קָהָל
assembly
also: company, congregation, convocation fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
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).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
9 verses where H6951 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Numbers. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Numbers
- Numbers 10:7 הַ/קָּהָ֑ל ptcl def.art + n c ms But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
- Numbers 15:15 הַ/קָּהָ֕ל ptcl def.art + n c ms For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner [with you], a statute forever throughout your generations: as you are, so shall the foreigner be before Yahweh.
- Numbers 16:33 הַ/קָּהָֽל ptcl def.art + n c ms So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.
- Numbers 16:47 הַ/קָּהָ֔ל ptcl def.art + n c ms Aaron took as Moses spoke, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.
- Numbers 19:20 הַ/קָּהָ֑ל ptcl def.art + n c ms But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh: the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
- Numbers 20:6 הַ/קָּהָ֗ל ptcl def.art + n c ms Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them.
- Numbers 20:10 הַ/קָּהָ֖ל ptcl def.art + n c ms Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock?
- Numbers 20:12 הַ/קָּהָ֣ל ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, Because you didn't believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.
- Numbers 22:4 הַ/קָּהָל֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now will this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.
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.
“assembly” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun קהל (qâhâl). Where the King James Version says “congregation,” newer translations reach for “assembly” (Berean Standard Bible); the renderings breakdown has the detail. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 116 verses — common. First canonically at Genesis 28:3, it enters the text early. Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “company”, “congregation”, and “convocation”. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6951 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 →
- 116
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 116 distinct verses.
- 21 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 21 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #356
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 356 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 116 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Chronicles 23 verses 20%
- Ezekiel 15 verses 13%
- Numbers 12 verses 10%
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 116 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 53 verses · 46%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 32 verses · 28%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 31 verses · 27%
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: Congregation 49×, All the congregation 26×, Assembly 10×
- American Standard Version: Assembly 57×, All the assembly 27×, Company 12×
- Berean Standard Bible: Assembly 94×, Company 8×, Horde 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Assembly 66×, Assembly of 34×, Company 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6951 across 123 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 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 H6951 across 123 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 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 H6951 across 119 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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 4 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6951 across 127 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
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 10 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.
- 1. assembly specially convoked:
- a. for evil counsel, ‖ סוד Gn 49:6 (poem); ק׳ מרעים ψ 26:5; for civil affairs 1 K 12:3 Pr 5:14; 26:26 Jb 30:28 (Di publice). e.g. Genesis 49:6
- b. for war or invasion, Nu 22:4 (E), Ju 20:2; 21:5, 8 1 S 17:47 Ez 16:40; 38:7 (pl. only here), + 8 times Ez; ק׳ גדול (‖ חיל רב) Ez 38:15; ק׳ רב (‖ חיל גדול) 17:17; 38:4; ק׳ נוים Je 50:9; ק׳ עמים Ez 23:24; 32:3. e.g. Numbers 22:4
- c. company of returning exiles, Je 31:8 Ezr 2:64 = Ne 7:66. e.g. Jeremiah 31:8
- d. for religious purposes, to hear words of י׳ at Horeb Dt 5:19, ביום הק׳ Dt 9:10; 10:4 (gloss, not in 𝔊), 18:16; word of Jer. Je 26:17; 44:15; for feasts, fasts and worship 2 Ch 20:5; 30:25(×2) Ne 5:13; Jo 2:16 ψ 107:32; ק׳ רב 22:26 + 4 times; וַיֵּאָֽסְפוּ … ק׳ לרב מְאֹד 2 Ch 30:13; ק׳ גדול 1 K 8:65 = 2 Ch 7:8; בתוך (ה)ק׳ 2 Ch 20:14 ψ 22:23. e.g. Deuteronomy 5:17
- 2. congregation, as organized body:
- a. of Isr.: ק׳ יהוה Mi 2:5; Nu 16:3; 20:4 (P), 1 Ch 28:8; (י׳) בא בק׳ Dt 23:2, 3(×2), 4(×2), 9 Ne 13:1; La 1:10; כל ק׳ ישׂראל Dt 31:30; Jos 8:35 (D) Lv 16:17 (P); 1 K 8:14(×2), 22, 55 = 2 Ch 6:3(×2), 12, 13; 1 K 12:3; 1 Ch 13:2; כל ק׳ עדת ישׂראל Ex 12:6 (𝔊 reads בני before יִשׂ׳), Nu 14:5 (P; 𝔊 συναγωγή; MT prob. conflation); כל עם הק׳ Lv 16:33; כל הק׳ Ex 16:3 (P) 1 Ch 13:4 + 12 times Ch; הק׳ Lv 4:13, 14, 21 + 8 times Nu (P), 8 times 2 Ch. e.g. Micah 2:5
- b. restored community in Jerus. Ezr 10:12, 14; Ne 8:2, 17; ק׳ הַגּוֹלָה Ezr 10:8; later the better part of it, ק׳ חסידים ψ 149:1. e.g. Ezra 10:12
- c. of angels, ק׳ קדש֯ים ψ 89:6. e.g. Psalms 89:6
- d. more gen.: company, assembled multitude, ק׳ גוים Gn 35:11 (P), עמים ק׳ Gn 28:3; 48:4 (P), Nu 22:4 (E), ק׳ רפאים Pr 21:16. e.g. Genesis 35:11
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
n.m. Ez 38:15 assembly, convocation, congregation;—abs. ק׳ Je 31:8 +; cstr. קְהַל Ex 12:6 +; sf. קְהָלֶ֑ךָ Ez 38:13, etc.; pl. sf. קְהָלֶיךָ Ez 38:7;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from קהל (qâhal) (H6950) — to assemble.
