Mazzaroth


Mazzaroth is a Biblical Hebrew Word found in the Book of Job and literally meaning a 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..
The similar Word Mazalot in may be related.
The word itself is a hapax legomenon of the Hebrew Bible. In Yiddish, the term mazalot came to be used in the sense of "astrology" in general, surviving in the expression "mazel tov," meaning "good luck."

Biblical context

The appearance of the word in the Book of Job appears in the context of various astronomical phenomena:
The related word mazalot in 2 Kings may have a different meaning, and is often translated differently, with the linkage of this word to the planets or the zodiac being more widely held :
The Septuagint, however, uses the transliteration mazzaroth again at this point.

Translation

The word is traditionally left untranslated, but some modern English Bible translations render it as "zodiac" ;
others have "constellations" or "stars".
But as the Latin Vulgate renders the word as "luciferum", there are alternative English translations as "morning star" ; "Venus" ; "Crown season" ; "sequence of seasons" ; "Lucifer, 'that is, dai sterre ".
WES gives "stars in the southern signs".
Translators' Notes given in individual translations are:
Onkelos renders the translation as "guards of the mazalot".
Rashi clarifies mazzarot as "all the gates of the mazalot".