Who is the Queen of Heaven in the Bible?

Do you know who the Queen of Heaven is?

The Queen of Heaven in the Bible is found two times in the book of Jeremiah and is a problem translation, not an error but rather one more example of how language and words change over time. Quite simply, almost 500 years ago, when the KJV was written everybody knew that the heavens or heaven meant the sky.

Let’s dig a bit deeper, shall we?

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Thankfully for today’s discussion, the first time we see this odd (to us) phrase, is when יהוה YAHWEH Himself is talking about her. Then the next time she makes an appearance we see the people talking about her.

The worship of this ‘elohim god / deity’ was especially rampant amongst women of the time, who used to make little mooncakes and burn incense to her, in the expectant hope of getting pregnant. Now the men weren’t innocent here (just like Adam and Eve) because they completely supported their wives by collecting the wood for the sacrifice!

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To further complicate this thorny theological issue, if we are going to stick to using the English translation ‘heaven’, here then the correct translation is actually queen of heavens (plural).

Now the reason I say thankfully God talks about it first and then the people is because it now becomes crystal clear from His Most-High perspective that YAHWEH ain’t got no queen of heaven, up above! There is a bride of which you’re part of but that’s a topic for another day.

However, what we do know for sure, is what happened almost 2,000 years ago at a blood soaked cross and because of that, there is now a glorified God-Man called ישוע Yeshua who sits in the right-hand of power!

But Then Why Does Jeremiah Say Queen Of Heaven?

Well, here is the short answer first:

Heaven means something very different to us with our modern ‘Greek philosophical’ ears, but what Jeremiah is actually saying is ‘queen of the sky,’ which does indeed sound strange to us!

We live today with all of our modern technology like planes, spaceships and telescopes and we all know that people have been up there so to speak and didn’t physically see anything. Yet all this UFO talk nowadays is starting to make people wonder again, but I digress!

So let’s go back in time. To understand how an ancient person (Jewish or pagan) thought as they looked up and saw the glorious creation of God in the sky and skies. Think about the stars for a minute and you can begin to see why they might attributed “Elohim (God-likeness)” as being up there in the sky or skies plural (the blue sky of day and the black sky of night) and how we are down here on the land.

We can identify still to this day because every time we look up to the sky, we know that something and Someone is truly up there! This is also why the Bible in the Book of Revelation ends with the glorious above coming back down to us, so that God and man can walk together again in the coolness of day.

Also Consider This

Do you remember how the Apostle Paul wrote about the ‘Third Heaven’ in 2 Corinthians 12:2–4?

Again a better translation here is the ‘Third Sky’ as I’ve translated it in the F.O.G Writings. This is because the Apostle Paul is speaking in a way that people back then know about as they grew up thinking about The אֱלֹהִים Elohim (יהוה YAHWEH) and other ‘elohim’ (‘gods’) being up there in three levels:

A blue ‘watery’ sky they saw everyday where such wonderful creations as the birds fly (Sky 1).
A ‘watery’ dark black sky above the blue one that appeared at night with the moon (Sky 2).
A brilliant sky, far, far above, which no eye has seen and no ear has heard of the full manifestation of since Adam and Eve, where יהוה YAHWEH Himself sits His throne upon. (Sky 3)

That last word, ‘upon’ is really important and this is what I love about my Jewish friends because they know that not even The Third Sky can contain יהוה YAHWEH! We see Solomon exhibiting this wisdom to us so beautifully as he prays in 2 Chronicles chapter 6 at the dedication of the first Temple-Palace.

_⁽¹⁴⁾ He said, YAHWEH as Israel’s GOD, there’s no ‘god’ like You upon the skies or upon land! You keep covenant! The covenant love, to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart.

But see what Solomon says here next.

_⁽¹⁸⁾Does אֱלֹהִים Elohim really dwell with mankind upon the land? Look, skies and the sky of skies can’t contain You! How much less this house that I’ve built?

If you are new here, purple means a royalty theme is being communicated and green is wisdom.

And I just absolutely love the wisdom and modern day quantum level thinking that Solomon is displaying for us here because firstly He’s praying like this at the most gloriously inspired by God but man made structures called the First Jewish Temple of יהוה YAHWEH. Some estimate that it would cost over 1 trillion dollars in today’s money!

But Solomon puts that logic aside for a minute to 100% accurately and humbly say that there’s no way this ‘house’ can contain Him, when even THE SKIES of the sky can’t! Or how about this in modern talk, even all the quantum realms of realms, can’t even contain our יהוה YAHWEH!

So back to today’s question. Who is the queen of heaven or as I say the ‘sky queen?’

And so, with our ‘Greek mindsets’ a little bit more acclimated to how an ancient Jew would think about God, let’s go straight to the two passages in Jeremiah, where this ‘elohim queen’ is discussed.

