Hebrew word · H4446

מְלֶ֫כֶת

limlekhet

queen

'Queen of the heavens/sky', a title of a goddess. The word for 'queen' occurs in the Bible only in this phrase (Jer 7:18; 44:17, 18, 19, 25). 'The heavens' is the visible sky with its stars and planets.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

queen

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Jeremiah 7:18

Range of meaning

'Queen of the heavens/sky', a title of a goddess. The word for 'queen' occurs in the Bible only in this phrase (Jer 7:18; 44:17, 18, 19, 25). 'The heavens' is the visible sky with its stars and planets.

Against the English

'Queen of Heaven' (BSB, NIV, ESV, capitalised) reads like a proper name and, for many modern readers, recalls a much later Christian title. WEB's 'queen of the sky' keeps the astral sense, while KJV and YLT are neutral.

How it drifted

'Heaven' in English mostly means the dwelling of God and the blessed dead. In Hebrew, shamayim here is the sky, so the title points to a goddess linked with a star, most likely the planet Venus. The later Christian title for Mary has no historical connection to this goddess.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mesopotamian Ishtar, the goddess linked with the planet Venus, bears titles such as 'queen of heaven' or 'lady of heaven' (Akkadian šarrat šamê, bēlet šamê). In Egyptian texts West Semitic goddesses (Astarte, Anat) are called 'lady of heaven'. Aramaic letters from Hermopolis in Egypt (late 6th century BCE), written by people with Judean-Aramean connections, mention a temple of the 'Queen of Heaven' (mlkt šmyn) at Syene. That fits Jeremiah 44, where Judean refugees in Egypt keep worshiping her.

From the study of Jeremiah 44:17

Range of meaning

Malkah / melekhet is the feminine of melekh, 'king', so 'queen'. With 'the heavens' it is a divine title, 'Queen of Heaven', for a goddess tied to the sky and the stars, most likely the planet Venus. The phrase occurs only in Jeremiah (7:18; 44:17, 18, 19, 25).

Against the English

Almost all English versions render it 'queen of heaven'. WEB has 'queen of the sky', which is accurate but unusual. None of them shows that the Hebrew vowels are odd, or that some manuscripts read 'work of heaven'.

How it drifted

The English title is accurate. Later readers sometimes hear in it the medieval Christian title for Mary, 'Regina Caeli', but that title comes some 1,800 years later and has no link to the Hebrew phrase.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Mesopotamia Ishtar (the Venus goddess) carries the title šarrat šamê, 'queen of heaven'. In Egyptian New Kingdom texts Astarte and Anat are called 'lady of heaven'. A Beth-Shan stela calls Anat 'queen of heaven, mistress of all the gods'. Aramaic letters from Hermopolis in Egypt (c. 500 BCE) mention a temple of the Queen of Heaven (mlkt šmyn) at Syene, so the cult really did exist in Egypt among West Semitic people of this very period. The cakes in v.19 (kawwanim) match the Akkadian word kamānu, used of cakes offered to Ishtar.

Where it appears

Jeremiah · 5

  1. Jeremiah 7:18 לִמְלֶ֣כֶת for [the] queen of

    The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

    Here: 'To/for the queen of', naming who receives the cakes. The vowels are unusual, and some manuscripts spell it as 'work of' (see textual notes).

  2. Jeremiah 44:17 לִמְלֶ֣כֶת to [the] queen of

    Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.

    Here: A royal title for a goddess, 'the Queen'. Its unusual vowels may be a scribal way of avoiding the plain word 'queen' (see textual notes).

  3. Jeremiah 44:18 לִמְלֶ֧כֶת to [the] queen of

    But from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

  4. Jeremiah 44:19 לִמְלֶ֣כֶת to [the] queen of

    “Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

  5. Jeremiah 44:25 לִמְלֶ֣כֶת to [the] queen of

    This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands your words: ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Go ahead, then, do what you have promised! Keep your vows!

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.