Astrological Prognostication

Unknown

Early 11th Century

About This Entry

This Aramaic astrological work, a fragment of which survived in the Cairo Geniza, dealt with astral predictions and omens. This excerpt describes the meanings of lunar eclipses in various months. The focus on Persia in this text and its mention of a king seem to suggest a pre-Islamic date, perhaps originally a non-Jewish context, and the mention of Jews may be a later insertion. There are also many parallels to Akkadian astrology. Empty brackets indicate lacunae in the manuscript.

[ ] and the rich shall become poor [ ] there shall be [ ] upon the world, and hunger shall be in [ ] and death and murder in Media, and there shall be plenty of grain, and lentils shall be thin, and there shall be a worm in the vegetables, and fish and birds shall be small, and there shall be a drought in Persia. And if the moon is red, a king from the north shall triumph over another[?]‌ and there shall be death among the donkeys and the wild animals. If there is an eclipse in Tammuz, souls will speak words and there shall be plenty of grain, and lentils shall be thin, and there shall be a worm in the vegetables, and fish and birds shall be [small?], and locust shall come out [but not] do harm, and a great man from Persia shall be killed [ ], and there shall be much confusion among the ships of the sea, and pregnant women shall die because of their fetuses. If there is an eclipse in Av, evil shall come upon Persia and for its king; twenty grandees shall work witchcraft upon him but he shall be saved, and his opponents shall be killed. And if it becomes black or red, there shall be death in Egypt and hunger in the south, and the Nile shall be low, and the people of Arabia shall want meat, and the Persians shall prosper. If there is an eclipse in Elul, there shall be a drought for four months from the beginning of the year, and the rivers. [ . . . ]

If there is an eclipse in Adar, the year shall be good in fruits, and from the beginning of the year the rains shall be plenty, and at the end of these days there shall rise [pl.] and another ten shall rise [sg.] [ ] of the house of Israel, and in their days [ ] subdue, and when [ ] years are over, they shall receive [ ] and battle shall cease from the world, and [ ] and much peace [ ] [mice?] both in the houses [and in the fi]elds. [These a]re the signs of the moon when [it rises]. If its horns are completely equal, it is known that the world is set for danger. And if it is poised to the south and its other horn is inclined to the north, a great disaster shall come from the north upon the world. And if it is poised to the north and its other [horn] is inclined to the south, [ ] the south, and the year shall be [ ] there shall be [and cheap]ness in the world. And if it is blue/green [ ] there shall be evil. And if it is [cheapness?] and plenty shall be? [in the world?]

Source: CUL T-S K2.51.

Translated by Gideon Bohak and Mark Geller.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation. Empty brackets indicate lacunae in the manuscript.

Credits

Unknown, Astrological Prognostication, trans. Gideon Bohak and Mark Geller, in Gideon Bohak and Mark Geller, “Babylonian Astrology in the Cairo Genizah,” from Envisioning Judaism: Studies in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, vol. 1, ed. Ra'anan S. Boustan, Klaus Herrmann, Reimund Leicht, Annette Yoshiko Reed, and Giuseppe Veltri (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 612–13. © 2013 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohrsiebeck.com. Used with permission of the publisher.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.