H6951 — קָהָל (qahal)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6951
Original: קָהָל
Transliteration: qâhâl
Pronunciation: kaw-hawl'
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: H6950 קָהַל (qahal) — to assemble, gather together
Occurrences: 116 unique verses (141 tokens) across 21 books
First Occurrence: Gen 28:3 — "And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude (qahal) of people"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H6950 (qahal); assemblage (usually concretely): — assembly, company, congregation, multitude.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
congregation (all variants)	86	74.1%
assembly (all variants)	15	12.9%
company / companies (all variants)	12	10.3%
multitude	3	2.6%

"Congregation" dominates; "assembly" is the secondary rendering; "company" appears mainly in Ezekiel's military/hostile-group contexts.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
2 Chronicles	23	2.8
Ezra	5	1.8
Joel	1	1.4
Nehemiah	5	1.2
Ezekiel	15	1.2
Micah	1	1.0
Numbers	12	0.9
Deuteronomy	9	0.9
Leviticus	5	0.6
1 Kings	5	0.6
1 Chronicles	6	0.6
Lamentations	1	0.6
Judges	3	0.5
Psalms	9	0.4
Genesis	4	0.3
Proverbs	3	0.3
Jeremiah	4	0.3
Exodus	2	0.2
Joshua	1	0.2
1 Samuel	1	0.1
Job	1	0.1

Pattern: Heaviest concentration in 2 Chronicles (temple worship assemblies under reform kings — Hezekiah, Josiah). Ezekiel uses it distinctively for hostile military companies (Gog, Tyre, executioners). Deuteronomy establishes the exclusion-formula "congregation of the LORD." Absent from 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, most minor prophets, and all wisdom books except Proverbs and Job (one each).

Semantic Categories¶

1. The Cultic Assembly — Israel Gathered Before God¶

The dominant usage. Israel assembled as a worshipping body for sacrifice, covenant reading, or festival observance. Often paired with "all" (kol) and "Israel."

Lev 16:17 — "there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, and shall come out, and make an atonement... for all the congregation (qahal) of Israel"
Deut 5:22 — "These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly (qahal) in the mount out of the midst of the fire"
1 Ki 8:14 — "the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation (qahal) of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood)"
2 Chr 29:28 — "all the congregation (qahal) worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded"

2. The Covenant Assembly — Deliberative and Judicial¶

The qahal functions as a deliberative body making decisions, passing judgments, or ratifying covenants. Here the collective noun carries corporate agency.

Judg 20:2 — "the chief of all the people... presented themselves in the assembly (qahal) of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen"
Judg 21:5 — "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation (qahal) unto the LORD?"
Ezra 10:12 — "Then all the congregation (qahal) answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do"
Neh 5:13 — "all the congregation (qahal) said, Amen, and praised the LORD"

3. The Congregation of the LORD — Membership Boundary¶

Deuteronomy uses qahal in a technical sense defining who may or may not "enter into the congregation of the LORD" — a membership/exclusion formula.

Deut 23:1 — "He that is wounded in the stones... shall not enter into the congregation (qahal) of the LORD"
Deut 23:2 — "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation (qahal) of the LORD; even to his tenth generation"
Deut 23:3 — "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation (qahal) of the LORD"
Deut 23:8 — "The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation (qahal) of the LORD in their third generation"

4. The Worshipping Assembly — Psalmic Praise¶

In the Psalms, qahal is the gathered community where praise, testimony, and vows are performed publicly.

Psa 22:22 — "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation (qahal) will I praise thee"
Psa 22:25 — "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation (qahal): I will pay my vows before them that fear him"
Psa 35:18 — "I will give thee thanks in the great congregation (qahal): I will praise thee among much people"
Psa 107:32 — "Let them exalt him also in the congregation (qahal) of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders"

5. Promised Multitude — Patriarchal Blessing¶

In Genesis, qahal appears in divine promises of multiplication to the patriarchs — a "company of nations" or "multitude of people."

Gen 28:3 — "God Almighty bless thee... that thou mayest be a multitude (qahal) of people"
Gen 35:11 — "a nation and a company (qahal) of nations shall be of thee"
Gen 48:4 — "I will make of thee a multitude (qahal) of people"

6. Hostile Company — Military/Judgment Assembly¶

Ezekiel uses qahal for hostile military forces or executing companies sent in judgment. This is a distinctive prophetic extension of the word.

