I. Name

The Hebrew term mazzālôt (sing. mazzāl) occurs once in the Bible in 2 Kgs. 23.5. Many authors hold that a second occurence may be found in Job 28.28 in the slight phonetic variant of mazzārôt. The context in Job is clearly astronomic, while mention is made in 2 Kgs. 23 of astral cults which were prohibited by Josiah.

Mzl derives from the Akk. manzaztu >manzaltu, ‘abode’ or ‘station’. Perhaps they were originally the celestial abodes of the great gods represented by the Stars (Mowinckel 1928:24). In…