Gad

Biblical Record

Gad was the seventh son of Jacob. According to Genesis 30:9-11, when Leah had stopped bearing children, she gave her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. When Zilpah bore a son, Leah rejoiced at her good fortune and named him Gad. Zilpah later bore Asher, so Gad and Asher were full brothers by the same mother (Genesis 35:26).

Little is recorded about Gad as an individual. Genesis 37:2 relates that Joseph, while tending the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, brought an evil report of them to their father. Gad had seven sons (Genesis 46:16) and went down to Egypt with Jacob's household (Exodus 1:4). Before his death, Jacob blessed his sons, saying of Gad, "Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last" (Genesis 49:19).

Gad's descendants formed the tribe of Gad, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In Numbers 32, the tribe of Gad, together with the tribe of Reuben, requested the land of Gilead east of the Jordan River on the grounds that they had a great multitude of cattle. Moses granted the request on the condition that they join in the campaign to conquer Canaan. In Joshua 22, after they had kept their promise and returned home, they built an altar by the Jordan, which led to conflict with the other tribes; the conflict was resolved when they explained that the altar was intended as a witness. 1 Chronicles 12:8 describes the Gadites who joined David as mighty men "whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains." 1 Chronicles 5:26 records that they were carried away captive by Assyria.

Significance in Scripture

The name Gad is understood to derive from a Hebrew word meaning "fortune" or "blessing." The blessing in Genesis 49:19 is generally understood as a wordplay based on the similarity in sound between "Gad" and a Hebrew word meaning "raiding band" or "troop." In Deuteronomy 33:20-21, Moses blesses the tribe of Gad by likening it to a lioness.

In Ezekiel 48, Gad appears in the list of allotments of the new land and among the names of the city gates. In the New Testament, Revelation 7:5 includes 12,000 from the tribe of Gad in the list of the tribes that were sealed.

Interpretation and Debated Points

• Meaning of the name: Ancient translations rendered the meaning of the name differently, depending on how they read the Hebrew text. The King James Version renders it "A troop cometh," while modern translations generally render it "good fortune" or "fortunate."
• Settlement east of the Jordan: Interpretations of the Gadites' settlement east of the Jordan differ. Some read it critically, as a choice of land outside the Promised Land for the sake of immediate gain. Others read it as an example of faithfulness, noting that in Joshua 22:1-4 Joshua acknowledged that they had kept their promise. This difference reflects individual interpreters rather than denominational lines.
• Extrabiblical traditions: The Testament of Gad, part of the later noncanonical work known as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, is known for portraying Gad as repenting of his hatred toward Joseph. This account does not come from the biblical text.
• Another person of the same name: Gad the seer of David's time (1 Samuel 22:5; 2 Samuel 24) is a different person from Gad the son of Jacob.

In the Korean Church

In Sunday school, Gad is taught when children learn the names of Jacob's twelve sons and the twelve tribes. In preaching, the account of the settlement east of the Jordan in Numbers 32 serves as a sermon text more often than material about Gad as an individual.