'Hosts' in the Bible
“Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,”Says the Lord God, the God of hosts,
For behold, He who forms the mountains and creates the windAnd declares to man what are His thoughts,He who makes the dawn into darknessAnd treads on the heights of the earth—The Lord God of hosts is His name.
Seek (long for, require) good and not evil, that you may live;And so may the Lord God of hosts be with you,Just as you have said!
Hate evil and love good,And establish justice in the [court of the city] gate.Perhaps the Lord God of hostsWill be gracious to the remnant of Joseph [that is, those who remain after God’s judgment].
Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,“There is wailing in all the public plazas,And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’And they call the farmers to mourning [for those who have died]And professional mourners to wailing.
Therefore, I will send you to go into exile far beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
The Lord God has sworn [an oath] by Himself—the Lord God of hosts, says:“I loathe and reject the [self-centered] arrogance of Jacob (Israel),And I hate his palaces and citadels;Therefore, I shall hand over the [idolatrous] city [of Samaria] with all that it contains [to the Assyrian invaders].”
“For behold, I am going to stir up a nation against you,O house of Israel,” says the Lord, the God of hosts,“And they will afflict and torment you [to the entire limits of Israel] from the entrance of Hamath [in the north]To the brook of the Arabah [in the south].”
The Lord God of hosts [the Omnipotent Ruler],It is He who touches the earth [in judgment] and it melts,And all who dwell on it mourn [in despair and fear],And all of it rises up like the NileAnd subsides like the Nile of Egypt;