'Canst thou bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? Or canst thou guide the Bear with her sons?' ( JPS 1917) The appearance of the word in the Book of Job appears in the context of various astronomical phenomena: In Yiddish, the term mazalot came to be used in the sense of 'astrology' in general, surviving in the expression ' mazel tov,' meaning 'good fortune.' Biblical context The word itself is a hapax legomenon (i.e., a word appearing only once in a text) of the Hebrew Bible. The similar word mazzaloth (מַּזָּלוֹת mazzālōṯ) in 2 Kings 23:3–5 may be related. Mazzaroth ( Hebrew: מַזָּרוֹת Mazzārōṯ, LXX Μαζουρωθ, Mazourōth) is a Biblical Hebrew term found in the Book of Job (38:32) and literally meaning 'constellations,' according to 10th-century biblical exegete Saadia Gaon, while others interpret the word as Garland of Crowns, but its context is that of Astronomical Constellations, and it is often interpreted as a term for the Zodiac or the Constellations thereof. Biblical term for the Zodiac 6th-century depiction of the zodiac, mosaic in Beit Alfa, Israel.
