by the name Suc- coth Benoth. The discussion of this question must be reserved to the article on that name.
The etymology of Kimdh is referred to the Arabic Kumeh, " a heap," as being a heap or cluster of stars. The full Arabic name given by Gesenius is " the knot of the Pleiades;" and. in accordance with this, most modern commentators render Job xxxviii, 31, "Is it thou that bindest the knots of the rieiades, or loosenest the bands of Orion?" Simon (Lex. //it//:) quotes the Greenland name for this cluster of stars, " Killukturset, i. e. stellas colligatas," as an instance of the existence of the same idea in a widely different language. The rendering " sweet influences" of the A. V. is a relic of the lingering belief in the power which the stars ex- erted over human destiny. The marginal note on the word " Pleiades" in the Geneva Version is, " Which starres arise when the sunne is in Taurus, which is the spring tyme, and bring flowers," thus agreeing witli the explanation of R.Isaac Israel quoted above. — Smith.