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2. URSA MAJOR (The Great Bear)

The Fold and the Flock.

It is a large and important constellation, containing 87 stars, of which one is of the 1st magnitude, four of the 2nd, three of the 3rd, ten of the 4th, etc. It always presents a splendid appearance, and is perhaps, therefore, the best known of all the constellations.

In the Book of Job (ix. 9, and xxxviii. 31, 32) it is mentioned under the name of Ash. “Canst thou guide Ash and her offspring?” which is rendered in the a.v., “Arcturus and his sons,” and in the r.v., “The Bear with her train” (marg., “sons”). The Arabs still call it Al Naish, or Annaish, the assembled together, as sheep in a fold. The ancient Jewish commentators interpreted Ash as the seven stars of this constellation. They are called by others Septentriones, which thus became the Latin word for North.

The brightest star, α (in the back), is named Dubhe, which, as we have seen, means a herd of animals, or a flock, and gives its name to the whole constellation.

The star β (below it) is named Merach (Hebrew), the flock (Arabic, purchased).

The star γ (on the left of [Greek: beta]) is called Phaeda, or Phacda, meaning visited, guarded, or numbered, as a flock; for His sheep, like the stars, are both numbered and named. (See Psalm cxlvii. 4.)

The star ε is called Alioth, a name we have had in Auriga, meaning a she goat.

The star ζ (in the middle of the tail) is called Mizar, separate or small, and close to it Al Cor, the Lamb (known as “g”).

The star η (at the end of the so-called tail) is named Benet Naish (Arabic), the daughters of the assembly. It is also called Al Kaid, the assembled.

The star ι (in its right foot) is called Talitha.

The names of other stars, not identified, all give the same testimony: El Alcola (Arabic), the sheep-fold (as in Ps. xcv. 7; and c. 3); Cab’d al Asad, multitude, many assembled; Annaish, the assembled; Megrez, separated, as the flock in the fold; El Kaphrah, protected, covered (Heb. redeemed and ransomed); Dubheh Lachar (Arabic), the latter herd or flock; Helike (so called by Homer in the Iliad), company of travellers; Amaza (Greek), coming and going; Calisto, the sheepfold set or appointed.

There is not one discordant voice in the rich abundance of this testimony. We have nothing to do here with the Grecian myths about bears or wild boars. We see only the innumerable seed gathered by Him who scattered (Jer. xxxi. 10).

It is of this judgment with which this book, and indeed the whole Revelation, ends, in the next and final chapter.

But before we come to that we have one more picture in the third constellation of this Sign, which combines the first two in one.