[3] This title of Jehovah, with some variations, is found upwards of 160 times in the Old Testament. The meaning of the word _hosts_ is doubtless the same as that of _army_ in Dan. iv. 35, and includes all the myriads of holy angels who people the celestial spheres, as in 1 Kings xxii. 19 the host of heaven were seen by Micaiah standing round the throne of God. So in Ps. ciii. 21, cxlviii. 2, the hosts of God are His angels. (Comp. Deut. xxxiii. 2.) By a light metonymy, or may be in a slightly different sense, _the host of heaven_ designates the heavenly spheres themselves (Gen. ii. 1; Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3; Isa. xxxiv. 4, &c.). It is probably with reference to the idolatrous worship of the host of heaven that the title of _the Lord of hosts_ was given to the true God, as asserting His universal supremacy. (See Neh. ix. 6.) In the New Testament, the phrase occurs only once, James v. 4, _the Lord of Sabaoth._ In Rom. ix. 29, it is a quotation from Isaiah.--_Professor Rawlinson._ [4] Sin has already served, as all things must, to bring into view more clearly the glory of God, for had there been no sin there could have been no mercy; and in its punishment, its overthrow, and its extirpation, His glory will be yet more signally displayed. Hercules could never have been deified, if there had been no monsters to overcome. True is the seraph's song even now, but it shall be more manifestly and gloriously true in that day, so surely and swiftly drawing nigh, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies unto Him, and God shall be All in all.--_R. A. B._ The vision reaches its highest point in the cry, _Holy, holy, holy!_ It is the holiness of God which the seraphim proclaim, that which cannot be represented to the eye, that of which descriptions and symbols furnish no image. It is that holiness which fills not the heaven of heavens only but the whole earth, _seeing that was made very good, seeing that in its order and constitution it was still perfectly good,_ though man defiled it by their deeds, though the habitations of cruelty were set upon the midst of it.--_F. D. Maurice._ [5] The voice of the seraphim at this time was so loud and melodious, and the power of their heavenly music was so great, when extolling the holiness and glory of Jehovah that the posts, with the lintel of the door of the temple, seemed to tremble, to be shaken in the place where they stood, or loosed from their place. This was a very surprising effect (though seen only in vision); for these posts were so large and strong, that they supported gates of brass which are said to have required twenty men to shut them, on account of their ponderous weight.--_Macculloch._