KIMAH CONSTELLATION

(Kiʹmah).

This term is used at Job 9:9; 38:31; and Amos 5:8 to refer to a celestial constellation. It is usually considered to refer to the Pleiades, a star group formed of seven large stars and other smaller ones, enveloped in nebulous matter and situated some 380 light-years from the sun. At Job 38:31 Jehovah asks Job if he can “tie fast the bonds of the Kimah constellation,” and some relate this to the compactness of the Pleiades cluster, the star cluster most likely to be noted by the naked eye. While the identification of the particular constellation intended is indefinite, the sense of the question asked evidently is whether a mere man can bind together in a cluster a group of stars so that they comprise a permanent constellation. Thus, by this question, Jehovah brought home to Job man’s inferiority when compared with the Universal Sovereign.