I. Name

As a designation of a goddess, *malkat haššāmayim occurs in Jer. 7.18; Jer. 44.17–19, Jer. 25 as well as in Hermopolis Letter 4.1 from South Egypt (5th century bce; Bresciani & Kamil 1966). In the MT mlkt (a number of MSS have mlkʾt) hšmym has been vocalized as mĕleket (= mĕleʾket) haššāmayim, “the work of heaven” which, as appears from a comparison of Gen. 2.1 with Gen. 2.2, apparently has to be interpreted as ṣĕbaʾ haššāmayim, “the host of heaven” (cf. LXX Jer. 7.18, hē stratiā tou oura…