In the Hebrew Scriptures mal·kahʹ is more often used with reference to a queen consort, or the leading wife of a king of a foreign power.

She was replaced by the Jewess Esther, making Esther consort queen, and while Esther had royal dignity, she was not an associate ruler (Es 1:9, 12, 19; 2:17, 22; 4:11); any authority she might have had was by the king’s grant.​—Compare Es 8:1-8, 10; 9:29-32.