International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Gather

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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Gather


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gath´er (אסף, 'aṣaph, קבץ, ḳābhac; συλλέγω, sullégō, συνάγω, sunágō): “Gather,” transitive “to bring together,” “collect,” etc., and intransitive “to come together,” “assemble,” etc., occurs frequently and represents many Hebrew and Greek words. It is the translation of 'āṣaph, “to bring together,” in , the King James Version margin “gathering host”; , the King James Version margin “The Lord will gather me”; compare , ; King James Version margin. The phrases “gather thee unto thy fathers,” “gathered unto his fathers,” “gathered into the grave,” etc., are frequently used for “to die” and “death” (, ; , ; ; ; ; ; compare ), etc.; ḳābhac, “to take or grasp with the hand,” is frequently used of the Divine “gathering” or restoration of Israel (, ; ; ; , etc.; , etc.; ; ; , ; , ); figuratively, , “He shall gather the lambs with (the Revised Version (British and American) “in”) his arm” (compare King James Version margin); sometimes it denotes bringing together for punishment or destruction (), “He hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor.”

In the New Testament we have sullegō, “to lay together,” “to collect” (, , , , , ); sunagō “to lead or bring together,” “to gather,” “to collect” (, “seek returns”; , “fruit unto life eternal”); episunágō, “to lead or bring together” (, “even as a hen gathereth her chickens”); anakephalaióomai, “to sum up under one head,” “to recapitulate” (, “that he might gather together in one all things in Christ,” the Revised Version (British and American) “to sum up all things in Christ”; compare ; in the passive is translated “be briefly comprehended,” the Revised Version (British and American) “summed up”).

“To gather,” in the sense of “to infer,” occurs in as the translation of sumbibázō, “to bring together” (here, in mind), “assuredly gathering,” the Revised Version (British and American) “concluding” (compare , “proving”).

Gatherer occurs in as the translation of bōleṣ, from bālaṣ, to cultivate figs or sycamores, “a gatherer of sycamore fruit,” the Revised Version (British and American) “a dresser of sycomore-trees” (“a nipper of sycomore figs, i.e. helping to cultivate a sort of figs or mulberries produced by the real sycamore tree” (used only by the poorest), which requires nipping in the cultivation, perhaps an occupation of shepherds; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) vellicans sycamnia).

Gathering is the translation of episunagōgḗ, “leading together unto” (), “our gathering together unto him”; in we have “gathering” (logı́a from legō) in the sense of a collection of many, the Revised Version (British and American) “collection,” as the King James Version in .

“Gather,” etc., occurs frequently in Apocrypha, e.g. “will gather us out of all the nations,” sunagō (Tobit 13:5); “gather them together” (1 Macc 9:7; 10:8); “Gather together our dispersion,” episunágage tḗn diasporán hēmṓn (2 Macc 1:27); “gathered to his fathers” prosetéthē prós tón laón autoú, the Revised Version (British and American) “people” (Judith 16:22; Bel and the Dragon verse 1, toús patéras; 1 Macc 2:69); “gathering up briefly,” the Revised Version (British and American) “gather,” suntémnō (2 Macc 10:10); “gathering” in the sense of a collection of money (2 Macc 12:43), the Revised Version (British and American) “collection.”

Among the changes in the Revised Version (British and American) we have “hold firm” for “gather” (); “Gather thee together” for “Go one way or other” ( margin, “Make thyself one”); for “gather blackness” (), “are waxed pale”; for “or gather together” (), “and call unto judgment,” margin Hebrew “call an assembly”; for “even as a hen doth gather her brood” () “gathereth her own brood”; for “as the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not,” the American Standard Revised Version has “that sitteth on eggs which she hath not laid,” margin “gathereth young which she hath not brought forth,” text of the English Revised Version and the King James Version margin ().