GAD 00 in Hebrew and Chaldee means " luck" ; hence, in the Phoenician and Babylonian cultus, the god of luck, who is mentioned in isa. lxv. 11 (where for "that troop" should be read " Gad "), and whose name appears in several names of places, such as Baal-Gad (Josh. xi. 17, xii. 7); possibly also in Dibon-Gad, Migdol-Gad, and Nahal-Gad. Gad was the name given by Leah, the wife of Jacob, to the patriarch's seventh son, the first-born of Zilpah, her maid ; see Gen. xxx. 11, where the Hebrew K'tib is -q; and the K'ri q. The former is adopted by the LXX-, and rightly rendered Iv Ti1xy (Vulgate feliciter); the latter reading is adopted in the Targums and Peshito, which translate "luck is come," and by the Samaritan and Yen., which interpret the expression as meaning "a troop (or army) is come." This last rendering has doubtless been influenced by Gen. xlix. 19, where the name is played on as if it were "frq, "a plundering troop" ; " Gad, a plundering troop shall plunder him, but he shall plunder at their heels." Of the personal history of Gad nothing is related. According to Gen. xlvi. 16, he had seven sons when he went down to Egypt along with Jacob ; and in Num. xxvi. 15 these appear as seven families, one of the names, however, being changed (Ozni for Ezbon). At the Exodus the tribe numbered 45,650 fighting men (Kum. i. 25); but they declined to 40,500 during the forty years' wandering in the wilderness (Num. xxvi. 18). During the subsequent period the fortunes of this tribe were very closely connected with those of the tribe of Reuben. At the division of the country a portion in the trans-Jordanic territory was, at their special request, allotted to them by Moses (Num. xxxii. 33), and this arrangement was carried out by Joshua ; but considerable difficulty arises when the attempt is made to define the precise limits of the district thus assigned. It is certain that Gad never extended further west than the Jordan ; but in different passages we find its northern, eastern, and southern boundaries stretched as far as to the Sea of Galilee, Salkah in the desert, and the river Anion respectively. In the book of Numbers (xxxii. 34) the cities of Gad appear to lie chiefly to the south of Heshbon ; in Joshua xiii. 24-28 they lie almost wholly to the north ; while other texts present discrepancies that are not easily reconciled with either passage. That Gad, at one time at least, held territory as far south as Pisgah and Nebo would follow from Deut. xxxiii. 21, if the rendering of the Targums, revived by Ewald and Diestel, were to be accepted - " and he looked out the first part for himself, because there was the portion of the buried lawgiver ;" it is certain, however, that, at a late period, this tribe was localized chiefly in Gilead, in the district which now goes by the name of Jebel Jilad. Possibly some cities were common to both Reuben and Gad, and perhaps others more than once changed hands. Both tribes were pastoral and warlike ; but the latter seems to have excelled in bravery and force of character, and indeed there are indications that the tribe of Reuben had been absorbed, or become extinct, at a somewhat early (late. David's men of Gad (1 Chr. xii. 8) are famous, and Jeplithali and Elijah seem to have belonged to that tribe. It followed Jeroboam in the great revolt against the house of David ; and a genealogy, as at the time of Jeroboam II., is given in 1 Chr. v. 11-16, where the names aro in every case different from those in Numbers. The tribe was "carried into captivity" by Tiglath Pileser in the 8th century B.C. (1 Chr. v. 26 ; comp. 2 Kings xv. 29), and at this point it wholly disappears from history.

GAD is also the name of a" prophet" or "seer," who was. probably a pupil of Samuel at Naioth, and a companion of David, to whom he early attached himself. It is not known to which tribe he belonged. He is first mentioned in 1 Sam. xxii. 5 as having joined David while he was "in the hold ;" and he afterwards became a member of his regal court, where lie seems to have held an official position, being occasionally designated as "the king's seer." Ho assisted in organizing the musical service of the "house of of God" (2 Chr. xxix. 25), and also wrote a "book of the acts of David," which is referred to in 1 Chr. xxix. 29.