This verse introduces references to groups of stars in the sky. A fuller description is provided in the Appendix, page 781, so that translators may be able to identify them and mention them according to names already existing in the receptor language.
Who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south: in 38.31-32 the order of these constellations is reversed and the Hebrew term for the Bear is different. The Septuagint and Syriac reverse the order here also. Due to the inconsistent use of these names, there appears to have been no clear-cut identification for them, although Orion is more consistently identified by the name used here than the other two. Although the first three names in Hebrew do not identify with any certainty the three constellations suggested in Revised Standard Version and others, translators are advised to use the names of these constellations in their own languages.
Bear may refer to either the Big Dipper or the Little Dipper, both being constellations in the region of the sky near the north celestial pole. Orion is a conspicuous constellation and can be located in the winter skies of the northern hemisphere by extending a line drawn from Polaris, the North Star, through the star Capella in the constellation Auriga. Pleiades is a small cluster of stars located in the shoulder of the bull in the constellation Taurus. If specific names for constellations are lacking or are too little known to be of any value to the reader, the translator may borrow these terms from a major language. If this would not be helpful, we may translate, for example, “He made the group of stars in the northern sky, the group of stars in the middle sky.” The former would apply to the Bear, and the latter to Orion and Pleiades.
And the chambers of the south: this expression does not seem to identify any constellation. Pope suggests that, since “chamber” is the source of the tempest in 37.9, the reference may be to the place from which the south winds blow. Good News Translation and others understand it to be a general term for southern stars. In many languages it will be best to translate chambers of the south as in Good News Translation, “stars of the south,” or “stars in the southern skies.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .