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50-646: The Book of Joshua records that the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh were allocated land by Moses on the eastern side of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea . The Tribe of Reuben was allocated the territory immediately east of the Dead Sea, reaching from the Arnon river in the south, and as far north as the Dead Sea stretched, with an eastern border vaguely defined by the land dissolving into desert ;

100-647: A choice of death (by the sword) or having their right eyes gouged out. The population obtained seven days' grace from Nahash, during which they would be allowed to seek help from the Israelites , after which they would have to submit to the terms of surrender. The occupants sought help from the people of Israel, sending messengers throughout the whole territory, and Saul , a herdsman at this time, responded by raising an army which decisively defeated Nahash and his cohorts at Bezek . The strangely cruel terms given by Nahash for surrender were explained by Josephus as being

150-604: A group of about seventy persons, including Reuben and his four sons. According to the account in Exodus, the Israelites stayed in Egypt for 430 years, and their numbers grew to include about 600,000 men, not counting women or children. At this point they left Egypt (see The Exodus ) and wandered for forty years in the wilderness between Egypt and the promised land of Canaan. As the tribes prepared to enter Canaan by crossing over to

200-493: A host of people. Then Deborah said, according to Judges 4:14 : "Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. As Deborah prophesied, a battle is fought (led by Barak), and Sisera is completely defeated. He escapes on foot while his army is pursued as far as Harosheth Haggoyim and destroyed. Sisera comes to

250-585: A long while (with apperently Dibon taken in the 10th century BCE). According to the Torah , the tribe consisted of descendants of Gad the seventh son of Jacob , from whom it took its name. However, some Biblical scholars view this also as a postdiction , an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. In the Biblical account, Gad

300-580: A mandrake in his hand. Tribe of Gad According to the Bible , the Tribe of Gad ( Hebrew : גָּד , Modern :   Gad , Tiberian :   Gāḏ , "soldier" or "luck") was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel who, after the Exodus from Egypt , settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River . It is one of the ten lost tribes . After the conquest of the land by Joshua until

350-526: A matter of the tribe desiring the land as soon as they saw it, before they had even crossed the Jordan under Joshua , and conquered Canaan . Classical rabbinical literature regards this selection of the other side by Gad as something for which they should be blamed, remarking that, as mentioned in Ecclesiastes , the full stomach of the rich denies them sleep . When they arrived at the Jordan and saw

400-570: A series of predictions which the Bible presents as delivered by the patriarch Jacob about the future fate of the tribes descended from his twelve sons. Some textual scholars date it substantially later than these events. Reuben is characterised as fickle, "unstable as water", and condemned to no longer "have . . . the excellency" due to Reuben's crime of having sexual relations with his father's concubine Bilhah . The Bible relates that Jacob and his twelve sons, along with their sons, went down into Egypt as

450-502: Is a hymn that celebrates a military victory of two women: Deborah, the prophetess and Jael, the warrior. Jael—the heroine of the Song of Deborah—shares parallels with the main character of the Book of Judith , who uses her beauty and charm to kill an Assyrian general who has besieged her city, Bethulia . The Song of Deborah is commonly identified as among the oldest texts of the Bible, but

500-458: Is one of the two descendants of Zilpah , a handmaid of Jacob, the other descendant being Asher ; scholars see this as indicating that the authors saw Gad and Asher as being not of entirely Israelite origin (hence descendants of handmaids rather than of full wives). In common with Asher is the possibility that the tribal name derives from a deity worshipped by the tribe, Gad being thought by scholars to be likely to have taken its name from Gad ,

550-511: Is recounted in chapter 4 . Judges 5 gives the same story in poetic form . This passage, often called The Song of Deborah , may date to as early as the twelfth century BCE, and is perhaps the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry . In the Book of Judges , it is stated that Deborah was a prophetess , a judge of Israel and the wife of Lapidoth. She rendered her judgments beneath a date palm tree between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in

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600-596: The Book of Chronicles , Adina and thirty Reubenites aided David as members of his mighty warriors in conquering the City of David . Also according to Chronicles, during the reign of King Saul Reuben instigated a war with the Hagarites , and was victorious; in another portion of the same text, Reuben is said to have been assisted in this war by Gad and the eastern half of Manasseh . According to 1 Chronicles 5:26, Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria (ruled 745–727 BC) deported

650-512: The Septuagint or masoretic text , an introductory passage, preceding this narrative, was found in a copy of the Books of Samuel among the scrolls found in cave 4 : [N]ahash, king of Ammonites would put hard pressure on the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Ruben and would gouge everyone's right eye out, but no res(cuer) would be provided for Israel and there was not left anyone among

700-469: The usual practice of Nahash. A more complete explanation came to light with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls : although not present in either the Septuagint or masoretic text , an introductory passage, preceding this narrative, was found in a copy of the Books of Samuel among the scrolls found in cave 4 : [N]ahash, king of Ammonites would put hard pressure on the descendants of Gad and

