T. G. Pinches.
GAD (13, rd5). — Son of Jacob by his concubim Zilpah, Leah's slave-girl. Gn 30" RV, ' Leah saiil. Fortunate ! and she called his name Gad,' follows the LXX, cIttcv Aeia, 'Ev Ti'xB, and Vulg, Dixit feticiter. Field mentions the Greek rendering, elrrixQKa., 'I have had good fortune,' reading i;a or T53. Perhaps we sliould tr. ' With the help of Gad' (Ball, Sacred Books of OT). Dillm. liM 'tlliickskind.' So Kethibh ; the .^ere', punctuating ditl'erently, has 11 k3 ' Gad or Fortune comes.' So Symm. (^XSej" Tad) Onk. and Syr. Aq. has fi\Oer euiwta (' well-living'), which Field, on the authority of Jerome, etc. , corrects to eij'ww'a ( ' the being \v ell- girded '). The view taken by these authontiea suggests that Gad here is either the divine name found in Is 65" (see preceding art.), or is connected with that name. The AV ' a troop cometh ' treats "ij as equivalent to nn;, probably on account of Gn 49'", which, however, is rather a play upon words than a serious etymology. Similar trans- lations are given by the Sam. Version (Dillm.) and the Gr.-Ven. rJKti <rrpdTevij.a.
W. H. Bennett.
GAD (Tribe) ; for Name, see preceding article.
i. Early History. — The relation of Gad to the other tribes is indicated genealogically by the statement, Gn 30" (J), 35-* (P), that Gad and Asher were the sons of Zilpah, Rachel's slave, i.e. probably, that Gad and Asher were closely con- nected, and either occupied a secondary positioa in, or were late accessions to, Israel. The separa- tion of the Palestinian territories of the two tribes shows that this statement refers to a period bcfme the completion of the conquest of Canaan, it ia noteworthy that the names Gad and possibly also Asher are connected \vitli the names of Semitic deities. P (Gn 46'*, Nu 26""") enumerates the sons or families of Gad, and states (Nu 1'^ 2'« 7" 10;» IS'") that, at the Exodus, the prince of Gad was Eliasaph
• These lectistemin or tables for the gods are also referred Co in connexion with ' the queen of heaven ' in Jer 7^8.
t n'AJm. pi. 66. obv. 1, 2 c
i lb, obv. 30c, rev. 29f., the latter passage reading *Kibi<lunkl of Assur (and) Istar (or, of the god and goddess) of Suti ' (prob- ably the people Suti transported V Kadifiman-MuruS ' from east to west,' i.e. to Amurri or Phcenicia). KibiKiunki i4 probably the same as the deity Ikbi-dunki, ^ho Is described u musfrih damati, ' the dispenser of favours.'
GAD
ben-Deuel (or Reuel), and that the Gadite amongst the twelve spies was Geuel ben-Machi. Buchanan Graj- (Heb. Proper Names, 205) considers Eliasaph pre-exilic ; but places Deuel and Geuel in a list of which he says, ' The probability appears to me great that the following seventeen are of late origin, and, probably, also of artificial character' (p. 210). P also tells us that Gad numbered 45,650 at the first census (Nu 1^ 2"), and at the second 40,500 (MT Nu 26'»), or 44,500 (LXX Nu 26^) ; and that Gad marched in the wilderness in the ' Camp of Reuben ' with Reuben and Simeon on the south side of Israel (Nu 2'*-"). In Nu 1°-" Gad occupies the eleventh place, beween Asher and Naphtali ; in 1« MT and 26'" MT, the third place after Reuben and Simeon, but in the cor- responding 1^ LXX, the ninth place, between Benjamin and Dan, and in 26^ LXX, the sixth place, between Zebulun and Asher. In Nu 2'* 7** Gad occupies the sixth place, also after Reuben and Simeon.
ii. The Conquest.— In Nu 32 Reuben and Gad receive E. Palestine from Moses on condition of aiding in the conquest of W. Palestine. Altliough this cuapter owes its present form to P, the main
GAD 77
the Arnon, and possibly farther north. Nu 32"- " (JE) assigns to Reuben, Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiria- thaim, Nebo, and Baal-meon — cities Ij-ing in a district about midway between the Jabbok and the Arnon. Tliis suggests that Reuben held an enclave in the territory of Gad. See Map, in which the names of the above Reubenite cities are printea in italics, (i) Jos 13. Though this chapter comes to us from P, it is probably based on earlier sources. P knows less about the E. than about the \V. tribes, and this ch. is obscure and self -contradictory; but it clearly locates Gad north of a line drawn from the north end of the Dead Sea, a little to the N. of Heshbon, and places Reuben south of the same line. This chapter is followed in the ordinary maps of Palestine.
As to the northern boundary of Gad, the state- ments as to the division of Gilead between Gad and E. Manasseh are contradictory ; and the term Gilead was probably very elastic. The data are too obscure to determine any clear boundary between Gad and E. Manasseh, even as represent- ing any single account. In Nu 32^ (P?) Moses gives the land of Gilead to Gad and Reuben ; in Nu 32*' (JE), Dt 3", Gilead belongs to Machir
facts were probably contained in J or E or both ; but the references to ' half Manasseh ' are editorial additions to the original narrative. Similar state- ments are made in Dt 3'»-" 298, Jos 12« (D^) IS""!* (D= P). Further, Jos l'2-i8 4" (D') tell us that Reuben and Gad fulfilled their promise, and Jos 22'"* (D-) that thev afterwards returned home.