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QUEEN OF HEAVEN
Goddess mentioned by Jeremiah in his denunciations of Judah’s idolatry (Jer 7:18; 44:17-19, 25). The women of Judah were especially involved in worshiping the Queen of Heaven. After the destruction and depopulation of Jerusalem in 586 BC, a group of exiles fled to Egypt, carrying Jeremiah with them. There he again condemned the idolatry that had brought this disaster. This provoked a sharp reaction from the men and their wives. In the recent catastrophe, they had seemingly vowed to return to the worship of the Queen of Heaven. They claimed that since they had given up this worship, nothing but trouble had befallen the nation—the complete reversal of Jeremiah’s affirmation. To this, the prophet’s response was that if this was their attitude, nothing remained to be said. He delivered them over to their reprobate mind, asserting that in Egypt, among the Jews who settled there, true worship would become extinct, so that even the name of the Lord would not be heard (44:25-28).
The goddess is generally identified with Ishtar, a Babylonian deity associated with the planet Venus, whose worship was probably imported into Judah during Manasseh’s reign. Through the preaching of the prophets and the reforms of Josiah, worship of this god largely died out, but it must still have been cherished secretly, possibly among the women of the royal court.
See also Canaanite Deities and Religion.