a sacred convocation: an appointed day on which God summons his people to gather and rest, especially a festival
TranslatabilityUntranslatableCertaintyStrong
The word points to a day when God calls his people together. It comes from the verb meaning to call out or summon, and it names the appointed sacred days, above all the festivals set out in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28 and 29, on which Israel was to stop its work and assemble before the LORD. The usual pairing is with the word for holy, giving the familiar phrase a holy convocation.
Closely tied to the gathering is the act of the summons itself. In Numbers 10:2 the silver trumpets are made for calling the congregation together. The assembly and the calling that produces it are two sides of one idea, which is why the same word covers both.
Some scholars read the key phrase less as an assembly that is summoned and more as a day that is publicly proclaimed holy, since the underlying verb means both to summon and to proclaim. Either way the day is set apart by God's own call, not arranged at human convenience.
1bthe summoning itself: the act of calling the congregation together
Num 10:2*
Disputed
Whether the standard phrase (the word paired with holy) means a holy convocation, that is an assembly the people are summoned to attend, or a sacred occasion, that is a day publicly proclaimed holy with less stress on any gathering.
majorityA holy convocation: a sacred assembly the people are called together to attend.; BDB, s.v. מקרא; HALOT, s.v. מקרא
minorityA day publicly proclaimed holy (a sacred occasion), where the emphasis falls on the proclamation rather than on an assembly of people.; Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 23-27 (Anchor Bible 3B)
2
a reading: the public reading aloud of a sacred text
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
In one late passage the word names not the assembly but the reading itself. In Nehemiah 8:8 the Levites read from the book of God's law and explain it so that the people grasp what is read. Here the same verb that summons a crowd is turned on a text: to call out its words aloud in public.
This use is the seed of the traditional Jewish name for the Hebrew Bible, the reading, since Scripture was above all the text read aloud to the gathered people. It is the natural bridge between calling people together and calling out God's words to them.
means specifically reading aloud in public so a listening people can understand, not silent private studyNeh 8:8
Both
both center on engaging the words of a written textNeh 8:8
Only reading
reading in English is often silent and solitary, which loses the public, spoken, proclaimed character the Hebrew word carries here
How miqra differs from similar Hebrew words
מוֹעֵדthe appointed time or season God fixes; a convocation is the summoned gathering held on it, so the two stand side by side (the appointed times of the LORD, his holy convocations)
Names the called-together ASSEMBLY of people summoned on a sacred day, the holy convocation on which ordinary work was forbidden.Exo 12:16Lev 23:3Num 28:25
Reaches beyond gatherings to the act of calling out and reading aloud, so it can name the public reading of the Law that the people were made to understand.Neh 8:8
Both
Both anchor Israel's sacred calendar in Leviticus 23, where the LORD's appointed times are the days on which the holy convocations are held, so the two words name the when and the gathering of one and the same festival.Lev 23:2Lev 23:37Lev 23:4
Names the appointed TIME itself, a fixed point set in advance, whether the seasons marked by the lights of heaven or the very moment a promised birth was due.Gen 1:14Gen 17:21Gen 21:2
Names the appointed PLACE where God met with Israel, the tent of meeting, a location on the ground that the other word never denotes.Exo 27:21Exo 33:7Exo 40:2
עֲצָרָהa solemn closing assembly that caps a festival; a convocation is the summoned sacred day more broadly, and the two appear together in Isaiah's list of rejected observances
Labels each appointed festival day itself as a proclaimed sacred occasion, the standard heading the calendar of feasts gives to every one of them.Lev 23:2Lev 23:4Exo 12:16
Marks the day as one on which the people are summoned and ordinary work is set aside, so it recurs across the whole festival year rather than at a single point.Num 28:26Num 29:1Lev 23:24
Both
Both name a sacred, appointed gathering of the whole people, and the very same day can be given both titles at once.Lev 23:36
