Gad

Holy Prophet Gad was a prophet and seer of the Old Testament, mentioned also in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in the time of King David. He was a friend of King David, and the Bible calls him the prophet and seer of David. Our sources do not give the date of his commemoration.

He is first mentioned in 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 22:5, where he tells David to return from refuge in Moab to the forest of Hereth in the land of Judah. At the time when David was hiding from the persecution of Saul, Gad helped him with counsel. After David became king of Israel, Gad was among his advisers and arranged, together with the prophet Nathan, the service of the Levite singers and musicians.

After David numbered the people, Gad came to him to announce the Lord's punishment for this deed. According to 2 Kingdoms (2 Samuel) 24:11 to 13 (1 Chronicles 21:9 to 13), after David confesses his sin of numbering the people of Israel and Judah, God sends Gad to David to offer him a choice of three kinds of punishment. Gad is mentioned a last time in the books of Samuel in 2 Kingdoms 24:18, when he comes to David and tells him to build an altar to the Lord after God has stopped the plague that David had chosen as punishment. The place indicated by Gad for the altar is the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. In 1 Chronicles 21:18 and 19 an encounter of Gad with the angel of the Lord is told.

According to the First Book of Chronicles, Gad, together with the prophets Samuel and Nathan, wrote the acts of King David, for which reason he is regarded as one of the possible authors of the first and second books of Kingdoms. According to the Talmudic tradition, some of his writings are included in the books of Samuel. A tomb attributed to him is thought to lie at Halhul, in the West Bank.