קָבַץ
to gather
‘to gather’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘c. acc. pers. gather’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘intrans. assemble’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘of’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself). Here: ‘gather together’
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H6908 appears in the Book of Psalms — 4 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Psalms
- Psalms 41:6 יִקְבָּץ Qal impf 3ms If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.
- Psalms 102:22 בְּ/הִקָּבֵ֣ץ prep + Niphal inf.cs When the peoples are gathered together, The kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.
- Psalms 106:47 וְ/קַבְּצֵ/נוּ֮ conj + Piel impv 2ms + sfx pers 1cp Save us, Yahweh, our God, Gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to your holy name, To triumph in your praise!
- Psalms 107:3 קִ֫בְּצָ֥/ם Piel pf 3ms + sfx pers 3mp And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, קבץ (qâbats) means “to gather.” Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 5 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. With 121 verses in 25 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 41:35. Sharing its root, it stands alongside קבוץ, קבצה and יקבצאל. Dig into 121-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6908 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 121
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 121 distinct verses.
- 25 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #348
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 348 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 121 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Isaiah 18 verses 15%
- Ezekiel 15 verses 12%
- 2 Chronicles 10 verses 8%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 121 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 83 verses · 69%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 32 verses · 26%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 6 verses · 5%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Gather 15×, Gathered 14×, Together 9×
- American Standard Version: Gathered 14×, Gather 12×, Together 10×
- Berean Standard Bible: Gather 14×, Gathered 13×, I will gather 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Gathered 15×, And 14×, Gather 14×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6908 across 136 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 46 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6908 across 136 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 57 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6908 across 126 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 43 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6908 across 147 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 41 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
