Hebrew: \u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05d5\u05b8\u05d4 \u05e6\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05d0\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea (Yahweh Tsebaoth<\/em>)
English: lord<\/font> of hosts, lord<\/font> of Heaven’s Armies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The title Yahweh Tsebaoth<\/em> occurs around 250 times in the Old Testament, mostly in the prophetic literature. The expression may be familiar to many with a church background because of its appearance in the second verse of the well-known hymn by Martin Luther A Mighty Fortress<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God’s own choosing.
You ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth<\/mark> his name,
from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The King James Version (KJV) rendered this title \u201cLord<\/font> of hosts.\u201d This rendering has been followed by a number of translations, including the ESV, NASB (1995), HCSB, NRSV, and NKJV. But what does \u201cLord<\/font> of hosts\u201d mean? Today, the English word \u201chost\u201d can have numerous connotations, from someone who seats you at a restaurant, to someone who\u2019s running a Zoom meeting, to someone who facilitates your stay at an Airbnb. Some readers may recognize that \u201chost\u201d can sometimes mean \u201ca large number,\u201d but a large number of what?<\/p>\n\n\n
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The Hebrew term tsebaoth<\/em> (sometimes rendered sabaoth<\/em>) is a plural form of the noun tsaba<\/em>, which is a military term referring to a group that is organized for battle (i.e., what we might call an army). For example, in Numbers 1, Moses and Aaron are assigned the task of numbering all those in the community of Israel who are able to go to war, the tsebaoth<\/em> (the \u201ctroops\u201d or \u201carmy\u201d). Hence, the title Yahweh Tsebaoth<\/em> conveys the notion that God is the Lord of armies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That could simply mean that God is sovereign over any human army that might form. Indeed, the Old Testament frequently alludes to the fact that God orchestrates human armies to serve his purposes (for example, using Assyria or Babylon for his judgment on other nations). However, he is also Lord over the supernatural realm as well, including having command over a vast angelic army. We see hints of this in Scripture. For example, in 2 Kings 6, we read about Elisha the prophet being pursued by an Aramean army. When Elisha\u2019s servant expresses hopelessness, Elisha prays for the man\u2019s eyes to be opened, and he then sees a vast army of horses and chariots of fire. When Jesus commands Peter to put away his sword in Gethsemane, he states, \u201cDon\u2019t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?\u201d (Matthew 26:53). And in the book of Revelation, there are many references to the Lord\u2019s armies, ready to do battle against the cosmic forces of evil.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The widespread use of the title Yahweh Tsebaoth<\/em> in the Old Testament seems to point to this aspect of God\u2019s sovereignty\u2014the command of angelic armies. As such, the NLT translators have rendered the title \u201c Lord<\/font> of Heaven\u2019s Armies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly, some other major translations have moved away from the language \u201cLord<\/font> of hosts.\u201d The CSB uses \u201cLord<\/font> of Armies,\u201d and the updated NASB (2020) uses \u201cLord<\/font> of armies.\u201d The NIV goes with a more general \u201cLord<\/font> Almighty,\u201d aligning well with the approach of the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament), which often translates Tsebaoth<\/em> with pantokrat\u014dr<\/em> (\u201calmighty\u201d or \u201call-powerful\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NLT has rendered the title in a way that accurately reflects the meaning in its ancient context in a way that readers today can understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May we keep in mind that God is sovereign over what we currently see and also over forces that we cannot see. What an astonishing reality that this God cares about each of us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hebrew: \u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05d5\u05b8\u05d4 \u05e6\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05d0\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea (Yahweh Tsebaoth)English: lord of hosts, lord of Heaven’s Armies By Jonathan W. Bryant, PhD, Senior Editor, Tyndale Bibles The title Yahweh Tsebaoth occurs around 250 times in the Old Testament, mostly in the prophetic literature. The expression may be familiar to many with a church background because of its appearance in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6445,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438\/revisions\/6445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}