2. Keemah , and Keseel of the latter of which the plural occurs in Isaiah, perhaps, as the Auth. Vers. renders it, for constellations generally ro), the heap' or cluster,' and the confi dent ?' or foolish ?' are usually held to be the Plei ades and Orion. The latter, is, however, an unsatis factory supposition, since the two are not mentioned as if near, but rather as if in opposition both in Job and Amos--the prophet apparently connecting Keemah with morning, and Keseel with evening. The writer's brother, Mr. E. S. Poole, renders Keseel scorpio or cor scorpionis with Aben Ezra, well remarking on the passage in Job, that famines generally prevail in the lands of the Bible when the sweet influences of the Pleiades are bound, and the bands of Scorpio cannot be loosed,' adding, when the best and most fertilizing of the rains, which fall when the Pleiades set at dawn (not exactly heliacally) at the end of autumn, fail ; rain scarcely ever falling at the opposite season, when Scorpio sets at dawn' (Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Art. FAMINE).
3. 'Ash ttf, or 'Aeesh V)V, for we cannot reason ably doubt that these are but two forms of one name, has been supposed to be equivalent to ttn, a bier,' C. e the Arabic of which, is the name of the Great Bear or Wain, the three stars in the tail being called the daughters of the bier,' like the sons' mentioned in the Bible. Of the correctness of this identification, there can, we think, be no reason able doubt.
4. The chambers of the south' may possibly mean a constellation, but nothing probable can be said on this subject.
So far the names are probably of constellations, asterisms, or stars : of the planets, one seems to be mentioned in the magnificent passage of Isaiah where the king of Babylon is likened to the star of the morning : How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer 6.tro, son of the morning (xiv. 12).
Here the planet Venus appears to be intended, the name well corresponding to the Chald.
iii nn]] mmn, and the Arab. The wandering stars, do-rIpes irXavirrac, spoken of by St. Jude (r3), are not necessarily planets ; shooting stars would more probably be the objects taken for the figure. We have not included in this enumeration the fleeing serpent,' Mil OM, mentioned in Job (xxvi. 13), since it is by no means certain that the reference is not to a marine or river monster, if we compare the two verses preceding (r 7, t2), :n the latter of which there may be a notice of the Exodus.
There are several important places in the Bible relating to astronomy, which are noticed under other articles, which treat of the Cosmogony [CREATION] ; the great miracle wrought for Joshua [SUN] ; the Sun-dial of Ahaz [DIAL] ; and the Star of the Wise Men [STAR IN THE EAST].
The subject of Astrology will be discussed under the head of InoLATRY.—R. S. P.