QUEEN OF HEAVEN

The title of a goddess worshiped by apostate Israelites in the days of Jeremiah. Although the women were primarily involved, apparently the entire family participated in some way in worshiping the “queen of the heavens.” The women baked sacrificial cakes, the sons collected the firewood and the fathers lit the fires. (Jer. 7:18; 44:15, 19) That the worship of this goddess had a strong hold on the Jews is reflected by the fact that those who had fled down to Egypt after the murder of Governor Gedaliah attributed their calamity to their neglecting to make sacrificial smoke and drink offerings to the “queen of the heavens.” The prophet Jeremiah, though, forcefully pointed out the wrongness of their view.—Jer. 44:15-30.

The title “queen of the heavens” suggests that this goddess was a stellar deity. Although the Israelites, even before their entering the Promised Land, were explicitly warned against the worship of sun, moon and stars (Deut. 4:15, 19; 17:2-5), the veneration of heavenly bodies came to be practiced extensively by apostate Israelites, both in the ten-tribe kingdom and in the kingdom of Judah. (2 Ki. 17:16, 17; 21:3, 5; Jer. 8:1, 2; Ezek. 8:16) Likely the “queen of the heavens” was associated with one or more of these heavenly bodies.

The worship of heavenly bodies formed an integral part of the religion of Babylon. (Isa. 47:5, 12-15) Numerous authorities, in fact, suggest identifying the “queen of the heavens” with the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar, who is generally associated with the planet Venus. Others identify the “queen of the heavens” with the corresponding Canaanite fertility goddess Ashtoreth, who is likewise associated with the planet Venus by some ancient writers and with the moon by others. Scholars who identify Ashtoreth with the moon suggest that the sacrificial cakes offered to the “queen of the heavens” were in the form of a crescent or the full moon. Others view the phrase “to make an image of her” (the “queen of the heavens”) as indicating that the cakes made by apostate Israelite women possibly had the form of figurines. (Jer. 44:19) The historian Alexander Hislop, on page 141 of his book The Two Babylons, links the “queen of the heavens” with Semiramis, saying: “According to the Chaldean doctrine, Semiramis, the wife of Ninus or Nimrod, [was] exalted to divinity under the name of the Queen of Heaven.”—See ASHTORETH; BAAL No. 4.