[110] צבאות יהוה: 1 Sam. i. 3; iv. 4; xvii. 45, where it is explained by the parallel phrase _God of the armies of Israel_; 2 Sam. vi. 2, where it is connected with Israel's battle emblem, the Ark (cf. Jer. xxii. 18); and so throughout Samuel and Kings, and also Chronicles, the Psalms, and most prophets. The plural צבאות is never used in the Old Testament except of human hosts, and generally of the armies or hosts of Israel. The theory therefore which sees the same meaning in the Divine title is probably the correct one. It was first put forward by Herder (_Geist der Eb. Poesie_, ii. 84, 85), and after some neglect it has been revived by Kautzsch (_Z. A. T. W._, vi. ff.) and Stade (_Gesch._, i. 437, _n._ 3). The alternatives are that the hosts originally meant those of heaven, either the angels (so, among others, Ewald, _Hist._, Eng. Ed., iii. 62) or the stars (so Delitzsch, Kuenen, Baudissin, Cheyne, _Prophecies of Isaiah_, i. 11). In the former of these two there is some force; but the reason given for the latter, that the name came to the front in Israel when the people were being drawn into connection with star-worshipping nations, especially Aram, seems to me baseless. Israel had not been long in touch with Aram in Saul's time, yet even then the name is accepted as if one of much earlier origin. A clear account of the argument on the other side to that taken in this note will be found in Smend, _Altiestamentliche Religionsgeschichte_, pp. 185 ff. [111] See below, Chap. XI. _AMOS_ "Towers in the distance, like an earth-born Atlas ... such a man in such a historical position, standing on the confines of light and darkness, like day on the misty mountain-tops." CHAPTER V _THE BOOK OF AMOS_ The genuineness of the bulk of the Book of Amos is not doubted by any critic. The only passages suspected as interpolations are the three references to Judah, the three famous outbreaks in praise of the might of Jehovah the Creator, the final prospect of a hope that does not gleam in any other part of the book, with a few clauses alleged to reflect a stage of history later than that in which Amos worked.[112] In all, these verses amount to only twenty-six or twenty-seven out of one hundred and forty-six. Each of them can be discussed separately as we reach it, and we may now pass to consider the general course of the prophecy which is independent of them. The Book of Amos consists of Three Groups of Oracles, under one title, which is evidently meant to cover them all. The title runs as follows:-- _Words of 'Amoṣ--who was of the herdsmen of Teḳôa'--which he saw concerning Israel in the days of 'Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jarab'am son of Joash,_[113] _king of Israel: two years before the earthquake._ The Three Sections, with their contents, are as follows:--