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means “military service”: “Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of
Israel … from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in
Israel.…” The idea is more concrete in Josh. 22:12, where the word represents serving in
a military campaign: “And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation
of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go to war against
them.” Num. 31:14 uses
of the actual battling itself: “And Moses was wroth with
the officers of the [army], … which came from the battle.”
The word can also represent an “army host”: “And Eleazer the priest said unto the
men of war which went to the battle …” (Num. 31:21). Even clearer is Num. 31:48: “And
the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and
captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses.“This meaning first appears in Gen. 21:22,
which mentions Phichol, the captain of Abimelech’s “army.” At several points this is the
meaning of the feminine plural: “And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of
speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people”
(Deut. 20:9). In Num. 1, 2, and 10, where
occurs with regard to a census of Israel,
it is suggested that this was a military census by which God organized His “army” to
march through the wilderness. Some scholars have noted that the plan of the march, or
the positioning of the tribes, recalls the way ancient armies were positioned during
military campaigns. On the other hand, groupings of people might be indicated regardless
of military implications, as seems to be the case in passages such as Exod. 6:26: “These
are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, Bring out the children of Israel from
the land of Egypt according to their armies.”
That
can refer to a “nonmilitary host” is especially clear in Ps. 68:11: “The
Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.” The phrase “hosts
of heaven” signifies the stars as visual indications of the gods of the heathen: “And them
that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear
by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham …” (Zeph. 1:5). This meaning first appears in
Deut. 4:19. Sometimes this phrase refers to the “host of heaven,” or the angels: “And
[Micaiah] said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his
throne, and all the host of heaven [the angels] standing by him on his right hand and on
his left” (1 Kings 22:19). God Himself is the commander of this “host” (Dan. 8:10-11). In
Josh. 6:14 the commander of the “host” of God confronted Joshua. This heavenly “host”
not only worships God but serves to do all His will: “Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts;
ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure” (Ps. 103:21).
Another meaning of the phrase “the host(s) of heaven” is simply “the numberless
stars”: “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured:
so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me”
(Jer. 33:22). This phrase can include all the heavenly bodies, as it does in Ps. 33:6: “By
the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his
mouth.” In Gen. 2:1
includes the heavens, the earth, and everything in the creation:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”
The meaning “nonmilitary service in behalf of a superior” emerges in Num. 4:2-3:
“Take the sum of the sons of Kohath … from thirty years old and upward even until fifty
years old, all that enter [the service], to do the work in the tabernacle of the
congregation.” In Job 7:1 the word represents the burdensome everyday “toil” of