The twelve tribes of Israel

The Tribe of Gad

Son of Jacob by Zilpah (Leah's maid) · Name means A troop, or good fortune (Leah said, a troop cometh) · Settled east of the Jordan, in the highlands of Gilead

Gad was a son of Jacob by Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, and his tribe settled in the rugged highlands of Gilead, east of the Jordan. The Gadites were famed as fierce warriors, and Jacob's blessing over Gad speaks of a tribe overrun by raiders yet triumphing in the end. Living on the exposed eastern frontier, Gad had to fight for its place, and its story is one of hard-won endurance.

Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.Genesis 49:19 (KJV)

Gad the man

Gad was the seventh son of Jacob, the first born to Zilpah, Leah's maid. When he was born Leah said, A troop cometh, and called his name Gad, a name that carries the sense of a band or a troop, and also of good fortune. The name proved fitting, for the tribe of Gad would be a nation of soldiers, forever facing troops of raiders on its borders.

The Gadites are remembered above all for their valor. When David was still an outlaw, mighty men of Gad came over to him, men of war fit for the battle, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were as swift as the roes upon the mountains. It is one of the most vivid pictures in Scripture of a warrior people, forged by the hard land they held.

Jacob's blessing: overcome, yet overcoming

Jacob's word over Gad is a small masterpiece of hope wrung out of hardship: Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. The play on words in the original circles around Gad's own name, the troop. The blessing does not promise Gad an easy life; it promises the opposite. Raiders will fall upon him, he will be pressed and overrun. But the last word is victory: he shall overcome at the last.

It is a blessing for the frontier, honest about the cost and sure of the outcome. Moses too blessed Gad as one that dwelleth as a lion, tearing the arm and the crown of the head, and praised the tribe for coming with the leaders of the people to do the justice of the LORD. Gad's calling was to endure, to be beaten back and to rise again, and in the end to prevail.

The tribe and its territory

Gad, with Reuben and half of Manasseh, chose to settle east of the Jordan, in the good pasture land of Gilead, because they had very great flocks and herds. Moses granted it on the condition that their armed men cross the river and fight alongside their brothers until all Israel had rest, and the Gadites kept the promise. So they took the highlands of Gilead, a wild, beautiful, and dangerous country.

That frontier land, exposed to Ammon and Moab and the desert raiders beyond, kept Gad forever at war. Its warriors were hardened by it, but its position also meant that Gad, like Reuben, was among the first of the tribes carried away when Assyria pushed in from the east. The blessing had said a troop would overcome him, and history bore it out, yet the same blessing had promised that overcoming was not the end of the story.

Out of Gilead, the land of Gad, came one of the boldest voices in all Scripture, the prophet Elijah the Tishbite, who stood alone against the prophets of Baal and called Israel back to the living God. Whether or not Elijah was himself a Gadite, his fierce and lonely courage was bred in that hard eastern country, and it fits the character of the tribe of Gad, a people forged on the frontier who would not bow to the gods of their neighbors.

Gad in God's plan

Gad is the tribe of those who live under pressure and hold their ground. Its blessing speaks to every believer who feels overrun, beaten back by trouble again and again, wondering if the struggle will ever end. To such the word of Gad is a quiet gospel: a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last.

The final victory belongs not to the strength of Gad's warriors but to the faithfulness of God, who promised that the overcoming would come at the last. In the Revelation, twelve thousand of the tribe of Gad are sealed among the redeemed, the frontier tribe brought safely home. The pattern of Gad, pressed hard now, triumphant at the last, is the pattern of the whole people of God, who through much tribulation enter the kingdom, and who overcome at the last by the blood of the Lamb.

Gad reminds every hard-pressed believer that the Christian life is often a fighting retreat that ends in triumph, not because we are strong, but because our Captain has already won. The one who came from Judah was himself overcome, to all appearances, at the cross, and yet he overcame at the last in the resurrection, and in him all who are pressed and beaten in this world will overcome at the last as well.

A note on counting the twelve: Jacob had twelve sons, but the tribes are reckoned in more than one way in Scripture. The tribe of Levi was set apart for the priesthood and received no territory of its own, and Joseph, given the double portion of the firstborn, was counted as two tribes through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. So when the land was divided the tribes still numbered twelve, with Levi outside the count. Different lists in the Bible reflect this: the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy leaves out Simeon, and the sealed tribes in Revelation 7 omit Dan and Ephraim while naming Levi, Joseph, and Manasseh. The number twelve is preserved as a sign of the whole people of God.

Related: The Tribe of Reuben · The Tribe of Asher · Jacob in the Bible · All twelve tribes