Gad (1 Samuel 22:5)
The name Gad means “a band; a troop.” Gad is mentioned in 13 verses of the Bible, first in 1 Samuel 22:5.
Who was Gad?
A prophet who joined David in the “hold,” and at whose advice he quitted it for the forest of Hareth (1 Chr. 29:29; 2 Chr. 29:25; 1 Sam. 22:5). Many years after we find mention made of him in connection with the punishment inflicted for numbering the people (2 Sam. 24:11-19; 1 Chr. 21:9-19). He wrote a book called the “Acts of David” (1 Chr. 29:29), and assisted in the arrangements for the musical services of the “house of God” (2 Chr. 29:25). He bore the title of “the king’s seer” (2 Sam. 24:11, 13; 1 Chr. 21:9).
Biography adapted from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain, linked via Theographic Bible Metadata.
Key verses about Gad
- 1 Samuel 22:5
And 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.
- 2 Samuel 24:11
For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
- 2 Samuel 24:14
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
- 2 Samuel 24:18
And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.
- 1 Chronicles 29:29
Now 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,
- 2 Chronicles 29:25
And 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.