The word is traditionally (following
LXX) left untranslated (ABC, ACV, AKJ, ASV, BBE, BIB, ESV, GNV, HNV, JPS, K21, KJG, KJR, KJV, NAB, NKJ, NRS, NWT, RSV, RWB, TMB, TNK, UPD, WEB, YLT, LXE, ZIK), but some
modern English Bible translations render it as "zodiac" (AMP, CJB, EMP, LEE); others have "constellations" (CJB, CSB, DBY, NET, ERV, GWN, LEE, LIT, MKJ, NAS, NAU, NIB, NIV, TNV, WEV) or "stars" (CEV, NCB, NIR, NLV, TEV). But as the
Latin Vulgate renders the word as "luciferum", there are alternative English translations as
"morning star" (CVB, TRC, furthermore
Luther's 1545 German translation as
Morgenstern also means
"morning star"; (DRA);
"Venus" (MSG);
"Crown season" (NJB);
"sequence of seasons" (NLT); ''"Lucifer, 'that is, dai sterre (day star)"'' (
Wycliffe's Bible).
WES gives "stars in the southern signs". Translators' Notes given in individual translations are: • Geneva:
Certain stars so called, some think they were the twelve signs. • KJV/KGB:
{Mazzaroth: or, the twelve signs} • NAS/NAU:
perh. "a constellation" • NET:
The word מַּזָּלֹות; (mazzarot) is taken by some to refer to the constellations (see 2 Kings 23:5), and by others as connected to the word for "crown," and so "corona." • NIB/NIV:
{32 Or the morning star in its season} The Targum renders the translation as "guards of the mazalot".
Rashi clarifies mazzarot as "all the gates of the mazalot". ==In Gnosticism==