גָּד

From the study of Exodus 1:4

Range of meaning

A personal name and tribe east of the Jordan. As an ordinary noun, gad means 'good fortune, luck'. Gad was also the name of a deity of fortune known in the Levant. A similar-sounding word, gedud, means a raiding band or troop.

Against the English

Transliterated. English 'Gad' carries no meaning for an English reader. For a Hebrew hearer it said 'Fortune!'

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 30:11: Leah says 'ba gad', 'good fortune has come' (the written text has the single word bagad; the traditional reading divides it into two words). Genesis 49:19 plays on it: 'Gad — raiders (gedud) shall raid him (yegudennu), but he shall raid at their heels.' Isaiah 65:11 condemns setting a table 'for Gad', the god of fortune. Place names such as Baal-gad (Joshua 11:17) and Migdal-gad (Joshua 15:37), and Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions, show Gad as a divine name in the region.

From the study of Jeremiah 49:1

Range of meaning

Personal name of Jacob's son. By extension, the tribe, and then its territory east of the Jordan in Gilead, between Reuben to the south and half-Manasseh to the north.

Against the English

English versions all keep "Gad". Modern readers may not know it was a real stretch of land on Ammon's western border.

Used elsewhere in the period

Numbers 32 and Joshua 13:24–28 assign Gad land up to "Aroer, which is east of Rabbah", which puts Gad directly on Ammon's frontier. The Mesha Stele says "the men of Gad had lived in the land of Ataroth from of old." Tiglath-pileser III's campaign of 733–732 BCE deported Gadites along with Reubenites and half-Manasseh (2 Kgs 15:29; 1 Chr 5:26). Amos 1:13 accuses Ammon of brutal warfare in Gilead "to enlarge their border."