the Fifth Sunday after Easter
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Bible Dictionaries
Orion
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or The constellation (Job 9:9; Job 38:31-32; Amos 5:8). Κecil , "a fool" or "wicked one." The Arabs represent Orion as a mighty man, the Assyrian Nimrod, who rebelled presumptuously against Jehovah, and was chained to the sky as a punishment; for its rising is at the stormy season. (See NIMROD.) Sabaism or worship of the heavenly hosts and hero worship were blended in his person. The three bright stars which form Orion's girdle never change their relative positions. "Canst thou loose the bands of Orion?" is God's challenge to self sufficient man; i.e., canst thou loose the bonds by which he is chained to the sky?
The language is adapted to the current conceptions (just as we use the mythological names of constellations without adopting the myths), but with this significant difference that whereas those pagan nations represented Orion glorified in the sky the Hebrew view him as a chained rebel, not with belt, but in "bands." Orion is visible longer and is 17 degrees higher in the Syrian sky than in ours. Rabbis Isaac, Israel, and Jonah identified Hebrew Kesil with Arabic Sohail, Sirius, or Canopus.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Orion'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/o/orion.html. 1949.
