Host Of Heaven

VIEW:36 DATA:01-04-2020

HOST OF HEAVEN.?The phrase ?host (or army) of heaven? occurs in OT in two apparently different senses?referring (1) to stars, (2) to angels.
1. The ?host of heaven? is mentioned as the object of idolatrous worship; it is frequently coupled with ?sun and moon,? the stars being obviously meant; where ?sun and moon? are not specifically mentioned, the phrase may be used as including them as well. Deu_4:19 speaks of this worship as a special temptation to Israel; it has been appointed or allotted to all the peoples,? i.e. the heathen, and is absolutely inconsistent with the worship of J″; the penalty is stoning (Deu_17:3). The references to it suggest that it became prominent in Israel in the 7th cent. B.C., when Manasseh introduced it into the Temple (2Ki_21:5); its abolition was part of Josiah?s reform (2Ki_23:4-5; 2Ki_23:12). The mention, in the last verse, of ?the altars which were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz? suggests that the worship was, in fact, older than the reign of Manasseh, and had been practised by Ahaz; it was carried on upon the roofs of houses (Jer_19:13, Zep_1:5), so that 2Ki_23:12 may well refer to it. Isa_17:8 mentions ?sun-pillars? as characteristic of the idolatry of the reign of Ahaz (unless the words are a later addition), and there are possible traces of nature-worship in earlier periods in Amo_5:26, and in the names Beth-shemesh, Jericho, which suggest sun- and moon-worship. 2Ki_17:16, which speaks of the worship of the host of heaven as prevalent in the Northern Kingdom, is a ?Deuteronomic? passage, which can hardly be pressed historically. Whilst, then, there are early traces of nature-worship, the systematized idolatry of ?the host of heaven ?belongs to the period of special Assyrian and Babylonian influence; astrology and kindred beliefs were characteristic of the religions of these countries.
The phrase is used in other contexts of the stars as the armies of J″, innumerable, ordered, and obedient (Gen_2:1, Psa_33:6, Isa_34:4; Isa_45:12, Jer_33:22). Isa_40:26 (?bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name?) comes very near to a personification. In Dan_8:10 we read of the assault of the ?little horn? on the ?host of heaven? and their ?prince.? This may be only a hyperbolical expression for blasphemous pride, but it strongly suggests the influence of the Babylonian ?dragon myth,? In which heaven itself was stormed; cf. Rev_12:4; Rev_13:6, where the Beast blasphemes God, His tabernacles, and them that dwell in heaven; i.e. the angelic host (so Bousset), at least in the idea underlying the conception. Hence in Dan_8:10 we are probably right in seeing a reference to the stars regarded as animate warriors of J″, their ?captain?; cf. the poetical passages Jdg_5:20 (the stars in their courses fighting against Sisera) and Job_38:7 (the morning stars, coupled with the ?sons of God,? singing for joy); in these passages it remains a question how far the personification is merely a poetic figure, it is at least possible that a more literally conceived idea lies behind them. in is Job_24:21 we read of the ?host of the height? (?high ones on high?), whom J″ shall punish in the Day of Judgment, together with the kings of the earth. The passage, the date of which is very doubtful, is strongly eschatological, and the phrase must refer to supramundane foes of J″, whether stars or angels; again, a reference to the dragon myth is very possible.
2. Passages such as these lead to the consideration of others where ?host of heaven?=?angels.? The chief is 1Ki_22:19 (Micaiah?s vision); cf. Psa_103:21, Luk_2:13. Though this actual phrase is not often used, the attendant ministers of J″ are often spoken of as an organized army (Gen_32:2, Jos_5:14, 2Ki_6:17, Job_25:3). Cf. in this connexion the title ?Lord of hosts (Sabaoth),? which, though it may have been used originally of J″ as the leader of the armies of Israel, admittedly came to be used of Him as ruler of the celestial hosts (see Lord of Hosts). There are passages where the phrase ?host of heaven? is ambiguous, and may refer either to stars or to angels (Dan_4:35, Neh_9:6, Psa_148:2 [where it connects angels and sun, moon, and stars]).