Eze 16:40 — "They shall also bring up a company (qahal) against thee, and they shall stone thee"
Eze 23:46-47 — "I will bring up a company (qahal) upon them... the company (qahal) shall stone them with stones"
Eze 38:4 — "I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen... a great company (qahal)"
Jer 50:9 — "I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly (qahal) of great nations"

7. Negative Assembly — The Ungodly Gathered¶

Qahal occasionally denotes an assembly characterized by evil or death — the "other side" of the concept.

Gen 49:6 — "unto their assembly (qahal), mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man"
Psa 26:5 — "I have hated the congregation (qahal) of evil doers"
Prov 21:16 — "shall remain in the congregation (qahal) of the dead"
Prov 5:14 — "I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation (qahal) and assembly"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
כֹּל (kol)	H3605	64x (55%)	"all the congregation" — emphasizes totality of the gathered body
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	41x (35%)	"congregation of the LORD" — the assembly defined by covenant membership
בּוֹא (bo)	H935	28x (24%)	"enter into the congregation" — membership admission/exclusion
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael)	H3478	27x (23%)	"congregation of Israel" — national-cultic identity formula
עַם (am)	H5971	19x (16%)	"congregation of the people" — the gathered populace
אֱלֹהִים (Elohim)	H430	17x (15%)	"people of God" context — the assembly standing before God
גָּדוֹל (gadol)	H1419	15x (13%)	"great congregation" — large-scale worship gatherings (Psalms, Chronicles)
מֶלֶךְ (melek)	H4428	13x (11%)	King presiding over or addressing the assembly
רַב (rab)	H7227	13x (11%)	"much/many" — qahal rab, "a great company"
אֶרֶץ (erets)	H776	12x (10%)	Land context — the congregation in relation to the land

Word Family / Cognates¶

H6950 קָהַל (qahal) — root verb: to assemble, gather together (Niphal: be assembled; Hiphil: cause to assemble)
H6952 קְהִלָּה (qehillah) — feminine derivative: assembly, congregation (used in Deut 33:4, Neh 5:7)

Synonyms¶

From semantic domain [001002007004] Groups: - H5712 עֵדָה (edah) — congregation, assembly (the primary near-synonym; see Easily Confused below) - H4150 מוֹעֵד (moed) — appointed meeting/assembly, congregation (often in "tabernacle of the congregation") - H5475 סוֹד (sod) — council, secret assembly (intimate/advisory; Psa 89:7, Jer 23:18)

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
עֵדָה (edah)	H5712	"congregation," "assembly," "company"	Edah = the community as a standing body/institution (from ed "witness"); qahal = the act of assembling, the gathered event. Edah dominates in Numbers/Leviticus for the wilderness community; qahal dominates in Deuteronomy/Chronicles for the called assembly.
מוֹעֵד (moed)	H4150	"congregation" (in "tabernacle of the congregation")	Moed = appointed time/place of meeting; almost always in the fixed phrase ohel moed ("tent of meeting"). Qahal = the assembled people, not the place or time.
קְהִלָּה (qehillah)	H6952	"assembly," "congregation"	Qehillah = rare feminine derivative (3 occurrences); qahal is the standard masculine form.
G4864 συναγωγή (synagoge)	G4864	"congregation," "assembly" (in LXX both render qahal)	Synagoge in LXX translates qahal 36x alongside edah; in NT it narrowed to the Jewish synagogue building/institution, while ekklesia carried the qahal concept into Christian usage.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ἐκκλησία (ekklesia) G1577	66x	31.39	Primary LXX rendering; carries qahal's "called assembly" sense into the NT as "church"
συναγωγή (synagoge) G4864	36x	19.13	Secondary rendering; in NT narrowed to Jewish synagogue specifically
ὄχλος (ochlos) G3793	6x	11.29	Used where qahal means "crowd/throng" rather than formal assembly

The qahal-to-ekklesia bridge is one of the most theologically significant LXX mappings. The LXX translators chose ekklesia ("called-out assembly") over synagoge when rendering qahal in contexts of Israel gathered before God — a choice that shaped NT ecclesiology when the early church adopted ekklesia for itself.