Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
” The wives of the kings of Israel are not so designated. In Ps. 45:9, the Hebrew for “queen” is not malkah, one actually ruling like the Queen of Sheba, but shegal, which simply means the king’s wife. In 1 Kings 11:19, Pharaoh’s wife is called “the queen,” but the Hebrew word so rendered (g’birah) is simply a title of honour, denoting a royal lady, used sometimes for “queen-mother” (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chron. 15:16). In Cant. 6:8, 9, the king’s wives are styled “queens” (Heb. melakhoth).
, Southern Arabia, Sheba (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31) and the “queen of the Ethiopians” (Acts 8:27), Candace.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
QUEEN is the rendering of three different Hebrew words, of which the first is applied to a queen-regnant- as, for instance, the queen of Sheba, 1 Kgs 10:1, and Athaliah, who usurped the throne of Judah, 2 Kgs 11; the second to a queen-consort - that is, to the wives of first rank in the royal harem, as distinguished from the concubines, Esth 1:9; Zech 7:1; Song 6:8; and the third to a queen-mother - as, for instance, Bathsheba, 1 Kgs 2:19; Maachah, 1 Kgs 15:13; 2 Chr 15:16; Jezebel. 2 Kgs 10:13.
It was a natural result of the practice of polygamy that the queen-consort never attained that dignity which in our times such a position confers, while the queen-mother came to occupy one of the most dignified and powerful positions in the state.