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Chapter II. The Sign LIBRA

The Sign contains 51 stars, two of which are of the 2nd magnitude, one of the 3rd, eight of the 4th, etc.

The Hebrew name is Mozanaim, the Scales, weighing. Its name in Arabic is Al Zubena, purchase, or redemption. In Coptic, it is Lambadia, station of propitiation (from Lam, graciousness, and badia, branch). The name by which it has come down to us is the Latin, Libra, which means weighing, as used in the Vulgate (Isa. xl. 12).

Libra contains three bright stars whose names supply us with the whole matter. The brightest, α (in the lower scale), is named Zuben al Genubi, which means the purchase, or price which is deficient. This points to the fact that man has been utterly ruined. He is “weighed in the balances and found wanting.”

Yes; there is “the Seed of the woman.” He is not merely coming as a child, but He is coming as an atoning sacrifice.

He is coming for the purpose of Redemption! He can pay the price which covers! Hence in the upper scale we have another bright star with this very name Zuben al Chemali—THE PRICE WHICH COVERS! Praised be God! “They sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy … for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.” (Rev. v. 9.) This is the testimony of β, the second brightest star! It has another name, al Gubi, heaped up, or high, telling of the infinite value of this redemption price. But there is a third star, γ, below, towards Centaurus and the Victim slain, telling, by that and by its name, of the conflict by which that redemption would be accomplished. It is called Zuben Akrabi or Zuben al Akrab, which means the price of the conflict!

There is, however, some reason to suppose that Libra is a very ancient Egyptian corruption, bringing in human merit instead of Divine righteousness; “the way of Cain” instead of the way of God. In the more ancient Akkadian the months were called after the names of the signs,³⁸ and the sign of the seventh month is the sign that we now call Libra. The Akkadian name for it was Tulku. Tul means mound (like dhul and dul), and ku means sacred; hence, Tulku means the sacred mound, or the holy altar.

Not only is the name and its meaning different, but the teaching is infinitely greater and more important, if we may believe that the original picture of this sign was not a pair of scales, but the representation of a holy altar. This would agree still better with the three constellations which follow.

The names of the stars would also be more appropriate, for it is the Sacrifice of Christ which they foreshadowed, and here it was that the price which covered was paid, and outweighed the price which was deficient. What that price was to be, and how it was to be paid, and what was to be the result in the Person of the Redeemer, is set forth in detail in the three sections of this chapter by the constellations of The Cross endured, The Victim slain, and The Crown bestowed.