By Clement Harrold

August 20, 2026

In previous blog posts we’ve looked at 7 Amazing Old Testament Women and 7 Amazing New Testament Women. But what about the different queens in Sacred Scripture?

Undoubtedly biblical queens are more of a mixed bag—some are amazing, while others are downright scoundrels—but many of them tell a fascinating story.

Here are seven of the most notable examples.

1. Bathsheba

Bathsheba’s name means “Daughter of the Oath,” and she first appears in 2 Samuel 11, when King David sees her bathing and summons her to the palace. It’s unclear whether Bathsheba was free to resist the king’s advances, but in any event, their adulterous union results in her becoming pregnant. Consequently, David arranges the death of her husband Uriah, one of his most loyal soldiers, in battle. After Uriah’s murder, Bathsheba becomes David’s wife, and the king is punished by God when their child dies a short time after birth. Bathsheba then bears another son, Solomon, who later succeeds David as the king of the united kingdom of Israel.

Significantly, the office of queenship in the Davidic dynasty was held not by the king’s wife but by his mother. This was a common practice in the Ancient Near East, where polygamy was near-universal. Instead of the queen being chosen from the king’s many wives and concubines, it was much more practical for the title to go to his mother. Thus the queen mother became known as the gebirah, meaning “Great Lady.” The prophet Jeremiah describes how the queen mother wore a crown (see Jer 13:18), and whenever the Bible introduces a new Davidic king it nearly always gives the name of the king’s mother as well.

In the case of Bathsheba, she is never actually described as David’s queen. However, when Solomon assumes the throne she adopts the status of queen mother within the royal court (see 1 Kgs 2:19). In this role she sits at the king’s right hand, and he promises her: “Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you” (1 Kgs 2:20).

2. Queen of Sheba

1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 record how the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon and resolved to test his wisdom with hard questions. The queen traveled to Jerusalem with an enormous retinue of camels, spices, and precious stones. When she put her questions to Solomon, she found there was nothing he could not answer. The queen was deeply impressed by this display and by the sophistication of Solomon’s court, and she proceeded to praise both the king and the God he served: “Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel!” (1 Kgs 10:9). Solomon then bestowed gifts on his fellow monarch, and she returned to her home in Sheba (modern-day Yemen). Although this valiant queen is never named in the Bible, her sincere search for truth is recognized by Jesus in the Gospels: “The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Luke 11:31).

3. Jezebel

Jezebel is the Bible’s most infamous queen. A Phoenician princess and daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, she became queen of the northern kingdom of Israel through her marriage to King Ahab (see 1 Kings 16:31). Upon assuming her position, Jezebel vigorously promoted the idolatrous worship of Baal and Asherah. The queen supported hundreds of pagan prophets while suppressing the true faith, and at one point she helped orchestrate the murder of Naboth in order to seize his vineyard. This led to Elijah’s dramatic prophecy that dogs would devour her body (see 1 Kings 21:23). The prophecy came true when Jezebel was killed by defenestration following a successful coup led by the army commander Jehu (see 2 Kings 9:30–37). Another Jezebel is mentioned in Revelation 2:20, and today the name has become synonymous with an immoral or promiscuous woman who leads other people into idolatry and vice.

4. Athaliah

Athaliah has the distinction of being the only woman to rule as a monarch over the southern kingdom of Judah. The daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel, she continued her parents’ devotion to Baal worship when she married Jehoram, king of Judah, bringing the influence of the northern kingdom’s corrupt religious practices into the Davidic line. Following the deaths of her husband and son, Athaliah seized the throne for herself. To secure her position, she attempted to wipe out the entire royal family of Judah, but her grandson Joash escaped and was later revealed as the rightful heir. The queen was subsequently executed on the orders of the high priest. Although Athaliah’s reign represented an existential threat to the Davidic dynasty, her dramatic downfall also highlights the truth of God’s covenant promise that David’s line would not fail.
 

5. Esther

Esther was a Jewish woman living in exile in the Persian Empire at the time of King Ahasuerus (identified as Xerxes I, who reigned from 486 to 465 BC). When Queen Vashti was removed from her position for refusing King Ahasuerus’ command, a search was made for a new queen. Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, was chosen to become queen, but she kept her Jewish faith secret. Meanwhile, Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, the king’s powerful official. The enraged Haman then devised a plan to destroy all the Jews across the empire by manipulating the king into signing a decree ordering their annihilation. Upon learning of the plot, Mordecai urged Esther to intervene, reminding her of her calling: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). At a pivotal moment, Esther revealed her Jewish identity to the king and exposed Haman’s vindictive scheming. As a result, the king gave orders for Haman to be executed, and for Mordecai to be installed in his place. A new decree granted protection to the Jewish people, and the feast of Purim was established to celebrate their deliverance through Esther’s mediation.

6. Herodias

Herodias was not technically a queen, but she receives a place on this list due to her relationship with Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. Herodias was the granddaughter of King Herod the Great and the sister of Herod Agrippa, and she originally married a man named Herod Philip. Later on she divorced her husband in order to marry Herod Antipas, who was himself a divorcee. Famously, St. John the Baptist condemned this arrangement on the basis of the Mosaic law, which forbade a man from having relations with his brother’s wife while the brother is still alive (see Lev 18:16; 20:21). Offended by John’s rebuke, Herodias sought to silence him. According to the Gospels, during Herod’s birthday feast, her daughter danced before the guests, and Herod promised to grant whatever she requested. At her mother’s urging, the girl asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter (see Mark 6:17–28; Matthew 14:3–11). When Herod Antipas merited the displeasure of the emperor a few years later, Herodias followed him to Gaul where she died in exile.

7. Our Lady

Mary’s queenship over heaven and earth is mystically foreshadowed in Psalm 45, which offers a prophecy of the divine Davidic king whose throne endures forever: “at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir” (v. 9). Ophir is an unidentified region in the ancient world that was legendary for its wealth, and the psalm points forward to Christ and His queen mother. Indeed, when Mary heard the angel Gabriel’s words about who her Son would be—“the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32)—she would have immediately realized the important role she would be called to play within this new kingdom.

Mary’s queenship is again revealed in the vision of Revelation 12, which describes “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1) who gives birth to “a male child, one who is to rule all the nations” (Rev 12:5). Finally, it’s worth paying attention to the adoration of the Magi at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. Although St. Joseph has occupied center stage in the narrative up to this point, when the Magi enter the little house in Bethlehem the foster father of Jesus is seemingly forgotten. Instead, Matthew invites us to focus our attention on the royal Christ Child and His mother: “going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him” (Matt 2:10).

Further reading:

Mary: Queen of Heaven and Earth

Scott Hahn, Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God (Image, 2006)

Edward Sri, Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary’s Queenship (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2005)