melechet · queen

What it means

melechet (מְלֶכֶת) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “queen”.

In Jeremiah, "the queen of the heavens" is a goddess the people worshiped.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A king's wife; "the queen of the heavens" is a goddess to whom incense was burned.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Jeremiah 7:18

  The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of the heavens; and they pour out libations to other gods to provoke me to anger.

• Jeremiah 44:17

  But we will certainly do every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the heavens and to pour out libations to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and we had plenty of bread, and we were well off, and evil we did not see.

• Jeremiah 44:18

  But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of the heavens and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by famine we have come to an end.”

• Jeremiah 44:19

  “And when we burn incense to the queen of the heavens and pour out libations to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her cakes to make her image and poured out libations to her?”

• Jeremiah 44:25

  Thus says YHWH Tsevaot, the Elohim of Israel, saying: You and your wives have spoken with your mouth, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, ‘We will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of the heavens and to pour out libations to her.’ By all means confirm your vows, and by all means perform your vows!