Orion
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Job 9:9)—the name of a constellation (Hebrew kesil), one of the most beautiful and brilliant constellations in the heavens. It consists of two stars of the first magnitude, five of the second, and many smaller stars arranged like a great parallelogram. Half of it lies above and half below the equator, and it is therefore visible in the Southern Hemisphere around the middle of November. For this reason it is commonly associated with cold weather, figuratively expressed by the word “bands,” which no human power can break.
In the Northern Hemisphere it likewise becomes visible at the end of autumn and shines brightly on clear winter nights. “Canst thou,” the Lord God said to Job from heaven, “bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?” (Job 38:31).