the oldest book of the Bible in all probability, the constellations are
distinguished and named. Mention is made of the “morning star”
(Revelation 2:28; comp. Isaiah 14:12), the “seven stars” and “Pleiades,”
“Orion,” “Arcturus,” the “Great Bear” (Amos 5:8; Job 9:9; 38:31), “the
crooked serpent,” Draco (Job 26:13), the Dioscuri, or Gemini, “Castor and
Pollux” (Acts 28:11). The stars were called “the host of heaven” (Isaiah
40:26; Jeremiah 33:22).
The oldest divisions of time were mainly based on the observation of the
movements of the heavenly bodies, the “ordinances of heaven” (Genesis
1:14-18; Job 38:33; Jeremiah 31:35; 33:25). Such observations led to the
division of the year into months and the mapping out of the appearances
of the stars into twelve portions, which received from the Greeks the name
of the “zodiac.” The word “Mazzaroth” (Job 38:32) means, as the margin
notes, “the twelve signs” of the zodiac. Astronomical observations were
also necessary among the Jews in order to the fixing of the proper time for
sacred ceremonies, the “new moons,” the “passover,” etc. Many allusions
are found to the display of God’s wisdom and power as seen in the starry
heavens (Psalm 8; 19:1-6; Isaiah 51:6, etc.)
- ASUPPIM (1 Chronicles 26:15, 17, Authorized Version; but in Revised
Version, “storehouse”), properly the house of stores for the priests. In
Nehemiah 12:25 the Authorized Version has “thresholds,” marg.
“treasuries” or “assemblies;” Revised Version, “storehouses.” - ATAD buckthorn, a place where Joseph and his brethren, when on their
way from Egypt to Hebron with the remains of their father Jacob, made
for seven days a “great and very sore lamentation.” On this account the
Canaanites called it “Abel-mizraim” (Genesis 50:10, 11). It was probably
near Hebron. The word is rendered “bramble” in Judges 9:14, 15, and
“thorns” in Psalm 58:9. - ATAROTH crowns. (1.) A city east of Jordan, not far from Gilead
(Numbers 32:3).
(2.) A town on the border of Ephraim and Benjamin (Joshua 16:2, 7),
called also Ataroth-adar (16:5). Now ed-Da’rieh.
(3.) “Ataroth, the house of Joab” (1 Chronicles 2:54), a town of Judah
inhabited by the descendants of Caleb.