Hebrew word · H4721

מַקְהֵל

bemakhelim

assembly

A place or occasion of assembly, a gathered throng. It is related to qāhāl, "assembly, convocation", the usual word for Israel gathered as a people before God (Deut 9:10; 31:30). It is rare: here (masculine plural) and Ps 68:26/27 (feminine plural, "in the assemblies bless God").

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

assembly, choir

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 26:12

Range of meaning

A place or occasion of assembly, a gathered throng. It is related to qāhāl, "assembly, convocation", the usual word for Israel gathered as a people before God (Deut 9:10; 31:30). It is rare: here (masculine plural) and Ps 68:26/27 (feminine plural, "in the assemblies bless God").

Against the English

KJV, WEB and BSB keep the plural, "congregations". Some modern versions turn it into one "great congregation" or "great assembly" (NIV, ESV), reading the plural as a way of stressing size. NLT gives up the noun and writes "publicly".

How it drifted

To modern ears "congregations" sounds like local churches or parish communities. Here the word means the crowds of Israelites gathered at the sanctuary, especially at the pilgrimage festivals.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 68:26 uses the same word in the same pairing with "bless". Ps 22:22, 25, 35:18 and 40:9–10 make the same kind of vow to praise "in the great assembly" (qāhāl rāb). The Greek Septuagint translates en ekklēsiais, "in assemblies", using ekklēsia, the word later used for "church".

Similar words

Where it appears

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 26:12 בְּ֝מַקְהֵלִ֗ים in assemblies

    My feet stand on level ground; in the congregations I will bless the LORD.

    Here: "In the assemblies": the crowds of Israel gathered for worship at the sanctuary. The plural may mean several festival gatherings, or it may simply stress a great throng. The word comes from the same root as qāhāl, "assembly", in v. 5 ("I hate the assembly of evildoers"), so the psalmist moves from one gathering to the other.

  2. Psalm 68:26 בְּֽ֭מַקְהֵלוֹת in assemblies

    Bless God in the great congregation; bless the LORD from the fountain of Israel.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.