12 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Pual (the passive of Piel) and Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 12 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. ק׳ 1 K 20:1; Impf. 3 ms. יִקְבָּץ־ ψ 41:7, וַיִּקְבֹּץ Gn 41:48 +, etc.; Imv. ms. קְבֹץ 1 K 18:19, mpl. קִבְצוּ 1 S 7:5 +; Inf. cstr. sf. לְקָבְצִי Zp 3:8; Pt. act. קֹבֵץ Ez 22:19; Pr 13:11; pass. pl. קְבוּצִים Ne 5:16;—gather, collect: e.g. 1 Kings 20:1
- 1. c. acc. rei, grain Gn 41:35, 48 (E), booty Dt 13:17 (+ אֶל loc.), money 2 Ch 24:5 (+ מִן pers.), so Ez 16:31 (Gr Toy Krae, reading לִקְבֹּץ from לְקַלֵּס; v. p. 887); acc. om. קֹבֵץ Pr 13:11 one gathering by degrees; fig. לִבּוֹ וִק׳־אָוֶן לוֹ ψ 41:7 his heart gathereth wickedness to itself. e.g. Genesis 41:35
- 2. usually c. acc. pers. gather, assemble, + ה loc. 1 S 7:5; 29:1 (for battle); + אֶל loc. 1 K 18:20; Ezr 8:15; Est 2:3; + אֶל pers. 2 S 3:21; Hb 2:5 (in fig.; ‖ אָסַף); + עַל (= אֶל) pers. 1 K 11:24; + אֶל pers. et loc. 1 K 18:19; 2 Ch 32:6; + מִן loc. 2 Ch 23:2, cf. Ezr 7:28; acc. pers. alone 1 K 22:6 = 2 Ch 18:5; 2 K 10:18; Ne 7:5 (+ inf. purpose), Jo 2:16 (‖ אָסַף), 2 Ch 15:9; 24:5; 25:5; pass. c. שָׁם + עַל of work Ne 5:16; for י׳’s judgment Zp 3:8 (‖ אָסַף), Ez 22:20 cf. v 19 (+ אֶל־תּוֹךְ fig. of metals into furnace); specif. for war, battle, Ju 12:4; 1 S 28:1; 2 S 2:30; 1 K 20:1; 2 K 6:24; + לַצָּבָא 1 S 28:1 (29:1 v. supr.). e.g. 1 Samuel 7:5
Niphal
- Pf. 3 pl. נִקְבְּצוּ Jos 10:6 +, etc.; Impf. 2 ms. תִּקָּבֵץ Ez 29:5; 3 mpl. וַיִּקָּֽבְצוּ 1 S 7:6 +, etc.; Imv. mpl. הִקָּֽבְצוּ Gn 49:2 +; Inf. cstr. הִקָּבֵץ Ezr 10:7 +; Pt. pl. נִקְבָּצִים Je 40:15, sf. נִקְבָּצָיו Is 56:8;— e.g. Joshua 10:6
- 1. intrans. assemble, gather 1 S 25:1; Gn 49:2; Is 45:20; 48:14; 49:18; 60:4; Jo 4:11; 2 Ch 20:4 (+ inf. purpose) 32:4; for war 1 S 28:4; Jos 10:6 (c. אֶל against); c. ה loc. 1 S 7:6, acc. loc. Ezr 10:7, 9; 2 Ch 15:10; c. אֶל pers. unto Je 40:15 1 Ch 13:2; Ezr 10:1; Ne 4:14, cf. 2 Ch 13:7 (עַל for אֶל); אֶל pers. + ה loc. 1 Ch 11:1; c. יַחְדָּו Ho 2:2; Is 43:9 (‖ אָסַף), ψ 102:23; of birds and beasts Is 34:15 (c. שָׁם), Ez 39:17. e.g. 1 Samuel 25:1
- 2. pass. be gathered Is 60:7 (of flocks, + ל pers.), Est 2:8 (+ אֶל loc.), v 19; pt. c. sf. pers. Is 56:8; Ez 29:5 (‖ אסף) read תִּקָּכֵר Hi (not Sm) Co Berthol Toy Krae. e.g. Isaiah 60:7
Piel
- Pf. 3 ms. sf. וְקִבֶּצְךָ Dt 30:3 consec., קִבְּצָם Mi 4:12 ψ 107:3, קִבְּצָן Is 34:16; 3 fs. קִבָּ֑צָה Mi 1:7, etc.; Impf. יְקַבֵּץ Is 11:12; 40:11, etc.; Imv. ms. sf. קַבְּצֵנוּ 1 Ch 16:35, ψ 106:47; Inf. abs. קַבֵּץ Mi 2:12; cstr. קַבֵּץ Is 66:18 etc.; Pt. מְקַבֵּץ Na 3:18 +, etc.;—gather together: e.g. Deuteronomy 30:3
- 1. usually of י׳ gathering his dispersed people (acc.), sometimes under fig. of flock: Mi 2:12 + inf. abs. (‖ אָסַף), 4:6 Zp 3:19, 20; Je 31:10; Zc 10:8; Is 54:7; 56:8a, cf. also 40:11; c. acc. + מִן loc. Dt 30:3, 4 Je 23:3; 29:14; 31:8; 32:37 Ez 11:17 + 6 times Ez + 37:21 (מִסָּבִיב), Is 11:12; 43:5; Zc 10:10; Ne 1:9 ψ 106:47 cf. ‖ 1 Ch 16:35, ψ 107:3; acc. + עַל pers. Is 56:8b (cf. Niph. Pt.); = (gather and) restrain Ho 8:10 (c. acc. alone); of י׳ gathering dispersed Egyptians, acc. + מִן loc. Ez 29:13; gathering the nations (acc.) for judgment Mi 4:12; Is 66:18; Jo 4:2; gathering lovers of Jerus. (under fig. of harlot) Ez 16:37(×2) (מִסָּבִיב + עַל pers. against); gathering beasts into Edom Is 34:16. e.g. Micah 2:12
