QUEEN OF HEAVEN. In the Book of Jeremiah (vii. 17-20, xliv. 15-30) reference is made to meleketh hash shamayim, and the words have been rendered " the queen of heaven " (on the supposition that meleketh is equiva lent to malkath). In the Revised Version of Jeremiah vii. 17 f. we read : " Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." The word meleketh, however, has also been taken to be equivalent to mereketh, which means " work." It has then been supposed (e.g., by Jewish scholars) that the worship of " the work (cultus) of heaven " was the same as the worship of " the host of heaven" (Jer. viii. 2, six. 13, Deut. iv. 19, 3, etc.). But the interpretation " queen of heaven " is more likely. The worship would
seem to have been that of one of the heavenly bodies. In Babylonian mythology the goddess Ishtar (q.v.), who was regarded as the planet Venus (q.v.), is called belit shame and sharrat shame; and, as G. F. Moore says, the latter exactly corresponds in meaning to malkath hash shetnagim. Thus the cult would seem to have been of Babylonian origin. It was probably introduced into Judah in the reign of Manasseh. " The description points to its prevalence among the poorer classes, who have to collect firewood and do all the work themselves. From xliv. 19 we learn that the cakes pourtrayed ' (RVmg.) the goddess. By this is meant, either that they were modelled to represent her, or that her image or symbol was impressed on them" (A. S. Peake). See G. F. Moore in the Eneyel. Bibl.; A. S. Peake, Jeremiah, vol. i., in the " Century Bible," 1910.