QUEEN

This title is properly applied to the queen-mother, since in an Oriental household it is not the wife but the mother of the master who exercises the highest authority. Strange as such an arrangement at sight appears, it is one of the inevitable results of polygamy. An illustration of the queen-mother's influence is given in (1 Kings 2:19) ff. The term is applied to Maachah, (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 16:16) and to Jezetiel, (2 Kings 10:13) and to the mother of Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, (Jeremiah 13:18) compare 2Kin 24:12; Jere 29:2