These days we tend to think of "roads" as smooth swaths of pavement and judge them by how fast we can drive cars on them. A "path" is something different, suitable only for walking or maybe bicycles, and a "way" has more to do with giving directions than any physical reality. When we get "lost" it usually means we're in a car on an unfamiliar road -- a far cry from being in the middle of a trackless wilderness with no idea which direction to go. The ancient world was very different, with isolated towns and endless square miles of trackless wilderness. Then a "way" was a set of landmarks to follow to get from one place to another through the wilderness. A "path" was a way used enough to leave a visible trace on the ground, and a "road" was a heavily used path, easily followed and walkable. So it makes sense that when used in the Bible, all three terms represent guiding truth, ideas that lead us where we want to go. This is pictured in the modern use of "way" -- when we talk about the "way" to do something or the "way" to get somewhere. We're talking about the correct, best, most efficient method of doing something or getting somewhere. And it's good information -- truth -- that helps us find that best way.

To gather, as in Genesis 6:21, refers to things gathered together in the memory of man. It also implies that good things and truths should be gathered together in man before he is regenerated. To gather together in a place to battle, as in Revelation 16:1, signifies the start of combat against truths in defense of falsities. The ancients were accustomed to say that, when anyone died, that he was gathered to his fathers, or to his people, and they understood that he actually came to his parents, his relations and kinsfolk in another life. 'To be gathered to his fathers' means that a person would join the spiritual community sharing similar good loves. 'To be gathered to his people' means that a person would join the spiritual community that holds same true ideas.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 16; Arcana Coelestia 679, Genesis 10, 25, 25:10)