Translation
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel;
Go to footnote numberthey were praising God, saying,
Paraphrase
And suddenly there was a vast number of God’s army present alongside the first messenger; they were praising God, by saying,
Footnotes
1
We are only told that these additional angels were “with” the first angel. Most depictions of the scene show them in the sky, but that is a detail not found in the text. They could have been behind the angel, all around the group, or anywhere else. Behind the angel would make the most sense because such a position would have served as a confirmation of the message that had just been delivered. The shepherds were given a message, they were told of something they could go look for which would confirm the message, and then they were given many thousands of additional confirmations all at once in the form of this vast host of angels who were praising God for what He had just done.