Lexicon
אָסַף
a.saph
H0622
H:V Hebrew

to gather

202
Occurrences
31
Books
Hebrew
Language

a.saph denotes bringing people or things together, including assemblies, harvests, and being gathered to one’s kin in death.

The prevailing use concerns people coming or being brought together, especially for battle, leadership, worship, or return from scattered places. It also describes collecting crops, food, money, animals, and military resources; being gathered to one’s kin at death; and, in a small cluster, the removal of leprosy or reproach.

Senses in use

  1. assemble people or forces · dominant

    Qal and Niphal forms describe persons or groups coming together or being brought together. In 1 Samuel 17:1 the APB renders the Philistines gathering their camp and gathering at Socoh for battle; in 1 Chronicles 15:4 David gathers Aaron’s sons and the Levites, while Ezekiel 11:17 speaks of gathering scattered people from peoples and lands.

  2. collect crops, goods, or resources · common

    The Qal forms are used where food, produce, money, animals, or military resources are brought together. In Deuteronomy 11:14 the clause concerns grain, new wine, and oil; Genesis 6:21 concerns food kept for provision; and 2 Chronicles 34:9 concerns silver collected from specified regions.

  3. be gathered to one’s kin in death · occasional

    Niphal forms occur in death notices and instructions. Genesis 25:17 joins death with being gathered to one’s kinsman, and Deuteronomy 32:50 directs the addressee to die on the mountain and be gathered to his kinsmen.

  4. remove an affliction or reproach · rare

    A small set of Qal clauses uses the term in contexts of release from a harmful condition. In 2 Kings 5:3 the APB renders the hoped-for action as gathering Naaman from his leprosy, and Genesis 30:23 states that God had taken away reproach; the specific English correspondence is not fully isolable.

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the cited verses, the APB variously uses “gathered,” “assembled,” “accumulated,” “collected,” and “taken away.” These are presentations of whole clauses rather than fixed word-for-word renderings of the lemma.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture