‘Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?’, a group of seven stars, and called a cluster in the NKJ. It is one of the nearest clusters to the earth and visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Taurus.
The same Almighty God who moves the stars and holds in place the whole of the heavens is the one who governs all the details of Job’s life. We consider ourselves honoured when we know somebody great, when someone who has status and authority talks privately with us, or shares intimate concerns with us. We say, ‘The same one who makes decisions on behalf of our nation is my special friend; I have that person’s ear and have some influence over the thinking of that person.’ But here is something immeasurably greater. The believer has for his God, his Saviour, his Lord and even his Friend, one who makes decisions about the movement of the stars, the shape of the universe and countless other things that are far beyond our ability to accomplish. The little boy may say, ‘My father is the king’, but the believer can say, ‘The ever-living God of heaven is my Saviour and my Friend, and he will never leave me nor forsake me. He does great things that I cannot understand, but he also draws close to my soul in love and shares with me the wonders of his grace.’ The king’s son says, ‘My father makes the laws in the land’, but the believer says, ‘My heavenly Father is God over all, and he makes all things work together for good for me and for all my fellow believers.’
The Hebrew ‘ah-yish’ is evidently the name of a constellation. According to Barnes, one possible origin of the Hebrew word comes from an Arabic word meaning ‘a bier’. This refers to the Great Bear – the Arabs, he says, give it this name because of the four stars in the constellation which resemble an open bier. Jerome translated the word Arcturum and the KJV follows this – Arcturus. But others point out that Arcturus is the brightest star in the Boötes constellation (Latin, ploughman) supposed to resemble a cow-herder driving a cow (Taurus – a cow, not a bull). The Boötes constellation is also known by the name of its brightest star, Arcturus, which means ‘bear watcher’ since it is the constellation above the Great Bear and Little Bear and seem to guard them. Whichever constellation is referred to, these constellations and the outlines they form in the heavens are so stable and so familiar that they can be given names that indicate the outline shape of creatures well known to man on earth. For a man to claim to have any control of these great landmarks of the sky would be utter vanity and folly, but Job has presumed to correct God who holds all these things in his hand and concerns himself with matters far beyond human capacity to grasp.