God’s Viewpoint About The ‘Queen’ Of Heaven

In this passage, Jeremiah is talking on behalf of God to the people by the רוּחַ Ruach HaKodesh (The Set apart Holy Spirit). The blue below always means Holy Spirit, prophetic or priestly themes.

⁽¹⁸⁾ The sons gather wood, the fathers kindle אֵת the fire and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the ‘skies queen’, pouring out drink offerings to other ‘elohim’ in order to spite Me. ⁽¹⁹⁾ “Do they grieve אֵת Me?” Declares יהוה YAHWEH, isn’t it אֵת themselves? To their own shame of face?
Jeremiah 7:18-19

The very next verse goes on to say how furious God is at His people. This is because He’s a jealously loving God and any mixing of love by serving other ‘elohim’ is a serious marital betrayal to Him. This is a spiritual metaphor of how much God loves in case this type of talk is new to you.

So it’s abundantly clear that this ‘queen of heaven,’ which is actually first introduced in Genesis 1 is a lesser luminary to the sun that governs the day vs. the moon that governs the night. It’s certainly NOT God’s queen!

Anybody that does this mixed worship grieves His heart and though His mercies are new every morning for us there does come a time when His jealous love has to act and this is one of those cases where He’s giving yet one more warning about anybody worshipping her, thinking of her as their God.

We’re Not That Different Today!

2,500 years later I’m reminded that many ‘Christians’ still do this today with such practices like kissing and praying to ‘lucky charms’, reading newspaper horoscopes and going to fortune-tellers at the local fair.

Now if you’ve ever done this, I thank God for the blood of Jesus for you and I strongly encourage you to take a moment and humble yourself before Him and tell Him that you’re sorry for any mixed allegiances. He loves you and will forgive you in a heartbeat! ?

Praise God!

We have now seen His El-Yon (Most-High GOD) perspective, now let’s look at the next mention of the ‘queen of heaven’ which is a tainted one direct from the people’s lips. Orange = warning theme.

The People’s Tainted Point Of View
About The Queen Of Heaven

What will become abundantly clear from the Jeremiah 44 text is that the people who survived (the remnant) this time of Israel’s tumultuous exile knew what they were doing was wrong! YAHWEH’s commandments were fresh in their minds and to them, they had a justifiable reason for doing what they were doing.

Have a look at what they say after being warned by Jeremiah and many other prophets to never, ever, serve other ‘gods’ and also not go back to Egypt.

^₍₁₅₎Then all the men aware that their wives burned incense to other ”elohim’ along with all the women stood in position, a great assembly and all the people living in Pathros in the land of Egypt responded אֵת to Jeremiah saying, ^₍₁₆₎ “That message which you’ve spoken to us in יהוה YAHWEH’s name, we won’t listen to You!”
_⁽¹⁷⁾Yes, we will certainly do אֵת every word that went from our mouths, so as to burn incense to the ‘skies queen’ and pour out drink-offerings to her. Accordingly as us, our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets. Then we were full of bread and were good and saw no evil. ^₍₁₈₎ Afterwards we then stopped burning incense to the ‘skies queen’ and pouring out drink-offerings to her and lack everything and have been finished by sword and famine.”
Jeremiah 44:17-18 F.O.G

A Quick Note:

The people were experiencing the devastating consequences of their sinful deviation, so yes famine and sword had become the norm for these people.
However they seem to have purposefully forgotten that these judgements were vowed in Deuteronomy 28, if they ever turned away from יהוה YAHWEH. So when He as The Righteous Judge eventually sends these accurate judgements, they quickly turn to other ‘gods’ primarily through their foreign wives that Moses warned would turn their hearts away from יהוה YAHWEH.
The reason for their ‘full bellies’ as they say, had nothing to do with the other ‘gods’ but YAHWEH’s mercy to them! Even to give them another chance in the prophet Jeremiah to warn them again after nearly a millennium of rebellious years towards Him. Yet they continually refused for the most part to listen to Him. Our GOD’s mercies are new every morning when considering such vast timespans.

Conclusion About The Queen Of Heaven

Firstly, I hope this post has highlighted a better translation of the queen of heaven in the Bible. To actually be ‘queen of the skies’ aka the moon. This title will be used in the F.O.G, the two times its mentioned in the scroll of Jeremiah.

She is certainly not יהוה YAHWEH’s queen sitting at His right-hand because as we know that place belongs to Jesus and us who are seated in Him as His bridal assembly we call The Church.

To settle this confusing text, all that is required is a little bit of understanding on our part to how the ancients thought about deities and about GOD Himself. This helps us to get a clearer picture of what’s going on, whilst also highlighting afresh for us, all these millenia later, that our GOD is a jealous lover and He will never share His love and our love for Him with any other so-called ‘gods’.

I pray we heed this warning today of no mixed allegiances, as we pray and spend time with Him ourselves. Then we can all boldly enter together, into the throneroom of His favour and grace through the finished work of the blood of Jesus.

God bless you all in Jesus name!