3. It remains to consider the connexion between the two uses of the phrase. It has been supposed by some to be purely verbal, stars and angels being independently compared to an army; or it has been suggested that the stars were ?the visible image? of the host of angels. But a study of the passages quoted above will probably lead to the conclusion that the connexion is closer. The idolaters evidently regarded the stars as animate; prophets and poets seem to do so too. When this is done, it lies very near at hand to identify them with, or at least assimilate them to, the angels. In the ancient myths and folklore, the traces of which in the Bible are increasingly recognized, stars and angels play a large part, and the conception of the two is not kept distinct. Later thought tended to identify them (Enoch 18:12, 21:1 etc., Rev_9:1; Rev_9:11; cf. Isa_14:12, Luk_10:18). Hence the one use of the phrase ?host of heaven? ran naturally into the other, and it seems impossible to draw a sharp line of distinction between the two. As we have seen, there are passages where it is ambiguous, or where it seems to imply the personification of the stars, i.e. their practical identification with angels. While there is no reason why the spiritual teachers of Israel should not have countenanced this belief at a certain stage and to a certain point, and should not have adopted in a modified form the eschatology in which it figured, it is of course clear that the conception was kept free from its grosser and superstitious features. Whatever it may have been in the popular mind, to them it is little more than a metaphor, and nothing either distantly resembling the fear or the worship of the stars receives any countenance in their teaching. It is, however, worth while insisting on the full force of their language as affording a key to the reconstruction of the popular beliefs which seem to lie behind it. It should be noted that Wis_13:2 protests against any idea that the heavenly bodies are animate, and it has been suggested that Ezekiel?s avoidance of the phrase ?Lord of hosts? may be due to a fear of seeming to lend any countenance to star-worship.
C. W. Emmet.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Host of Heaven
(צְבָא הִשָּׁמִיַם, tseba' hashssama'yim, army of the skies), in Gen_2:1, refers to the sun, moon, and stars, as the host of heaven under the symbol of an army, in which the sun is considered as the king, the moon as his vicegerent, the stars and planets as their attendants, and the constellations as the battalions and squadrons of the army drawn up in order, that they may come with their leaders to execute the designs and commands of the sovereign. According to this notion, it is said in the song of Deborah, “The stars in their courses fought against Sisera” (Jdg_5:20). The worship of the host of heaven was one of the earliest forms of idolatry (q.v.), and, from finding it frequently reprobated in the Scriptures, we may conclude that it was very common among the Jews in the days of their declension from the pure service of God (Deu_4:19; 2Ki_17:16; 2Ki_21:3; 2Ki_21:5; 2Ki_23:5; Jer_19:13; Zep_1:5; Act_7:42). SEE HEAVEN.
In the book of Daniel it is said, “And it (the little horn) waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them” (Dan_8:10-11). This doubtless points to the aspiring nature and usurping power of Antiochus Epiphanes, who in 2Ma_9:10 is described as the man who thought he could reach to the stars of heaven; which, from Isa_14:13; Isa_24:21, may be understood to signify the rulers, both civil and ecclesiastical, among the Jews. The priests and Levites, like the angels, were continually Waiting on the service of the King of heaven in the Temple, as of old in the tabernacle (Num_8:24), and these were that part of the host, or the holy people, that were thrown down and trampled upon; for Antiochus overthrew some of the most celebrated luminaries among the leaders of the Jewish people, and reduced them to the lowest degradation. Spencer, in his treatise De Legibus Heb. bk. 1, ch. 4 p. 202, takes notice that the Scripture often borrows expressions from military affairs to accommodate itself to the use of the tabernacle, and hence is the frequent use of the term “host.” The host of heaven and the prince of the host he thinks must refer to the body of the priests, who exercised the offices of their warfare under the standards of the Deity. SEE LITTLE HORN.
A very frequent epithet of Jehovah is “Jehovah God of hosts,” i.e. of the celestial armies; generally rendered “Lord God of hosts” (Jer_5:14; Jer_38:17; Jer_44:7; Hos_12:5; Amo_3:13; Psa_59:5; Psa_80:4; Psa_80:7; Psa_80:14). This is a very usual appellation of the Most High God in some of the prophetical and other books, especially in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi; but does not occur in the Pentateuch, in the books of Joshua and Judges, nor in Ezekiel, Job, and the writings of Solomon. The Hebrew word “Sabaoth,” i.e. hosts, is used by the apostles Paul and James (Rom_9:29; Jam_5:4), and is retained untranslated in the English Version. As to the grammatical construction of Jehovah of hosts, some suppose it to be by ellipsis for Jehovah God of hosts; Gesenias says this is not necessary, and the Arabs, too, subjoin in like manner a genitive of attribute to the proper names of persons, as Antara, of the horse, q. d. Antara, chief of the horse. So, too, in the construction God of-hosts, the word hosts may be taken as an attribute, which could be put in apposition with the names of God. The hosts thus signified in Jehovah of hosts can hardly be doubtful if we compare the expressions host and hosts of Jehovah (Jos_5:14-15; Psa_103:21; Psa_148:2), which, again, do not differ from host of heaven, embracing both angels, and the sun, moon, and stars (Gen_32:1-2; Deu_4:19). The phrase Jehovah of hosts, therefore, differs little from the latter form, God of heaven, and Jehovah God of heaven (Gen_24:7; 2Ch_36:23; Job_15:15; Ezr_1:2; Ezr_5:11-12; Ezr_6:9-10; Neh_1:4-5; Neh_2:4; Neh_2:20; Psa_136:26; Joh_1:9; Dan_2:18; Dan_2:37; Rev_11:13). SEE SABAOTH.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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