The translators of the Bible, from time to time, find themselves in a difficulty as to the correct rendering of certain words in the original. This is especially the case with the names of plants and animals. Some sort of clue may be given by the context, as, for instance, if the region is mentioned in which a certain plant is found, or the use that is made of it; or, in the case of an animal, whether it is "clean" or "unclean," what are its habits, and with what other animals it is associated. But in the case of the few Scripture references to special groups of stars, we have no such help. We are in the position in which Macaulay's New Zealander might be, if, long after the English nation had been dispersed, and its language had ceased to be spoken amongst men, he were to find a book in which the rivers "Thames," "Trent," "Tyne," and "Tweed" were mentioned by name, but without the slightest indication of their locality. His attempt to fit these names to particular rivers would be little more than a guess--a guess the accuracy of which he would have no means for testing. This is somewhat our position with regard to the four Hebrew names, _Kīmah_, _Kĕsīl_, _‘Ayish_, and _Mazzaroth_; yet in each case there are some slight indications which have given a clue to the compilers of our Revised Version, and have, in all probability, guided them correctly. The constellations are not all equally attractive. A few have drawn the attention of all men, however otherwise inattentive. North-American Indians and Australian savages have equally noted the flashing brilliancy of Orion, and the compact little swarm of the Pleiades. All northern nations recognize the seven bright stars of the Great Bear, and they are known by a score of familiar names. They are the "Plough," or "Charles's Wain" of Northern Europe; the "Seven Plough Oxen" of ancient Rome; the "Bier and Mourners" of the Arabs; the "Chariot," or "Waggon," of the old Chaldeans; the "Big Dipper" of the prosaic New England farmer. These three groups are just the three which we find mentioned in the earliest poetry of Greece. So Homer writes, in the Fifth Book of the _Odyssey_, that Ulysses-- "There view'd the Pleiads, and the Northern Team, And Great Orion's more refulgent beam, To which, around the axle of the sky, The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye." It seems natural to conclude that these constellations, the most striking, or at all events the most universally recognized, would be those mentioned in the Bible. The passages in which the Hebrew word _Kīmah_, is used are the following-- (God) "maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades (_Kīmah_), and the chambers of the south" (Job ix. 9). "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades (_Kīmah_), or loose the bands of Orion?" (Job xxxviii. 31). "Seek Him that maketh the seven stars (_Kīmah_) and Orion" (Amos v. 8).