Heavenly host (Hebrew Sabaoth "armies") refers to a large army (Luk.2:13; Rev.19:19) of good angels mentioned in the Bible and other Jewish and Christian texts.
It is led either by an unspecified Angel of the Lord, by the Archangel Michael, Jesus, or by God Himself. Most descriptions of angels in the Bible describe them in military terms, such as encampment (Gen.32:1-2), command structure (Ps.91:11-12; Matt.13:41; Rev.7:2), and combat (Jdg.5:20; Job 19:12; Rev.12:7). Its specific hierarchy differs slightly from the Hierarchy of Angels as it surrounds more military services, whereas the Hierarchy of angels is a division of angels into non-military services to God. The heavenly host participate in the War in Heaven and, according to some interpretations, will battle Satan and Satan's own army at the End of Days and be victorious.
Read more about Heavenly Host: Angelic Combat, In The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Baha'i, In Literature
Famous quotes containing the words heavenly and/or host:
“O sweet everlasting Voices, be still;
Go to the guards of the heavenly fold
And bid them wander obeying your will,
Flame under flame, till Time be no more....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)