Gad (Heb. id. ^?., fortune, Gen. xxx, 11, although another signification is alluded to in Gen. xlix, 11) ; Sept. and N. T. Tae}, the name of two men, and of the descendants of one of them ; also of a heathen deity and of a plant. See also Baal-Gad ; Migdal-Gad. 1. (.Josephus PacVtf.) Jacob's seventh son, the first-born of Zilpah, Leah's maid, and whole-brother to Asher (Gen. xxx, 11-13; xlvi, IG, 18), born autumn B.C. 1915. The following account is largely from the article in Smith's Did. of the Bible. See Jacob.
1. As to the name, there are several interpretations : (rt.) The passage in which the bestowal of the name of Gad is preserved — like the others, an exclamation on his birth — is more than usually obscure: "And Leah said, ' In fortune' (he-gad, "'53), and she called his name Gad" (Gen. xxx, 11). Such is supposed to be the meaning of the old text of the passage (the Kethi'o) ; so it stood at the time of the Sept., whicli renders the kej'- word by tv rvxy, in which it is followed by Jerome in theVulg.feliciter. In his Quast. in Goiesim, Jerome has infortuna. Josephus (Ant. i, 19, 8) gives it still a different turn — tvxcIoq = fortuitous. But in the mar- ginal emendations of the Masoretes (the Keri) iue word is given ^5 N2, "Gad has come." This construction is adopted by tiie ancient versions of Onkelos, Aquila (i'/XOiv j'/ c,waic), and Sj'mmachus (^i)\9(v rdii). (b.) In the blessing of Jacob, however, we find the name played upon in a different manner: "Gad" is here taken as meaning a piratical band or troop (the term constantly used for which is g diuV, "I^T?), and the al- lusion— the turns of which it is impossible adequately to convey' in English — would seem to be to the irregu- lar life of predatory warfare which should be pursued b}' the tribe after their settlement on the borders of the Promised Land. " Gad, a plundering troop (gedud') shall plunder him (ye-gud-en'nu), but he will plunder (^1/a-gud') [at the] heel" (Gen. xlix, 19). Jerome (De Benedict. Jacub'i) interprets this of the revenge taken by the warriors of the tribe on their return from the conquest of Western Palestine for the incursions of the desert tribes during their absence, (c.) The force here bnt to the name has l)een bj' some partiallj' transferred to the narrative of Gen. xxx, e. g. tlie Samaritan ver- sion, the Veneto-Greek, and our own A.V. (uniting this with the preceding) — "a troop (of children) cometh." But it must not be overlooked that the word gedad — by which it is here sought to interjjret the gad of Gen. xxx, 11 — possessed its own special signification of tur- bulence and fierceness, which makes it hardly applica-
ble to children in the sense of a number or crowd, the image suggested by the A. V. Exactly as the turns of Jacob's language apply to the characteristics of the tribe, it does not appear that there is any connection between his allusions and those in the exclamation of Leah. The kej' to the latter is probably lost. To suppose that Leah was invoking some ancient divinitj', the god Fortune, who is conjectured to be once alluded to — and once only — in the latter part of the book of Isaiah, under the title of Gad (Isa. Ixv, 11 ; A.V. "that troop;" Gesenius, " dem Gliick"), is surely a poor ex- planation. See below, 3.
2. Of the childhood and life of the individual Gad nothing is preserved. At tlio time of the descent into Egypt seven sons are ascribed to him, remarkable from the fact that a majority of their names have plural ter- minations, as if those of families rather than persons (Gen. xlvi, 16). The list, with a slight variation, is again given on the occasion of the census in the wil- derness of Sinai (Numb, xxvi, 15-18). See Akod; EZBON; Ozxi.
Tribe of Gad. — The position of Gad daring the march to the Promised Land was on the south side of the tabernacle (Numb, ii, 14). The leader of the tribe at the time of the start from Sinai was Eliasapli, son of Ileuel or Deuel (ii, 14 ; x, 20). Gad is regularly named in the various enumerations of the tril)es through the wanderings— at the dispatching of the spies (xiii, 15), the numbering in the plains of Moab (xxvi, 3, 15) — but the only inference we can draw is an indication of a commencing alliance with the tribe which was subsequently to be his next neighbor. He has left ths more closelj^-rclated tribe of Asher to take up his posi- tion next to Reuben. These two tribes also preserve a near equality in their numbers, not suffering from the fluctuations which were endured by the others. At the first census Gad had 45,650, and Reuben 4G,500 ; at the last Gad had 40,500, and Reuben 43,330. This alliance was doubtless induced by the similarity of their pursuits. Of all the sons of Jacob, these two tribes alone returned to the land which their forefathers had left five hundred years before with their occupa- tions unchanged. " The trade of thy slaves hath been about cattle from our youth even till now" — "we are shepherds, both we and our fathers" (Gen. xlvi, 34 ; xlvii, 4) — such was the account which the patriarchs gave of themselves to Pharaoh. The civilization and the persecutions of Egypt had worked a change in the habits of most of the tribes, but Reuben and Gad re- mained faithful to the pastoral pursuits of Abraliam, Isaac, and Jacob; and at the halt on the east of Jordan we find them coming forward to Moses with the repre- sentation that they "have cattle" — " a great multitude of cattle," and the land where they now are is a " i)lace for cattle." AVhat should they do in the close pre- cincts of the country west of Jordan with all their flocks and herds ? Wherefore let this land, they pray, be given them for a possession, and let them not be brought over Jordan (Numl). xxxii, 1-5). They did not, however, attempt to evade taking their proper share of the difficulties of subduing the land of Canaan, and after that task had been effected, and the appor- tionment amongst the nine and a half tribes completed "at the doorway of the taliernacle of the congregation in Shiloh, before Jehovah," they were dismissed bj' Joshua "to their tents," to their "wives, their little ones, and their cattle," which thej' had left behind their in Gilead. To their tents they went — to the dan- geis and delights of the free Bedouin life in which they had elected to remain, and in which — a few i)artial glimpses excepted — the later history allows them to remain hidden from view.