Lord of Sabaoth

Sabaoth is a Hebrew word meaning “hosts” or “armies.” It comes from a root word usually translated as “assembled for war” or “fought,” though it is occasionally translated as “assembled for a service.” The divine epithet “Lord of Sabaoth” or “Lord of Hosts” is the most common designation for God in the Old Testament, attested some 285 times (New, 3:687). Interestingly, the phrase is absent from Genesis through Joshua even though the Lord was well-known as “a man of war” (Exodus 15:3) after he explicitly and definitively defeated the Egyptian armies who came seeking Israel after the flight from Egypt (Exodus 14:27, 30). Most of the occurrences of the phrase “Lord of Hosts [Sabaoth]” are found in the prophetic books. Many passages directly connect “Lord of hosts” with Jehovah, noting that “the Lord of hosts is his name” (Isaiah 47:4; 48:2; 51:15; 54:5; Jeremiah 10:16; 31:35; Amos 5:27; and others).

Most often the phrase either implies or states Jehovah’s role as commander of the armies of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45), but the phrase can also refer to his role as leader of unseen hosts. Indeed, much of the Old Testament demonstrates that Jehovah fights Israel’s battles for them or that he delivers their enemies into their hands when they hearken to his voice (Judges 1:2, 4; 2:20–23). Joshua directly encountered Jehovah during the Israelite conquest, where he is called “captain of the host of the Lord” (Joshua 5:14). Just as the Lord promised he would fight Israel’s battles in ancient times (2 Chronicles 20:17; 32:8), so too in the latter days the Lord has promised he will fight battles on behalf of his people if they are righteous (D&C 98:37–39). It has been prophesied that in the future the Lord will fight against and conquer those nations that rise up against the remnant of Israel or Judah in the last great battle known as Armageddon (Zechariah 14:3; Revelation 16:14; 20:8).

“Lord of hosts” is also a common epithet of God used in restoration scripture, with over fifty attestations in the Book of Mormon, and twelve in the Doctrine and Covenants. In four other instances in the Doctrine and Covenants, the actual transliterated Hebrew term, Sabaoth, is used: “Lord of Sabaoth.” Two of these references occur in sections where war is the main focus (D&C 87:7; 98:2). The other two seem to use the term in its less-often attested meaning, which refers to an assemblage of heavenly beings, as in Doctrine and Covenants 88:2. In Doctrine and Covenants 95:7 (“Lord of Sabaoth, which is by interpretation, the creator of the first day, the beginning and the end”), the term Sabaoth may imply the “hosts” of elements that are being organized to form the universe and its myriad creations.

Source

The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. 5 vols. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2006–9.

ACS