ARMIES — the plural in the divine title YHWH TZEVA'OT, 'Jehovah of Armies,' which makes its FIRST appearance in the Bible at 1 Samuel 1:3, on the lips of Elkanah's family at Shiloh. The 'armies' are the armies of heaven and earth, the whole marshaled power of creation, of which Jehovah is commander. ⚠ English tradition renders this 'Jehovah of HOSTS' — 'host' once meant exactly 'army' (the word survives in that sense in 'hostile' and 'hostage'), but ordinary modern English has let the meaning drift almost entirely away, leaving a reader more likely to hear 'a large quantity' or even 'one who hosts a gathering' than 'commander of armed troops.' This translation follows NWT's own 2013 revision ('Jehovah of Armies') on the same reasoning behind every other place this project prefers a plainer word to a fossilized one: tsava itself never grew vague — only the English gloss for it did. The title then rings through the prophets and the Psalms as the name of the God who fights for his people — and it enters, fittingly, at a sanctuary, in an act of worship. → first discussed at 1 Samuel 1:3