Job 38:31 Commentary: Rashi & Malbim

the chains of the Pleiades [Tie] the chains of the Pleiades so that all its cold should not go forth and destroy the world with cold.

The ancients attributed cold and warmth to forces that emanated from the stars: that there is a constellation of stars called the Pleiades in the north from which cold and freezing issues and another constellation called Orion from which heat issues.²⁵ This idea appears in the Talmud: 'Were it not for the heat of Orion, the world could not exist because of the cold of the Pleiades; and were it not for the cold of Pleiades, the world could not exist because of the heat of Orion' (TB Berachot 58b).

or loose the straps of Orion to bring out its heat, to mitigate the cold of the Pleiades.