אָסִיף

From the study of Exodus 23:16

Range of meaning

Ingathering, the gathering-in of harvest. It comes from asaf, 'to gather, collect, bring in'. The noun appears only here and in Exod 34:22. A near form, ʾsp, appears in the Gezer Calendar.

Against the English

'Ingathering' is accurate but old-fashioned. NLT's 'Final Harvest' gives the sense. None of the translations signals that this is the festival later called Booths or Tabernacles (Sukkot); readers have to connect it themselves.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Gezer Calendar, a Hebrew inscription from about the 10th century BC listing the farming year, opens with 'two months of ingathering (ʾsp)'. That places the gathering at the turn of the year in autumn. Later laws rename and date the festival: Lev 23:34–43 (Booths, 15th of the 7th month, living in shelters); Deut 16:13–15 ('when you gather from your threshing floor and your winepress').

From the study of Exodus 34:22

Range of meaning

'Ingathering', from ʾasaf, 'to gather or collect'. It covers bringing in the last produce of the year from threshing floor and winepress (Deuteronomy 16:13): grapes, olives, figs and other summer fruit. The word occurs only here and in Exodus 23:16.

Against the English

'Ingathering' is accurate. WEB's 'feast of harvest' is confusing, because Exodus 23:16 uses 'festival of harvest' for Weeks, the other festival in this verse.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Gezer Calendar, a 10th-century BC Hebrew inscription listing farm seasons, opens with 'two months of ingathering' (yrḥw ʾsp). That is close evidence that farming years in early Israel began counting from the autumn ingathering. Leviticus 23:34–43 and Deuteronomy 16:13 call the festival Sukkot (Booths).