Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(woman). The three Hebrew words so rendered imply a queen-regnant, queen-consort, and queen-mother, with a dignity very like that of the present day (1 Kings 2:19; 10:1; 15:1319Bath-sheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand. (1 Kings 2:19)
1And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. (1 Kings 10:1)
13And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. (1 Kings 15:13); Esther 1:9; 2:179Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. (Esther 1:9)
17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. (Esther 2:17); Jer. 13:18; 29:218Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. (Jeremiah 13:18)
2(After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;) (Jeremiah 29:2)).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
This is applied, as now, to one reigning in her own right, as the queen of Sheba (2 Chron. 9:1-121And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. 2And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. 3And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, 4And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. 5And she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom: 6Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard. 7Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. 8Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and justice. 9And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones: neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave king Solomon. 10And the servants also of Huram, and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones. 11And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the Lord, and to the king's palace, and harps and psalteries for singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah. 12And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went away to her own land, she and her servants. (2 Chronicles 9:1‑12)): and Candace, queen of the Ethiopians (Acts 8:2727And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, (Acts 8:27)). The title was also given to the consort of a reigning sovereign, as queen Esther; and to the queen-mother, who often had great influence at court, as Bathsheba and Jezebel.
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
There was one of the wives of the Persian monarchs who occupied a higher position than any of the others, and to her alone the title of “queen” belonged. “The chief wife or queen consort was privileged to wear on her head a royal tiara or crown. She was the acknowledged head of the female apartments or Gynecium, and the concubines recognized her dignity by actual prostration. On great occasions, when the king entertained the male part of the court, she feasted all the females in her own part of the palace. She had a large revenue of her own, assigned her, not so much by the will of her husband, as by an established law or custom. Her dress was splendid, and she was able to indulge freely that love of ornament of which few Oriental women are devoid” (Rawlinson, Five Ancient Monarchies, vol. 3, p. 218).
This was the elevated position filled by Vashti, and afterward by Esther.
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