Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
CONGREGA'TION, an assembly; a gathering of people for either political or religious purposes. T. (kabal) it denotes the Hebrew people in its collective capacity, under its peculiar aspect as a holy community, held together by religious rather than political bonds. Deut 31:30; Josh 8:35; 1 Chr 29:1, etc. "Sometimes it is used in a broad sense, as inclusive of foreign settlers, Ex 12:19, but more properly as exclusively appropriate to the Hebrew element of the population. " The congregation was governed by the chief of the tribes and families, but from these was selected a council of 70 elders.
Num 16:2; Num 11:16. This was a permanent institution, for these representatives of the people -who at first met at the door of the tabernacle at the call of one silver trumpet, while the congregation came at sound of the two, Num 10:3-4, 1 Kgs 15:7- became in postexilic days the Sanhedrin. Doubtless these meetings of the elders are often meant when the term "congregation" is used. Thus they meet to elect a king. 1 Sam 10:17. Their decisions bound the nation. Josh 9:15, 1 Sam 30:18. T.
it means the Christian Church at large or a local congregation, but in King James's Version the corresponding Greek word (ecelesia), when used of a religious assembly, is always rendered "church," even in Acts 7:38, where it means the Jewish congregation in the wilderness. " In Acts 19:32, Acts 19:39-40 it means simply a popular assembly. See Church.