Sabaoth

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

‘Lord of Sabaoth’ (i.e. ‘Lord of Hosts,’ יְהֹוָה צְבָאֹוח) is a common title for Jahweh in the prophets, with the exception of Hosea and Ezekiel. The appellation may not have originated with them, but they invested it with a deeper significance. What was the original meaning of the title is still a subject of dispute. Some take the ‘Hosts’ in question as the armies of Israel which Jahweh leads on to victory ( Judges 4:14), while others find an allusion to the stars, the host of heaven, or to the armies of angels (but it is contended that in the plural צְבָאוֹת is used only of earthly warriors). Whatever the original meaning of the phrase, it came afterwards to denote the all-controlling power of God, as represented by the rendering of the Septuagintκύριος παντοκράτωρ; cf.  2 Corinthians 6:18 (also κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων). Sometimes, however, the Septuagintrenders κύριος Σαβαώθ as in  Isaiah 1:9, which is reproduced verbatim from the Septuagintin  Romans 9:29. The only other instance of the use of the phrase in the NT is  James 5:4, where God is so named to suggest the awful majesty of the great Judge who will avenge the oppression of the poor. There are several instances in Rev. of the title made familiar by the Septuagint, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ, ‘Lord God Almighty.’

G. Wauchope Stewart.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Σαβαώθ (Strong'S #4519 — Noun — sabaoth — sab-ah-owth' )

is the transliteration of a Hebrew word which denotes "hosts" or "armies,"  Romans 9:29;  James 5:4 . While the word "hosts" probably had special reference to angels, the title "the Lord of hosts" became used to designate Him as the One who is supreme over all the innumerable hosts of spiritual agencies, or of what are described as "the armies of heaven." Eventually it was used as equivalent to "the Lord all-sovereign." In the prophetical books of the OT the Sept. sometimes has Kurios Sabaoth as the equivalent of "the LORD of hosts," sometimes Kurios Pantokrator, in Job, it uses Pantokrator to render the Hebrew Divine title Shadday (see Almighty

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

We meet with this word twice in the New testament. ( Romans 9:29 and  James 5:4) Perhaps the word might be more properly read Zabaoth, armies, from Tzaba, army, ( Jeremiah 11:20) And when joined to the incommunicable name of Jehovah it forms together that glorious title The Lord of hosts, or armies. And when we call to mind that the whole creation of God are his armies, what a sense of greatness and glory do such ideas awaken in the mind! It may serve in some measure to teach us the reverence Moses, the man of God, endeavoured to impress the children of Israel with when he proclaimed JEHOVAH under these characters—"that thou mayest fear (said Moses) this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God." ( Deuteronomy 28:58)

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Or rather Tsabaoth, hosts or armies. Jehovah Sabaoth is the Lord of Hosts; and we are to understand the word hosts in the most comprehensive sense, as including the host of heaven, the angels and minister of the Lord; the stars and planets, which, as an army ranged in battle array, perform the will of God; the armies of earth, whose conflicts his providence overrules to the accomplishment of his own wise designs; the hordes of inferior creatures, as the locusts that plagued Egypt, the quails that fed Israel, and "the canker-worm and the palmer-worm, his great army,"  Joel 2:15; and lastly, the people of the Lord, both of the old and new covenants, a truly great army, of which God is the general and commander,  2 Samuel 6:2   Psalm 24:10   Romans 9:29   James 5:4 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Sabaoth ( Săb'A- Ŏth or Sa-Bâ'Oth ), Hosts. The phrase "Lord of Sabaoth" occurs twice in the New Testament, in  Romans 9:29 and  James 5:4 It should not be mistaken as referring to the Sabbath. But it is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Tsebaoth, "hosts" or "armies," so often recurring in the Old Testament, "the Lord of Hosts,"  Isaiah 1:9, "the Lord God of Hosts," I.E., the heavenly bodies, the angels, or the people of God.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 1 Samuel 17:45 Sabaoth   1 Samuel 1:11 1 Samuel 4:4 1 Samuel 6:2 2 Samuel 6:2 Psalm 24:10 Psalm 89:8 Psalm 46:7 46:11 2 Samuel 5:10

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

or rather Zabaoth, a Hebrew word, signifying hosts or armies, יהוה צבאות , Jehovah Sabaoth, The Lord of Hosts. By this phrase we may understand the host of heaven, or the angels and ministers of the Lord; or the stars and planets, which, as an army ranged in battle array, perform the will of God; or, lastly, the people of the Lord, both of the old and new covenant, which is truly a great army, of which God is the Lord and commander.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Tsebha'oth   Romans 9:29 James 5:4 Revelation 4:8 Isaiah 6:3

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n. pl.) Armies; hosts.

