Ark of the Covenant - Bible History Online
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Naves Topical Bible Dictionary

queen of heaven Summary and Overview

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queen of heaven in Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Jer. 7:18; 44:17, 25), the moon, worshipped by the Assyrians as the receptive power in nature.

queen of heaven in Smith's Bible Dictionary

#Jer 7:18; 45:17,18,19,25| is the moon Ashtaroth or Astarte to whom worshiped as Hebrew women offered cakes in the streets of Jerusalem.

queen of heaven in Schaff's Bible Dictionary

QUEEN OF HEAVEN , the title of the goddess of the Moon among the Assyrians, from whom her worship spread into Asia Minor. To the Shemites she was generally known under the names of Astarte, Ashtaroth, etc. Cakes having the image of the moon stamped on them are supposed to have been presented in sacrifice as a part of her worship. Jer 7:18; Jer 44:17-19, Jer 44:25. QUICK'SANDS are referred to in Acts 27:17, and were known as Greater Syrtis and the Lesser Syrtis, two sandy gulfs on the northern coast of Africa. The Greater Syrtis was near Cyrene, and is the "quicksands" probably intended in the narrative of Paul's voyage.

queen of heaven in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Astarte (See ASHTORETH.) (Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 44:17-25). Wife of Baal or Moloch, "king of heaven." The male and female pair symbolized nature's generative powers, from whence prostitution was practiced in her worship. The worshippers stoutly refused to give up her worship, attributing their recent deprival of plenty to discontinuing her service, and their former plenty to her service. God makes fools' present prosperity their doom (Proverbs 1:32) and does good to His people in their latter end (Deuteronomy 8:16). In Jeremiah 44:19 Maurer translated "did we form her image." Crescent-shaped cakes were offered to the moon. Beltis, the female of Bel or Baal, was the Babylonian "queen of heaven." Ishtar the Babylonian Venus (in the Sardanapalus inscriptions) was also "the mistress of heaven and earth." Babylon, Israel's instrument of sin, was in righteous retribution made Israel's punishment (Jeremiah 2:19).