Bible Dictionary
Arcturus
Arcturus is the traditional English rendering of the constellation called the Great Bear or Ursa Major. It appears in Job as one of the constellations displaying God’s ordering power.
Definition
Arcturus is the traditional English rendering of a Hebrew term that is generally understood to designate the constellation Ursa Major, commonly called the Great Bear or Charles’s Wain. The term is also associated in older usage with the bear-keeper, the bright star of Bootes.
Biblical Usage
In Job, the constellation is named among the heavenly objects that display God’s ordering and governing power.
Historical Background
The Great Bear revolves around the pole and, in the northern hemisphere, does not set. The Hebrew term is connected in the supplied material with an Arabic expression meaning night-watcher.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Bear-keeper, the name given by the ancients to the brightest star in the constellation Bootes. In the Authorized Version (Job 9:9; 38:32) it is the rendering of the Hebrew word ’ash, which probably designates the constellation the Great Bear. This word (‘ash) is supposed to be derived from an Arabic word meaning night-watcher, because the Great Bear always revolves about the pole, and to our nothern hemisphere never sets.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(bear-keeper). The Hebrew words ’Ash and ’Aish, rendered “Arcturus” in the Authorized Version of (Job 9:9; 38:32) in conformity with the Vulgate of the former passages are now generally believed to be identical, and to represent the constellation Ursa Major, known commonly as the Great Bear or Charles’ Wain.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ark-tu'-rus: The "Plough" or "Charles's Wain" is intended. See ASTRONOMY, sec. II, 13.</p>