malkah "queen regnant" (1 Kings 10:1; Daniel 5:10; Esther 1:9); sheegal "the queen consort" (Psalms 45:9; Daniel 5:2-3); gebirah "powerful mistress," "the queen mother." Polygamy, lessened the influence of the kings wives, whose hold on his affections was shared by others and was at best precarious; but the queen mother enjoyed a fixed position of dignity. So Bathsheba (1 Kings 2:19, etc.); Maachah (1 Kings 15:13); 2 Kings 10:13, Jezebel; Jehoiachin's mother (2 Kings 24:12; Jeremiah 13:18; Jeremiah 29:2).