Convocation

A convocation (Hebrew miqrāʾ, a calling together) was a sacred assembly of the Israelite community called specifically for worship, rest from labor, and the observance of appointed feasts. The term is used in the Pentateuch almost exclusively in the phrase holy convocation (miqrāʾ qodesh), designating those occasions when the covenant community was required to assemble before God. The Sabbath was a holy convocation (Leviticus 23:3), as were the first and seventh days of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:16; Leviticus 23:7–8), Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles.

On convocation days no servile work was to be done, and the community gathered for sacred purposes. The term was occasionally applied to pagan religious assemblies, where Isaiah uses it disparagingly of Israel's iniquitous assemblies (Isaiah 1:13) — the single exception to the otherwise exclusively positive use. Convocations established Israel's annual liturgical calendar and shaped the rhythm of its corporate life around the remembrance of God's saving acts: the Exodus, the wilderness, the harvest. These assemblies became typological in the New Testament, prefiguring the church's regular gathering around Word and table.