Queen of heaven, the

d:;:.? nz-.o m'lc- kheth Itash-shdnuiyim, or in a few MSS 'b'h nrxj^rj m'le'khethf etc. ; r^ (XTpan^ tov oupavoVf ' the host of heaven,' in Jer 7", but rj ^aaMaar) tov oiipapoO, • the queen of heaven,' in Jer 44 [Gr. 51] "• '"• '»•»>, except k" in v.^ tj BdaX ; in v." two late cursives give as the rendering of the Ileb. represented by '(Then all the men which knew that their wives burned incense) nnto other gods,' Oeols MpoLt tj OTfaTtf ToO oi'p.i with a few exceptions the other LaX MSS have no eiiuivalent for 'unto other gods' ; Aq., S^ymm., and Theod. in 7", and Symm. in 44 [51]'* Tj /Soff. T. oi'p.; regime cwli, but also in Jerome (Kuenen, Abhandl. p. 187, Germ, tr.), mililire ca-li ; Syr. (Lee), ' for the worship (^^j^ O^) of heaven ' in 7" 44"- "• so, ' for the qneen (/..hIiLd) of heaven' in 44'"; Targ. n33i3 H'cv ' star(s) of heaven ' ; according to Jastrow, theplanet Ventis. "Tlie reading njK^ij mfle' kheth is set aside by common consent as a late emendation duo to the tradition that n^So here was to be interpreted as MK^D. The pointing nzf-s tti'lflchoth, is sometimes explained as an intentional variation of mnlknth, ' queen-of,' meant to suggest that a false goddess was not a legitimate queen, just as luim-Melckh, 'the kin",' when used of a false god, receives the vowels of bosheth, ' shame,' and becomes ham- Molckh. But more probablj[ the pointing indicates that nj'rn was identified with nitths ' work,' the silent Aleph having dropped (as sometimes hap- pens, Ges.-Kautzsch -", § 23. 3). M'lekheth, thus idciitilied, was taken by the rriac, also by Kimchi, in the sense of ' service ' ' worship,' m which it is found in 1 Ch 9" etc.; Syrii bnt it is clearly not the worship, Imt the object of worship. It was no doubt intended bj- the puiictn- ators U> be taken in the sense of ' the host of heaven.' Probably vi'lrhhcth itself was not under- stood to mean ' host ' directly ; but the punctuators equated the unusual phrase m'lekheth hnshsh. to the more common phrase ziba hash-sh. (Jer, etc.), being nartly influenced bj' the references in Gn 2'- ' to Creation as God's m'lckhith. This view was taken by the LXX in Jer 7'" (unless the unlikely view be adopted that the LXX here and in 44 [51]" read zibd haxh-sh.), and perliaps by the Targ., and was recognized as an alternatiie by Jerome ; cf. above. It has been recently revived by Static, mainly on the ground that elsewhere Jeremiah speaks of the Jews as worsliippinjj 'other gods or 'the host {?abd) of heaven, and that therefore this phrase should denote a group of objects of worship ; cf. also the statement that Manas.seh ' built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah,' 2 K 2P. l!ut most critics, e.ff. Budde {Bel. of Isr. p. 162), ConilU [SIJOT], Giesebreeht {Jer.), KautzsLai(^r), Kuenen, hold that the original meaning was 'queen of heaven,' and the proper pointing; is mauctdh. The pointing iiialkutTi, ' kingdom,' has met with little acceptance. It is pointed out that the phrases ' worship of other gods ... of the host of heaven ' may equal ' idol.itr^, star worship,' and are in no way evidence against the e.xistence of a popular and widespread cult of a particular goddess. According to 7" 44 [SI]"''" this goddess was ofl'ered incense and cakes which ' pourtrayed ' her, and had been worshijjped by the ancestors of the Jews of Jeremiairs time, and by their kings and princes in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem. The Jewish women were specially devote<l to this worship. This 'queen of heaven' can scarcely be a col- lective term for the stars, and is usually identified with the moon, or some planet or fixed star ; most commonly with the Assyrian Ishtar, the planet Venus (also, however, connected with tlie moon). ' Queen, or princess, of heaven ' apjiaiently occurs as a title of Ishtar, and she is styled ' Lady of Heaven,' bilit sam-i-i, in the Araarna Tablets (Wiiickler, p. 4Sf. ); and our goddess may he the Atiir-samain (Athar-Astarte), worshipped in North Arabia. Cf. the divine title Ba'al Hlmmnyin in Aramaic hiscriptions. See Asiitoreth in vol. i. pp. 168^ 109^ At Athens cakes in the shape of a full-moon [uekrivai.) were offered to the moon- goddess Artemis ; and in Arabia similar offerings were made to the goddess Al-Uzza, whose star was Venus, and to the sun (Kuenen, 208). St. Isaac of Antioch (d. c. 460) tells us tliat the Syrian women worshipped the planet Venus from the roofs of their houses, as a means of preserving and in- creasing their beauty. Ishtar seems to nave been identical with Ashturcth ; but probably this wor- shij) of the ' queen of heaven' was not the ancient Canaanite cult of Asiitoreth, but a new worship of the goddess with her Assyrian name and rites, due to the political supremacy of Assyria in the reign of Maiiasseh. The title Ecgina Ca-li has been given to the Vii 1,'iii Mary ; and at Mukden, the Sacred City of China, there is a temple to the ' Queen of Heaven.' Cf. ASHTORETII. LiTKRATi'RB. — See AsiiTORKTn in vol. I. p. 1C8'> note •, p. lOS'' note' ; ami luld Uiesebreclil, Jeremiah, on 7'» ; W. U. Bi;tiiR'tt, Jeremiah xxi.-lii,, ch. XV. Tliis article is largely indebted to Kuenen's Essay. W. H. BeNNE'IT,