4575. ma'adannah

Lexical Summary

ma'adannah: Delicacy, Delight

Original Word: מַעֲדַנָּה
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: ma`adannah
Pronunciation: mah-ad-an-naw'
Phonetic Spelling: (mah-ad-an-naw')
KJV: influence
Word Origin: [by transitive from H6029 (עָנַד - bind)]

1. a bond, i.e. group

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

influence

By transitive from anad; a bond, i.e. Group -- influence.

see HEBREW anad

Brown-Driver-Briggs

מַעֲדַנּוֺת noun [feminine] plural Job 38:31 see below ענד; מַעֲדַנֹּת 1 Samuel 15:32 is dubious; = above, as adverb accusative in bonds, fetters, Ki Gr Klo; ᵑ7 Symm Dr assign to √ עדן = delicately, voluptuously; but ᵐ5 τρέμων, whence Lag^{Proph. Chald. li} proposes מְעֹדַנִּת (compare אֲחֹרַנִּית) √ מעד = totteringly, so HPS.

מַעְדֵּר see עדר.

מעה (√ of following; meaning dubious).

מַעֲדַנּוֺת noun feminine plural bonds, bands; so apparently כִּימָה ׳הַתְקַשֵּׁר מ Job 38:31 (by metath. or error from √ ענד, see Di Bu). — 1 Samuel 15:32 see ׳מ above

Topical Lexicon

Canonical setting

The term appears singularly in Job 38:31 within the LORD’s speech from the whirlwind. After Job and his counselors exhaust their discourse, God confronts Job with a series of questions that expose human limitation before divine omnipotence. Among them: “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?” (Job 38:31). The imagery draws Job’s gaze from the dust of suffering to the vastness of the heavens, where מַעֲדַנָּה (“chains” or “cluster”) binds the star-cluster Pleiades.

Astronomical and cultural background

In the Ancient Near East the Pleiades were a familiar asterism signaling agricultural seasons; their heliacal rising marked the onset of spring planting, while their setting warned of approaching winter rains. Pagan cultures often personified or deified these stars, but Scripture never grants them autonomous power. Instead, the one Creator “brings out the starry host one by one and calls each by name” (compare Isaiah 40:26), underscoring that agricultural cycles, maritime navigation, and even omens attributed to the heavens rest entirely in Yahweh’s sovereign governance.

Theological themes

1. Divine sovereignty over creation: Job 38:31 equates restraining the Pleiades with an action only God can perform. By citing the stars, the LORD roots His authority not in abstract philosophy but in observable creation.
2. Human finitude: Job, emblematic of righteous suffering, cannot manipulate the celestial “chains,” let alone the moral order. The verse unmasks any illusion that mortals may harness cosmic or spiritual forces apart from God.
3. Order and cohesion: The “chains” imply cohesion within diversity—individual stars held in gravitational harmony. Likewise, redemptive history displays diverse individuals and events “held together” in Christ (Colossians 1:17).
4. Polemic against idolatry: Where neighboring peoples revered the Pleiades as gods, the Hebrew text deliberately portrays them as bound, emphasizing their created, dependent nature (cf. Deuteronomy 4:19).

Relations to other biblical references

Though the unique term occurs only in Job 38:31, the Pleiades are mentioned in Job 9:9 and Amos 5:8, reinforcing continuity:
• Job 9:9 presents them among other constellations God “created.”
• Amos 5:8 points Israel away from astral worship: “He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn…”.

Together these verses form a triad asserting that the God of covenant is also the Lord of cosmos.

Historical reception

Jewish and Christian commentators alike have seen the phrase as a rebuttal to astrology. Medieval rabbinic literature uses it to argue against fatalistic star-lore, while early church theologians—e.g., Basil the Great in Hexaemeron—cite the verse to demonstrate God’s providence in the fixed courses of the heavens. Reformation expositors such as John Calvin drew pastoral conclusions: the glory of God’s handiwork magnifies human accountability and comforts believers amid affliction.

Ministry significance

• Apologetics: The verse invites engagement with modern astronomy, pointing out that the gravitational “binding” of the Pleiades, calculated in recent centuries, anticipates a physical reality hinted at poetically in Job.
• Worship and humility: Meditating on celestial order spurs awe, situating personal trials within a universe governed by the same faithful Creator.
• Counseling and suffering: Job 38 redirects sufferers from the “why” to the “Who.” Pastoral application encourages trust in the One who rules stars as surely as life’s events.
• Missional worldview: By asserting God’s supremacy over nature, believers are equipped to confront contemporary nature worship, environmental deism, or astrological superstition with biblical monotheism.

Christological and eschatological resonance

The One who “binds” the Pleiades is revealed in the New Testament as the pre-incarnate Word through whom “all things were made” (John 1:3). His nail-pierced hands once fashioned those “chains” and will yet unfold a new heaven and new earth where creation’s present groaning gives way to eternal harmony (Romans 8:22-23; Revelation 21:1). Confidence in that consummation strengthens present obedience and hope.

Summary

מַעֲדַנָּה anchors a single but weighty concept: the inescapable rule of God over the macrocosm. From patriarchal Israelite farms to modern telescopes, the clustered stars silently declare, “The LORD reigns.” Job 38:31 thus remains a perennial summons to silence anxious self-reliance and to bow in reverent trust before the One who commands both the heavens above and the hearts below.

Forms and Transliterations

מַעֲדַנּ֣וֹת מעדנות ma‘ăḏannōwṯ ma·‘ă·ḏan·nō·wṯ maadanNot

Englishman's Concordance

Job 38:31
HEB: הַֽ֭תְקַשֵּׁר מַעֲדַנּ֣וֹת כִּימָ֑ה אֽוֹ־
NAS: Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
KJV: Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
INT: bind the chains of the Pleiades Or

1 Occurrence

Strong's Hebrew 4575
1 Occurrence

ma·‘ă·ḏan·nō·wṯ — 1 Occ.