(2): ( n. pl.) Incorrectly, the Sabbath.

King James Dictionary

SABAOTH, n. Armies a word used,  Romans 9:29 ,  James 5:4 , the Lord of Sabaoth.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

SABAOTH . See God, 2 ( h ), and Lord of Hosts.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See Hosts, Lord Of

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

[some Saba'oth] ( Σαβαώθ , a Graecized form of the Heb. Tsebaoth ',

צְבָאוֹת , Armies ), a word occurring in this form only in the A.V. in  Romans 9:29;  James 5:4; but in the Heb. of frequent occurrence in the phrase "Jehovah of hosts," or "Jehovah, God of hosts." "It is familiar through its occurrence in the Sanctus of the Te Deum , ‘ Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.' It is often considered to be a synonym of, or to have some connection with, Sabbath , and to express the idea of rest, and this not only popularly, but in some of our most classical writers. Thus Spenser, Faery Queene , canto 8, 2.

‘ But thenceforth all shall rest eternally

With him that is the God of Sabaoth hight:

O that great Sabaoth God, grant ire that Sabaoth's sight;'

also Bacon, Advancement of Learning, 2, 24: ‘ ... sacred and inspired divinity, the Sabaoth and port of all men's labors and peregrinations;' Johnson, in the first edition of whose Dictionary (1755) Sabaoth and Sabbath are treated as the same word; Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, vol. 1, ch. 11 (1st ed.): ‘ a week, aye the space between two Sabaoths.' But this connection is quite fictitious. The two words are not only entirely different, but have nothing in common." The Heb. term tsaba, צִבָא , signifies an army (see  Deuteronomy 24:5;  Exodus 6:26). The plural is used in the sense of armies ( Exodus 7:4, and often). The singular is sometimes applied to the company of angels which surround the throne of Jehovah, who are called צָבָא הִשָּׁמִיַ ם , Tsaba Hash - Shamayim , "the host of heaven." The same phrase is also applied to the stars, for the most part as objects of idolatrous worship; indeed, the expression appears to include everything in heaven, both angels and heavenly bodies. Isaiah uses the phrase צָבָאהִמָּרוֹ , Tsaba Ham - Marom , "the Host on High, "in opposition to the kings of the earth. God is called אֶלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת יְהוָֹה , Jehovah Elohey ' Tsebaoth , "Jehovah God of hosts," which most commentators regard as synonymous with "God of heaven" (see Zenkei De Synonymis צְבָאוֹת Et עֶלְיוֹן , Lips. 1763), though others assert that it should be taken in a military sense, as the God of armies or wars. "It designates him as the supreme head and commander of all the heavenly forces; so that the host of Jehovah is all one with the host of heaven ( 1 Kings 22:19), and must be understood strictly of the angels, who are ever represented as the Lord's immediate and fitting agents, ready on all occasions to execute his will ( Psalms 103:21;  Psalms 148:2). It is never applied to God with reference to the army of Israel. Once, indeed, the companies composing this are called the hosts of the Lord' ( Exodus 12:41), because they were under his direction and guardianship; but when employed with the view of heightening the idea of God's greatness and majesty, as the term ‘ hosts' is in the phrases in question, the hosts can only be those of the angelic or heavenly world" (see Gesenius, Thesaur. s.v.)' (See Host).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sab´ā́ - oth , sa - bā´oth . See God , Names Of , III., 8.; Lord Of Hosts .

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Name given in the Bible, and particularly in the Epistle of James, to the Divine Being as the Lord of all hosts or kinds of creatures.