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.
קָהַל
- to call.
- to assemble. Ber. 61ᵇ; Ab. Zar. 18ᵃ מַקְהִיל קהילות ברבים called public assemblies (to teach). Gen. R. s. 99 כשיַקְהִיל קרח וכ׳ (some ed. כשיַקְהֵל) when Korah will gather his followers for strife, my (Jacob’s) name shall not be joined with them. Yalk. Ex. 408 כדי שילמדו … להַקְהִיל וכ׳ that coming generations may learn from thee to assemble congregations every Sabbath; a. e.
- to be assembled. Gen. R. s. 98 בשעה שהן נִקְהָלִין על וכ׳ when they will be assembled against Moses in the party of Korah &c. Lev. R. s. 24 פרשה … בהִקָּהֵל וכ׳ this section (Lev. XIX) was proclaimed in full assembly (v. ib. 2), because &c. Koh. R. to I, 1, v. קֹהֶלֶת.
- same. Gen. R. s. 99 (ref. to יקהת, Gen. XLIX, 10) מי … מִתְקָהֲלִין עליו he around whom the nations will group themselves.—[Num. R. s. 12 מתקהלא, v. קָהָה.] e.g. Genesis 49:10
קָהָל
- preced.) gathering, congregation. Y. Hor. I, 46ᵃ bot. (ref. to Num. XV, 24, העדה) כל השבטים קרויין ק׳ all tribes together are called ḳahal; כל שבט … ק׳ every tribe for itself is called ḳ.; Bab. Hor. 3ᵃ כגון … רובו של ק׳ וכ׳ when six tribes have sinned, and they form the majority of the congregation (the entire people) &c. Ib. הני הוא דאיקרו ק׳ only they (the entire people) are called ḳ.—Kidd. 73ᵃ קְהַל ודאי a community of Israelites of undoubted legitimacy; קְ׳ ספק of doubtful legitimacy; Y. Yeb. VIII, 9ᵇ bot. קָ׳ ברור; קְ׳ ספק. Ib. [read:] ארבע קְהִילּוֹת אינון קְ׳ יי׳ קְ׳ כהנים וכ׳ four communities are meant by ‘the congregation of the Lord’ (Deut. XXIII, 2; 3; 4; 9): the community of priests, of Levites, of Israelites, and of proselytes. Mish. ib. VIII, 2 ואינן … אלא מלבא בק׳ and they are forbidden only to enter the congregation (to intermarry with Israelites); a. fr.—Pl., v. קְהִלָּה e.g. Numbers 15:24
קָהָל ²
- Targ. Num. XVI, 3. Ib. XX, 4; a. fr.—Kidd. 73ᵃ מחד קהל נפקו ed. (Rashi קהלא) the (laws concerning priests and Levites) are derived from one of the verses (Deut. XXIII, 3; 4; 9) in which ḳahal occurs.—Pl. קַהֲלֵי. Ib. הנהו נמי תרי ק׳ נינהו these (priests and Levites) are also two communities (requiring two verses with the word ḳahal in them); a. e. e.g. Deuteronomy 23:3
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 58 distinct written forms H6951 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6951, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- מקהל maqhêl H4721 assembly
- קהלה qᵉhillâh H6952 congregation
- קהלת qôheleth H6953 preacher
- קלה qâlahh H7035 to assemble
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 7 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 104 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 116 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 28:3
- Exodus 12:6
- Leviticus 4:13
- Numbers 10:7
- Deuteronomy 5:22
- Judges 20:2
- 1 Kings 8:14
- 1 Chronicles 13:2
- 2 Chronicles 1:3
- Ezra 2:64
- Job 30:28
- Psalms 26:5
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.
