John Calvin Commentary Matthew 12:42

"The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here." — Matthew 12:42 (ASV)

The queen of the south. As Ethiopia lies in a southerly direction from Judea, I willingly concur with Josephus and other writers who assert that she was the queen of Ethiopia. In sacred history she is called the queen of Sheba, (2 Chronicles 9:1). We must not suppose this Sheba to be the country of Saba, which lay more toward the east, but a town situated in Meroe, an island on the Nile, which was the metropolis of the kingdom.

Here, too, we must pay attention to the points of contrast. A woman who had not been at all educated in the school of God was induced, by the desire for instruction, to come from a distant region to Solomon, an earthly king; while the Jews, who had been instructed in the divine law, reject their highest and only teacher, the Prince of all the prophets. The word condemn relates not to the persons, but to the fact itself and the example that it provides.