God placed seven planets in the firmament and gave each one a distinct personality. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, these celestial bodies are not just astronomical objects. They are cosmic appointees, each governing a different domain of human experience.
Saturn presides over poverty, sickness, and death. He appears as an old man carrying a sickle. Mars governs war, bloodshed, hatred, and destruction. His appearance is terrifying: an armored warrior gripping a sword in his right hand and a spear in his left, dressed in a coat of mail. Wherever he turns, wickedness follows. Jupiter rules over life, peace, prosperity, and sovereignty. He looks like a noble, valiant man with the head of a ram.
Venus governs love, desire, marriage, and the fertility of all living things. She takes the form of a young woman holding a tree branch. Mercury controls wisdom, knowledge, and the ability to unravel mysteries in any language. He appears as an old man with thin lips and wings, his lower body resembling a dragon.
The firmament divides into seven vertical layers. The moon occupies the lowest. Then Mercury, Venus, and the sun at the center. Mars sits above the sun, then Jupiter, and Saturn at the very top, completing its circuit in three years.
On the fifth day, God brought the Leviathan (לִוְיָתָן) forth from the waters. This great serpent holds the creatures of the deep between its two fins. Every day it opens its mouth, and a massive serpent flies into its jaws to feed it. The center of the earth rests upon these colossal serpents, and God Himself plays with the Leviathan, as it says: "You created this Leviathan to sport with it" (Psalms 104:26).