Gad

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(troop). (1) Jacob’s seventh son (Gen. 30:11-13; 49:19¹¹And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. ¹²And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son. ¹³And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher. (Genesis 30:11‑13)
¹⁹Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. (Genesis 49:19); Num. 1:24-25²⁴Of the children of Gad, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war; ²⁵Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty. (Numbers 1:24‑25)). Tribe settled east of Jordan, and became a fierce, warlike people. Carried captive by Tiglath-pileser (1 Chron. 5:26²⁶And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day. (1 Chronicles 5:26)). (2) A prophet and David’s seer (1 Sam. 22:5⁵And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. (1 Samuel 22:5); 1 Chron. 21:9-19; 29:29⁹And the Lord spake unto Gad, David's seer, saying, ¹⁰Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. ¹¹So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee ¹²Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. ¹³And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. ¹⁴So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. ¹⁵And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. ¹⁷And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued. ¹⁸Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord. (1 Chronicles 21:9‑19)
²⁹Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer, (1 Chronicles 29:29); 2 Chron. 29:25²⁵And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. (2 Chronicles 29:25)).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

The seventh son of Jacob, and the first of Zilpah, Leah’s maid. Very little is recorded of Gad, except that he had seven sons (Gen. 30:11¹¹And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. (Genesis 30:11); Gen. 46:16¹⁶And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli. (Genesis 46:16); 1 Chron. 5:11¹¹And the children of Gad dwelt over against them, in the land of Bashan unto Salchah: (1 Chronicles 5:11)). Jacob in blessing his sons said of Gad, “A troop shall overcome him but he shall overcome at the last” (Gen. 49:19¹⁹Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. (Genesis 49:19)). Moses said, “Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with [or rather, “even”] the crown of the head. And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the Lord, and his judgments with Israel” (Deut. 33:20-21²⁰And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head. ²¹And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the Lord, and his judgments with Israel. (Deuteronomy 33:20‑21)). On leaving Egypt the number of those able to bear arms was 45,650, but on the crossing of the Jordan their number was about five thousand less.

Being on the east of Jordan, this tribe, with Reuben and Manasseh, would necessarily have to bear the shock of the enemies that attacked Israel on the east (1 Chron. 5:18-22¹⁸The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skilful in war, were four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore, that went out to the war. ¹⁹And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, and Nephish, and Nodab. ²⁰And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them: for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them; because they put their trust in him. ²¹And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of men an hundred thousand. ²²For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their steads until the captivity. (1 Chronicles 5:18‑22)). They were a warlike tribe, suitable for such an exposed position. Of those who joined David it is said they were “men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains” (1 Chron. 12:8-15⁸And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains; ⁹Ezer the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, ¹⁰Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, ¹¹Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, ¹²Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, ¹³Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh. ¹⁴These were of the sons of Gad, captains of the host: one of the least was over an hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. ¹⁵These are they that went over Jordan in the first month, when it had overflown all his banks; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east, and toward the west. (1 Chronicles 12:8‑15)). Jephthah and Barzillai were of this tribe.

Gad possessed a large district from a little above the north corner of the Dead Sea to near the south corner of the Sea of Galilee, then a very fertile plain suitable for their flocks and herds, including the highlands of Gilead (see map under TWELVE TRIBES). The tribes on the east of the Jordan were the first carried away by the king of Assyria, about B.C. 740; and the Ammonites took possession of the territory of Gad (1 Chron. 5:25-26²⁵And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them. ²⁶And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day. (1 Chronicles 5:25‑26); Jer. 49:1¹Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the Lord; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? (Jeremiah 49:1)). Twelve thousand of this tribe will in a future day be sealed for blessing (Rev. 7:5⁵Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. (Revelation 7:5)). Their allotment will be in the extreme south in the restoration of Israel (Ezek. 48:27²⁷And by the border of Zebulun, from the east side unto the west side, Gad a portion. (Ezekiel 48:27)).