- 2. men subj.: מִצְרַיִם תְּקַבְּצֵם מֹף תְּקַבְּרֵם Ho 9:6 (cf. Ez 29:5 Niph. supr.), Ne 13:11; c. acc. rei Mi 1:7 (+ מִן), Is 22:9; 62:9 Pr 28:8; אֵין מְקַבֵּץ none that gathereth Is 13:14 (acc. om.). Na 3:18 (id.), Je 49:5 (sq. לַנֹּדֵד, cf. ל 3 ad fin.). e.g. Hosea 9:6
- 3. perhaps (gather and so) take away (= אָסַף 4), Na 2:11; Jo 2:6, v. פָּארוּר. e.g. Nahum 2:11
Pual
- Pt. מְקֻבֶּצֶת Ez 38:8 (c. מִן) of land (for people) of Isr. e.g. Ezekiel 38:8
Hithpael
- gather together (intrans.), be gathered together. Pf. 3 pl. הִתְקַבְּצוּ Ju 9:47; 1 S 7:7 (+ ה loc.); Impf. 3 mpl. וַיִּתְקַבְּצוּ 1 S 8:4; 22:2 (+ אֶל pers.), יִתְק׳ Is 44:11; for battle, war, Imv. mpl. הִתְקַבְּצוּ Je 49:14; Impf. also Jos 9:2 (c. יַחְדָּו, + inf. purpose), + אַחֲרֵי pers. 2 S 2:25. e.g. Judges 9:47
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. gather, collect (syn. אָסַף) (Arabic قَبَضَ grasp, seize; Sab. קבץֿ harvest, in דֿק׳, attrib. of ʿAttar, according to FellZMG liv (1900), 237 f.; Ethiopic ቀብጸ: is fail, despair; NH קִבֵּץ = BH);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
קָבַץ
- (b. h.) to press, gather. Ab. Zar. 19ᵃ (ref. to Prov. XIII, 11) ואם קוֹבֵץ על יד ירבה but if he collects learning little by little, he will increase it, v. חֲבִילָה; Erub. 54ᵇ (corr. acc.).—Part. pass. קָבוּץ; pl. קְבוּצִים, קְבוּצִין. Y. Shebi. II, 33ᵈ top נוטל את הק׳ עמו (not עמה) he may take with him the collected rakings. Gitt. 56ᵇ (ref. to Koh. VIII, 10) א"ת קבורים אלא קבוצים read not ḳ’burim (buried) but ḳ’butsim (the wicked taking up heaps of spoil). e.g. Proverbs 13:11
- same, to collect. Ib. 7ᵃ quot. in Ar. (ref. to Josh. XV, 21 קבצאל ועדר ויגור) כל המְקַבֵּץ עדרים … יגור וכ׳ he who gathers flocks (students) to the study of the Law, shall dwell in the partition of the Lord. Midr. Till. to Ps. CVII אני אֲקַבֵּץ וכ׳ I (the Lord) will gather you in due time; a. fr. e.g. Joshua 15:21
- to be collected, gathered. Snh. 112ᵃ נִקְבָּצִין לתוכה those things which can be brought together to the condemned city (with ref. to Deut. XIII, 17). Meg. 17ᵇ כיון שנִתְקַבְּצוּ גליות וכ׳ when the diasporas are collected, judgment is executed on the wicked. Zeb. 116ᵃ נִתְקַבְּצוּ כולם אצל וכ׳ they all gathered themselves around Balaam; a. fr. e.g. Deuteronomy 13:17
קְבַץ
- to leap. Ber. 63ᵃ ed. קְבוֹץ, v. זוּל I ch.; [Rashi = preced. gather].
קֶבֶץ
- (preced.) joint. Tosef. Bekh. IV, 14; (Bekh. 41ᵃ קֶפֶץ), v. עַרְקוּב.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 102 distinct written forms H6908 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 42 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6908, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. 3 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 109 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 121 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 41:35
- Deuteronomy 13:16
- Joshua 9:2
- Judges 9:47
- 1 Samuel 7:5
- 2 Samuel 2:25
- 1 Kings 18:19
- 2 Kings 6:24
- 1 Chronicles 11:1
- 2 Chronicles 13:7
- Ezra 7:28
- Esther 2:3
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
