to gather together into one place, drawing in what was spread out on every side
This is the ordinary Greek verb for gathering (συνάγω) with a prefix that gives it a direction. It does not simply mean putting things together; it means bringing them in toward one point from wherever they had been spread out. Every use in the New Testament keeps that shape.
What changes from verse to verse is who does the gathering, and why:
- a whole town crowds in around one doorway in Capernaum
- Jesus says he had longed to gather Jerusalem's children the way a hen tucks her chicks under her wings
- angels are sent out to bring God's chosen in from the four winds
- birds of prey drop onto a body from wherever they had been
That last picture is worth holding onto, because it shows that the verb itself is neutral. The gathering can be rescue and it can be judgment. Only the setting tells you which.
Behind the weightiest uses stands an old promise. The Greek Old Testament uses this verb for God bringing his scattered people home from exile, so when Jesus speaks of the chosen being gathered from the ends of the earth, he is picking up language his hearers already knew. The matching noun (ἐπισυναγωγή) names the gathering itself, both the meeting of believers and the day they are gathered to Christ.