To grasp , i.e. collect
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
H6908, qāḇaṣ, is a Hebrew verb for bringing people or things together, collecting what is dispersed, assembling a group, or describing people who come together. Biblical uses include active, passive, and reflexive forms across ordinary administration, public assembly, war, worship, exile, restoration, shepherd care, and judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for קָבַץ (H6908) · Open the biblical lexicon
H6908, qāḇaṣ, is a Hebrew verb for bringing people or things together, collecting what is dispersed, assembling a group, or describing people who come together. Biblical uses include active, passive, and reflexive forms across ordinary administration, public assembly, war, worship, exile, restoration, shepherd care, and judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 127 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include gathered (9), I will gather (8), and gather (6), assembled (6), Gather (5).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 41:35. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (20), Ezekiel (16), 2 Chronicles (11), 1 Samuel (10).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
H6908, qāḇaṣ, is a Hebrew verb for bringing people or things together, collecting what is dispersed, assembling a group, or describing people who come together. Biblical uses include active, passive, and reflexive forms across ordinary administration, public assembly, war, worship, exile, restoration, shepherd care, and judgment. The verb names movement or collection; it does not by itself say that the gathering is holy, safe, voluntary, or permanent.
In Genesis 41, the word concerns food collected and stored against famine. Samuel orders Israel to gather at Mizpah so he may pray for them, while Deuteronomy promises that the Lord will gather His people from the nations to which He scattered them. Isaiah's shepherd image brings lambs into the Lord's arms. These passages show that the object, gatherer, destination, and stated purpose establish whether the scene concerns material stewardship, communal response, covenant restoration, or tender protection.
The lexeme can participate in these themes, but it does not carry all of them into every occurrence. The same word can describe armies rallying, nations being assembled, or people gathered like metals into a furnace under divine judgment. A gathered crowd is therefore not automatically God's congregation, and a leader's ability to assemble people is not proof of divine approval.
H6908 differs from nouns naming an assembly and from H622, which also ranges into receiving, removal, sheltering, and being gathered in death. Pastoral teaching should test who gathers, what or whom is gathered, by what means, toward what place, and for whose good. God's restorative gathering gives hope to the scattered, but the word must never sanctify coercive recruitment, forced return to unsafe relationships, ethnic boasting, or control disguised as community.
H6908 ranges from collecting material goods and assembling people to divine regathering, shepherd-like care, hostile mobilization, and gathering for judgment. Moral and theological force comes from the gatherer, object, destination, means, and purpose.
Under the authority of Pharaoh, let them collect all the excess food from these good years, that they may come and lay up the grain to be preserved as food in the cities.
The object is excess food and the destination is city storage under Pharaoh's administration; the verb describes practical collection for later preservation.
Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord on your behalf.”
Samuel directs Israel to Mizpah and states intercession as the purpose; the chapter's repentance narrative supplies the gathering's religious significance.
Then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the Lord your God has scattered you.
The Lord reverses scattering with compassionate regathering after covenant return, with divine agency and international dispersion explicit in the chapter.
He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.
The gathered objects are lambs and the destination is the shepherd's arms; protection and tenderness arise from the image and neighboring verbs.
Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you.
The same verb names a punitive gathering into a furnace, and the anger, wrath, and melting comparison establish judgment rather than welcome.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Gather with force or intentionality; physically collect or bring dispersed items/people into unified assembly.
Gather with force or intentionality; physically collect or bring dispersed items/people into unified assembly.
to grasp, i.e. collect BDB: gather Usage: assemble (selves), gather (bring) (together, selves together, up), heap, resort, × surely, take up.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 127 lexical occurrence verses.
קָבַץ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Genesis 41:35 uses qāḇaṣ for collecting excess food under an administrative plan so grain will be preserved against famine. The act is ordinary stewardship rather than sacred assembly. First Samuel 7:5 gathers Israel to Mizpah for Samuel's intercession within a chapter of repentance and renewed trust in the Lord. Deuteronomy 30:3 promises compassionate divine regathering after dispersion and covenant return, giving exiles hope without licensing every later political claim made in the verse's name.
Isaiah 40:11 pictures the Lord as a shepherd gathering lambs into His arms and gently leading nursing ewes. The tenderness comes from the entire image, not from the verb alone. Ezekiel 22:20 prevents sentimentality by using the same word for gathering metals into a furnace as an image of judgment. Gathering can protect or concentrate danger; it can be voluntary, commanded, hostile, administrative, restorative, or punitive.
Churches should therefore refuse to measure faithfulness by crowd size, forced attendance, or a leader's ability to mobilize. Restorative language must not pressure survivors to return to unsafe families, congregations, or authorities. Healthy convening states its purpose, provides access and safe exit, respects consent where appropriate, and remains accountable for what occurs after people arrive.
God's promise to gather the scattered can comfort displaced and isolated people, while responsible application distinguishes that divine action from human control and from contemporary geopolitical systems that require their own ethical and exegetical argument.
Isa.40.11
H6908 is a Hebrew verb found in Qal, Niphal, Piel, Pual, and reflexive forms. Voice and stem help identify who gathers and who is gathered, while the object and destination determine whether collection, assembly, restoration, or judgment is foregrounded.
Prophets promise that the Lord will gather scattered people, and Jesus speaks of gathering, flock care, harvest, and final separation through distinct Greek terms. The canonical themes of restoration and judgment converge in Christ, but H6908 does not make every present assembly the church or every political return a direct fulfillment claim.