ORION

Septuagint name for a constellation widely believed to resemble a giant hunter, belted or fettered. Various legends grew about this hunter—in Greece, that he had been banished to the sky for foolish boasting; in Semitic lands, for foolishly asserting his strength against God (the Hebrew means both “sturdy” and “fool”). Job 9:9 mentions the “making” of Orion among the great, unsearchable things God does in nature (cf. Am 5:8). God challenged Job to attempt what only God could do—loose Orion’s fetters (Jb 38:31-32). The real significance of the question lies in the fact that the appearance of the Pleiades ushers in the spring and Orion ushers in the winter, both under the direction of God.