Queen
No explicit mention of queens is made till we read of the “queen of Sheba.” The wives of the kings of Israel are not so designated. In Ps 45:9, the Hebrew for “queen” is not malkah, one actually ruling like the Queen of Sheba, but shegal, which simply means the king’s wife. In 1 Kgs 11:19, Pharaoh’s wife is called “the queen,” but the Hebrew word so rendered (g’birah) is simply a title of honour, denoting a royal lady, used sometimes for “queen-mother” (1 Kgs 15:13; 2 Chr 15:16). In Song 6:8, Song 6:9, the king’s wives are styled “queens” (Heb. melakhoth).
In the New Testament we read of the “queen of the south”, i.e., Southern Arabia, Sheba (Matt 12:42; Luke 11:31) and the “queen of the Ethiopians” (Acts 8:27), Candace.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
