to gather
qa.vats denotes bringing people, groups, or provisions together, often at a place and sometimes from scattered lands.
The verb most often marks people or other living groups coming together at a specified place, whether for assembly, mourning, conflict, or an appointed gathering. It also describes bringing scattered communities back from peoples and lands, and in a smaller set of clauses it concerns collecting food, silver, or water.
Senses in use
-
Assembling people or living groups · dominant
The forms describe people being brought together or coming together at a place: in 1 Kings 18:19 the Qal imperative calls for all Israel and the prophets to be brought to Mount Carmel, while in 1 Samuel 7:6 the Niphal form marks Israel's gathering at Mizpah. In Esther 2:8 many young women are brought to Susa, and in Ezekiel 39:17 birds and field animals are summoned to gather around a prepared sacrifice.
-
Bringing scattered communities back · common
Several Piel clauses explicitly pair the action with people dispersed among other peoples or lands. In Deuteronomy 30:3 the APB renders the clause as gathering the people “from all the peoples” where they had been scattered; Ezekiel 34:13 similarly joins bringing them out from peoples with gathering them from lands.
-
Collecting provisions or materials · occasional
The verb can concern items rather than an assembled population. In Genesis 41:35 the APB renders a command to bring together food from good years for storage in cities; 2 Chronicles 24:5 concerns silver from Judah's cities, and Isaiah 22:9 concerns the waters of the lower pool.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses “gathered,” “assembled,” or “gather,” and uses “collected” for water in Isaiah 22:9. These are renderings of whole translated clauses rather than word-by-word alignments.