Both stand among the religious assemblies the prophets say God rejects when the worship behind them is hollow.Isa 1:13
Names specifically the closing solemn gathering that caps a festival, the climactic final day held back for a last assembly.Num 29:35Deu 16:82Ch 7:9
Used for an assembly convened for a solemn purpose apart from the fixed calendar, including one called in a crisis or even for another god.Jol 1:14Jol 2:152Ki 10:20
קָהָלthe congregation as the assembled body of people; a convocation is the appointed occasion on which they are summoned to assemble
names an appointed sacred convocation of the festival calendar, a holy assembly day set apart from ordinary work rather than the people who gather on itLev 23:2Lev 23:3Lev 23:7Num 28:18Num 29:1
can mean the act of summoning a gathering, or even the public reading aloud of a text, keeping close to the root sense of calling outNum 10:2Neh 8:8Isa 1:13
Both
both can denote a solemn gathering of God's people convened before him, one as the sacred occasion and the other as the community that assemblesLev 23:41Ki 8:14
names the assembled body of people itself, the congregation as a community, so the question is who may or may not enter and belong to itDeu 23:1Deu 23:2Deu 23:3Num 16:3
used of any large gathered company, not limited to worship, including a national muster, a hostile crowd, or a company of nationsGen 28:3Num 22:41Ki 12:3
miqra in the other biblical languages
ἐκκλησίαGreek“assembly”the Greek word literally means those called out and comes to mean the assembled community (in the New Testament, the church); a convocation is the Old Testament appointed sacred assembly summoned by God
Names an appointed sacred occasion fixed on the festival calendar, most often in the set phrase "holy convocation" for a sabbath or feast day.Lev 23:3Lev 23:4
Marks a day on which ordinary work is forbidden, so the word carries the weight of a summoned rest rather than of the people who gather.Exo 12:16Num 28:25
Also means the reading aloud of the text, the public recitation itself, a sense the Greek word never carries.Neh 8:8
Both
Both are regularly rendered "assembly" and both grow from the idea of a people summoned together for a sacred purpose rather than a crowd that merely happens to collect.Lev 23:2Act 7:38
Names a standing community of people, not a scheduled event: the whole body of believers Christ builds, which continues as a people beyond any one meeting.Mat 16:18
Scales from the universal body down to a single local congregation, so it can name the believers gathered in one household or city.Rom 16:11Co 1:2
Keeps its ordinary Greek civic sense of a called-out gathering of citizens, used for the riotous town meeting at Ephesus with no religious content at all.Act 19:32Act 19:39
ἀνάγνωσιςGreek“reading”the Greek word for the public reading of Scripture, matching the sense this word carries in Nehemiah 8:8 for the reading aloud of God's law
Names a sacred assembly that people are summoned to keep: the sabbaths, feasts, and holy days proclaimed as gathered days of worship. The emphasis falls on the called gathering, not on any reading.Lev 23:2Exo 12:16
Both
Both grow from the idea of calling or proclaiming aloud, and each can describe the public reading of Scripture aloud to a gathered people.Neh 8:8Act 13:15
Names the act of reading a written text aloud, above all the public reading of Scripture in worship. It points to the event of reading itself, not to the people gathered to hear it.1Ti 4:132Co 3:14
What scholars say about miqra
The noun derives from the root qara, which spans both to call or summon and to read or proclaim, and this range accounts for the word's spread of senses. The dominant use is the technical festival term miqra qodesh, a holy convocation, marking the appointed days of Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29 on which work ceases and Israel gathers. Milgrom (Leviticus 23-27, Anchor Bible) argues the phrase denotes a day proclaimed holy rather than an assembly convened, reading qara here as proclaim; the lexical tradition (BDB, HALOT) retains the convocation/assembly sense, and most translations follow it. Numbers 10:2 preserves the more active nuance of summoning the congregation. The isolated use in Nehemiah 8:8 for the public reading of the law reflects the same root and anticipates the post-biblical designation of Scripture as the Miqra, that which is read aloud. TWOT treats the noun under the qara entry.
Sources
BDB, s.v. מקראlexicon
HALOT, s.v. מקראlexicon
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 23-27 (Anchor Bible 3B, 2001)commentary