The expression (2) denotes the stars aa witness- ing, in virtue of their itpparently cmmtless numbers, and the order and regularity of their appearance, to J'"s creative and administrative power. So Jer 33-'^ (as innumerable). Is 34* (as dependent for their existence u[pun J'"s will, and so as nioulderin" away in the day of His wrath); and 'their host in Is 40^ (' that brinfreth out their host by number ; he calleth thcni all byname . . . not one is lack- ing'), 45" (' I have stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded '), Ps 33', Gn 2' (where ' their host ' is referred to ' earth ' only zeugmatically), Neh 9** ('thou bast made heaven, the neaven of heavens, and all their host '). The expression also denotes the stars in Dn 8'" (as audaciously assailed by the ' little horn ' [ Antiochus Epiphaues]), God bemg (v.") their 'captain' or 'prince.'
B. ' Host of heaven ' denotes celestial beings in attendance upon J", in IK 22"'=2 Ch IS'" (Micaiah's vision), and Neh 9"'' ; probably in Dn 4S6|3-'i (where the Aram. S:n is the word which in the Targ. regularly corresponds to Kjst in this ex- pression): and so also in Lk 2". 'All ye his hosts' in Ps 103-', and 'all his host' (Kere, 'liosts') in Ps 148', are meant, probably, in the same sense. J^s celestial attendants are alluded to frequently else- where, though not under this name, as Ps 29^ 89°', Is 6, Job 1« 2' 5' 15" 21"'> 3S', Dn 7'" (see further Angel, vol. i. p. 95) ; and the term ' host ' desig- nates them, like the stars, as an organized body. For passages in which they are spoken of in terms suggestive of an army, see Gn 32- (a ' camp'), Jos 6"f- ('captain of J'"s host'), 2 K 6", Ps 103™, and Jl 3(4)" ('mighty ones,' or warriors). Job 25' ('troops' or ' bands').
An ambiguous position is taken by Is 24-', where mention is made of the ' host of the height' (sc. of heaven), whom J" will 'visit' (punish) in the day of judgment on the world which the (post-exilic) prophet depicts. This expression is understood by Delitzsch to refer to angels (the allusion being taken to be to a germinal form of the doctrine, which was afterwards more fully developed, of patron- angels, presiding over the different nations of tlie earth) ;5: but others (as Oebler, AT Theol. § 196; Schultz, OT Theol. ii. 228; Baudissin, Sent. Eel.- gesch. i. 121-123; Dillm., Duhm, Cheyne;§ cf. LXX) think the stars are intended.
The question arises, in what relation these two senses of the expression ' host of heaven ' stand to- wards each other. Of course the connexion may be a merely verbal one : angels and stars were equally pictured by the Hebrews as forming a ' host ' ; both belonged to the heavens ; and both were accordingly called independently by the same name. Nevertheless, it is the opinion of many scholars that the connexion between the two senses is closer than this. Ewald (Lehre von Gott, ii. 294 f. ) suggested that the stars were regarded as the ' visible image,' or counterpart, of the host, or army, of angels, by which J" was conceived to be surrounded. Staue (Gesch. ii. 236-238) supposes that the divinities, whom the heathen nations, and the unspiritual Israelites, supposed to inhabit
• For Manasseh, see Schrader, KA T"' on 2 K 211.
f Forotheralliisiona to the worship of heavenly bodies (though not of the ' host of heaven,' as such) in the same age, see Jer fi" 44i» (above, voL 1. p. 169i> note), Ezk 8'6 : ct. also Oater) Job 81»'.
t Cf. Smend, ZA W, 1S84, p. 200 (gods of the heathen).
§ In SHOT p. 205 ('astral spirits'); ct. Introd. to Is. 70, 151 (In his Camm. be explained, with Hitzig, of stare and angels together).
the heavenly bodies, and whom they venerated accordingly, were harmonized with monotheism by being incorporated into the ranks of the angels, as subjects of the supreme God: the 'host of heaven,' originally denoting these divinities, be- came thus the name for the countless ministers of the heavenly King. Others remind us that the stars, moving (as it seemed) in the heaven with surprising order and regularity, were regarded liy the GrKcks and other ancient nations as aniiiwite beings;* and suppose that this facilitated tlifir being called by the same name as angels. Thus Montefiore {Hibb. Led. 429) writes : ' The stars, to the Jews, no less than to the Greeks, animate beings, become a portion of the heavenly host whitli attended Yahweh on high ' ; cf. Baudissin, I.e. p. 120 (Hebrew popular belief regarded the stars as animated beings, similar to angels). In estimating this last view, it should, however, be remembered that there is no passage in the OT which actually speaks of the stars as animated, or distinctly identities them with angels ; for the poetical passage in Jg 5™ (the stars from tlieir courses fightiufj against Sisera) is no evidence of the former belief ; and the fact that in Job 38' 'morning stars' stand in poetical parallelism with ' sons of God ' does not prove that tlie poet treated them as identical. No doubt, in a later a"e, the stars were treated as conscious beings, and even sometimes identified with angels (as Enoch 18'-"" 21'"', where seven stars are represented as bound in a prison-house of fire, for disobedience in not rising at their appointed time, just as angels them- selves are in 21'"''^ ; and Kev 9'- ", where the star which falls from heaven and receives the key of the abyss, is called the ' angel ' of the abyss) : but it is a question how much sucli passages prove for the beliefs of the 8th or 7th centuries B.C. Our knowledge of the origin and history of the expres- sion ' host of heaven ' is too imperfect to enable us to pronounce with any confidence upon these theories; but, so far as we can judge (1 K 22'^), it seems to have been first applied to denote angelic beings. Whether its application afterwards to the stars was connected merely verbally with this usage, or whether it was facilitated by one or other of the considerations just alluded to, cannot be definitelj' determined ; at the same time, we may at least agree (cf. above, vol. i. p. 95'') that the movements and appearance of the stars may well have suggested to the Hebrews, as they did to other ancient nations, the idea that they were animated, and that hence a tendency may have arisen — though how far it was consistently carried out we do not know — to place them in the same class, or even to identify them, with angels, who also formed an order of heavenly beings, regarded by the Hebrews aa in a special degree the ministers and instruments of Divine Providence (cf. Dillm. AT Theol. .•520). S. R. DRIVER.