Word study
Assemble
6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: assembled, assemble. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “assemble” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אָסַף âsaphgather, removetranslated this way 21 times of its 193 uses · Strong’s H622Verb · Translated: gathered 56, gather 27, assembled 13, assemble 8Full study and all 183 verses →
Exodus 3:16 Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
Joshua 24:1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
- קָהַל qâhalassemble as a קָהָלtranslated this way 21 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H6950Verb · Translated: assembled 15, gathered 7, assemble 5, came together 4Full study and all 38 verses →
Exodus 35:1 Then Moses assembled the whole congregation of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do:
Leviticus 8:3 and assemble the whole congregation at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.”
- קָבַץ qâbatsgather, collecttranslated this way 19 times of its 126 uses · Strong’s H6908Verb · Translated: gather 42, gathered 25, assembled 10, assemble 9Full study and all 121 verses →
1 Kings 18:20 So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.
2 Kings 6:24 Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria.
- יָעַד yâadappointtranslated this way 4 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H3259Verb · Translated: meet 8, assembled 3, conspired 2, challenge 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Numbers 10:3 When both are sounded, the whole congregation is to assemble before you at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
1 Kings 8:5 There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
- כָּנַשׁ kânashgathertranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3673Verb · Translated: word to assemble 1, assembled 1, gathered around 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Daniel 3:2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other officials of the provinces to attend the dedication of the statue he had set up.
Daniel 3:3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.
- פָּקַד pâqadattend to, visit, muster, appointtranslated this way 2 times of its 294 uses · Strong’s H6485Verb · Translated: punish 41, numbered 26, appointed 15, counted 14Full study and all 267 verses →
1 Kings 20:15 So Ahab assembled the young officers of the district governors, and there were 232 men. And after them, he assembled the rest of the Israelite troops, 7,000 in all.
Greek words (New Testament)
- συνάγω synágōI gather togethertranslated this way 11 times of its 59 uses · Strong’s G4863Verb · Translated: gathered 14, gather 11, assembled 9, met 3Full study and all 59 verses →
Matthew 2:4 And when he had assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
Acts 4:5 The next day the rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,
- συνέρχομαι synérchomaiI come or go with, accompany, assembletranslated this way 2 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s G4905Verb · Translated: come together 6, accompanied 5, gathered 4, came together 3Full study and all 30 verses →
Mark 14:53 They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and scribes assembled.
Acts 22:30 The next day the commander, wanting to learn the real reason Paul was accused by the Jews, released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.