Gad
GAD
GAD (Heb. ????), the seer (Heb. ?ozeh); one of the three prophets during the days of King *David. Gad joined David when the latter fled from Saul to Adullam and he persuaded him to return to Judah (i Sam. 22:5). He also instructed David to purchase the threshing floor of *Araunah the Jebusite and to build an altar there (ii Sam. 24:18ff.); this later became the site of Solomon's Temple (i Chron. 22:1). It is known that he remained in the court of David when the latter reigned in Jerusalem (ii Sam. 24:11–14; i Chron. 21:9–30). He was also one of the organizers of the levitical service in the Temple (ii Chron. 29:25) and, according to Chronicles, one of the chroniclers of the history of David (i Chron. 29:29). An anonymous opinion in the Babylonian Talmud (bb 15a) credits Gad along with the prophet Nathan with completing the Book of Samuel following Samuel's death.
bibliography:
M.Z. Segal, Sifrei Shemu'el (1961), 178; Yeivin, in: vt, 3 (1953), 149–65; O. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament. An Introduction (1965), 55, 533. add. bibliography: S. Japhet, i & ii Chronicles (1993), 516–17.
[Josef Segal]