{"id":72292,"date":"2020-03-24T17:38:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T15:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=72292"},"modified":"2020-03-24T17:38:39","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T15:38:39","slug":"who-was-the-queen-of-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/who-was-the-queen-of-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was the Queen of Heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"72292","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"444","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"She can\u2019t hide behind the euphemism\r\n\r\n","content":"

Just as Jeremiah had prophesied (Chapter 42), God had him threaten the survivors in Egypt with the same fate that was suffered by the inhabitants of Jerusalem and post a charge-sheet enumerating their most serious crimes. Among these, is a charge of idolatry that specifically mentioned the worship of \u201cThe Queen of Heaven,\u201d to whom the people were accustomed to \u201cmake offerings\u201d and \u201cpour libations\u201d (vs. 17-19).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, her worship was already cited, in even greater detail, as the prototype of an idolatrous family activity:<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather sticks, the fathers build the fire, and the mothers knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour libations to other gods, to vex Me. (7:17-18)<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to properly understand the exegetical activity that attended this verse, we first need to point out that the Hebrew text contains a lexical anomaly: The word that is translated here as \u201cqueen\u201d is spelled <\/span>m-l-k-t<\/span><\/i>, but it is vocalized <\/span>m\u2019lekhet<\/span><\/i> (i.e., the work)<\/span><\/p>\n

Shadal\u2019s* commentary (7:18) sums it all up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The queen is the moon. It was a pagan custom to offer it a sacrifice of honey cakes on the first of the month\u2026 [The Masoretes] did not want to vocalize it <\/span>malkat<\/span><\/i> in order not to impute majesty to something that was, itself, created. Some interpret it according to the vocalization of <\/span>m\u2019lekhet<\/span><\/i>, meaning the heavenly hosts, but that is farfetched.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi interpreted it as \u201cthe queen,\u201d writing that [Aramaic] Targum Yonatan translated it so. Our texts [of Targum], however, state \u201cthe star [<\/span>kokh\u2019vat<\/span><\/i>] of heaven.\u201d Gesenius [a highly regarded 19<\/span>th<\/span> century German orientalist], in his commentary on Isaiah, wrote that in Syriac [a dialect of Aramaic] <\/span>kokhavta<\/span><\/i> refers to Venus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, comparative Semitic literature and philology have demonstrated that the title borne by Venus in Mesopotamia (where she was known as Ishtar) was <\/span>b`lt shmym<\/span><\/i> (Hebrew: <\/span>ba`alat shamayim<\/span><\/i>), The Mistress\u2014or Queen\u2014of Heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

*For an explanation of our objectives in studying Shadal\u2019s commentary, <\/span>see our introduction<\/span><\/a> in Jeremiah chapter 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Figurine of Astarte with a horned headdress, Louvre Museum \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":72293,"id":72293,"title":"jer44-ashtoret","filename":"jer44-ashtoret.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer44-ashtoret.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/who-was-the-queen-of-heaven\/jer44-ashtoret\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer44-ashtoret","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":72292,"date":"2020-03-24 15:38:25","modified":"2020-03-24 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