lanets there are at present known, the moon
which owns our earth as primary, two satellites to Mars, seven
satellites to Jupiter, ten to Saturn, four to Uranus, and one to
Neptune.

The ancients counted the planets as seven, numbering the moon and the
sun amongst them. The rest were Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn. They recognized no satellites to any planet. We have no evidence
that the ancient Semitic nations considered that the moon was more
intimately connected with the earth than any of the other six.

But though the planets were sometimes regarded as "seven" in number,
the ancients perfectly recognized that the sun and moon stood in a
different category altogether from the other five. And though the
heathen recognized them as deities, confusion resulted as to the
identity of the deity of which each was a manifestation. Samas was the
sun-god and Baal was the sun-god, but Samas and Baal, or Bel, were not
identical, and both were something more than merely the sun personified.
Again, Merodach, or Marduk, is sometimes expressly identified with Bel
as sun-god, sometimes with the divinity of the planet Jupiter. Similarly
Ashtoreth, or I[vs]tar, is sometimes identified with the goddess of the
moon, sometimes with the planet Venus. It would not be safe, therefore,
to assume that reference is intended to any particular heavenly body,
because a deity is mentioned that has been on occasions identified with
that heavenly body. Still less safe would it be to assume astronomical
allusions in the description of the qualities or characteristics of that
deity. Though Ashtoreth, or I[vs]tar, may have been often identified
with the planet Venus, it is ridiculous to argue, as some have done,
from the expression "Ashteroth-Karnaim," Ashteroth of "the horns," that
the ancients had sight or instruments sufficiently powerful to enable
them to observe that Venus, like the moon, had her phases, her "horns."
Though Nebo has been identified with the planet Mercury, we must not see
any astronomical allusion to its being the nearest planet to the sun in
Isaiah's coupling the two together, where he says, "Bel boweth down,
Nebo stoopeth."

Isaiah speaks of the King of Babylon--

"How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

The word here translated Lucifer, "light-bearer," is the word _h[=e]lel_
from the root _halal_, and means _spreading brightness_. In the
Assyrio-Babylonian, the planet Venus is sometime