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Amos describes God making the Pleiades and Orion, and in Job 9, Job names them in reverse order. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Berakhot quotes these passages and interprets the Pleiades' cold as keeping Orion's heat from destroying the world.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Amos 5:8
Hebrew Bible
8 But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name! 9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.
Job 9:9
Hebrew Bible
8 he alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky; 10 he does great and unsearchable things, and wonderful things without number.
Berakhot 58b
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
On the subject of stars, the Gemara notes that Shmuel raised a contradiction between the implications of two verses with regard to constellations. On the one hand it is written: “Who makes Ursa Major, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south” (Job 9:9); Orion precedes Pleiades. And on the other hand it is written: “He Who makes Pleiades and Orion” (Amos 5:8); Pleiades precedes Orion. So how is this reconciled? The Gemara replies: Were it not for Orion’s heat, the universe could not exist because of the cold of Pleiades; and conversely, were it not for the cold of Pleiades, the universe could not exist because of the heat of Orion.
Date: 450–550 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... In Brochoth 58b, on account of an apparent contradiction between Job 9.9 and Amos 5.8 with regard to constellations, Shmuel declared, ‘Were it not for Orion’s heat, the universe could not exist because of the cold of Pleiades; and [conversely], were it not for the cold of Pleiades, the universe could not exist due to the heat of Orion’. ...”
Rubin, David
Astrology in the Torah: A Comparative Study of Astrological Themes in the Hebrew Bible and Babylonian Talmud
(p. 55) University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2019
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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