750-534: The "children of Gad" is set out in 1 Chronicles 5:11–17 . Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. However, in the case of the Tribes of Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh , Moses allocated land to them on the eastern side of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea ( Joshua 13:24–28 ). The Tribe of Gad

800-524: The Book of Joshua. Israel Finkelstein et al., have claimed that lack of evidence for a systematic conquest or the abrupt appearance of a new culture indicates that the Israelites simply arose as a subculture within Canaanite society. The territory of Reuben encapsulated the territory of the earlier kingdom of Sihon . In this period, according to the ancient Song of Deborah , Reuben declined to take part in

850-431: The Jordan. Following the death of Moses, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites, and with the help of these eastern tribes including Reuben, conquered some of Canaan and assigned the land of Israel to the various twelve tribes. According to Kenneth Kitchen , this conquest occurred around 1200 BC, but "almost all" scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in

900-737: The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to "Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River." According to the Moabite Mesha Stele (ca. 840 BCE) the Moabites reclaimed many territories in the second part of the 9th century BCE (only recently conquered by Omri and Ahab according to the Stele). The stele does mention fighting against the tribe of Gad but not the tribe of Reuben, even though taking Nebo and Jahaz which were in

950-526: The Tabernacle ( Num. R . 13. 19). Moses was buried in the territory of Gad ( Sotah 13b; Yalkut Shimoni , Vezot Habrachah, sec. 961). According to some, Elijah was a descendant of Gad ( Gen. R. 71). The tribes of Gad and Reuben were the first that went into exile ( Lam. R. 1:5). Though initially forming part of the Kingdom of Israel , from the biblical account it appears that under Uzziah and Jotham

1000-669: The accession of David's grandson Rehoboam , in c. 930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David and from Saul's tribe Benjamin to reform Israel as the Northern Kingdom . Gad was a member of the Northern Kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c. 723 BC and the population deported. From that time onwards, the Tribe of Gad has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. A genealogy of

1050-461: The centre in their designated homeland. This would suggest that the tribe of Reuben at this time was no longer recognizable as a separate force in this area. Even if still present at the outbreak of this war, the outcome of this war would have left them without a territory of their own, just like the tribes of Simeon and Levi. This is, according to Richard Elliott Friedman in Who Wrote the Bible? ,

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1100-467: The challenge, and the Tribe of Gad joined the new kingdom with Saul as the first king. After the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, but after the death of Saul's son Ish-bosheth , successor to the throne of Israel, the Tribe of Gad joined the other northern Israelite tribes in making Judah's king David the king of a re-united Kingdom of Israel. However, on

1150-538: The children of Israel in the Tr(ans Jordan) whose right eye Nahash the king of Ammonites did not gouge out but be(hold) seven thousand men (escaped the power of) Ammonites and they arrived at (Ya)besh Gilead. About a month later Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead. With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet

1200-463: The country of Ataroth from ancient times, and the king of Israel fortified Ataroth", implicitly presenting Gad as predating Israel in the lands east of the Jordan. These details seems to indicate that Gad was originally a northwards-migrating nomadic tribe, at a time when the other tribes were quite settled in Canaan. In the biblical account, Gad's presence on the east of the Jordan is explained as

1250-471: The date of its composition is controversial. Many scholars claim a date as early as the 12th century BCE, while others claim it to be as late as the 3rd century BCE. Some hold that the song was written no earlier than the 7th century BCE. Traditional Jewish chronology places Deborah's 40 years of judging Israel ( Judges 5:31 ) from 1107 BC until her death in 1067 BC. The Dictionary of World Biography: The Ancient World claims that she might have lived in

1300-603: The defeat of Canaanite adversaries by some of the tribes of Israel. The song itself differs slightly from the events described in Judges 4 . The song mentions six participating tribes: Ephraim , Benjamin , Machir —a group associated with the Tribe of Manasseh — Zebulun , Issachar and Naphtali , as opposed to the two tribes in Judges 4:6 (Naphtali and Zebulun) and does not mention the role of Jabin (king of Hazor ). The song also rebukes three other tribes ( Reuben , Dan , and Asher ) for their lack of patriotism, not mentioning

1350-448: The descendants of Ruben and would gouge everyone's right eye out, but no res(cuer) would be provided for Israel and there was not left anyone among the children of Israel in the Tr(ans Jordan) whose right eye Nahash the king of Ammonites did not gouge out but be(hold) seven thousand men (escaped the power of) Ammonites and they arrived at (Ya)besh Gilead. About a month later Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead. According to

1400-527: The description in Joshua 13 as reflecting administrative districts set up in the time of Solomon, but not reflecting actual tribal settlement patterns. By 900 BC, some of the territory of Reuben and Gad had been captured by the Moabite kingdom. According to the Torah , the tribe consisted of descendants of Reuben , the first son of Jacob , and a son of Leah, from whom it took its name. Modern scholarship views

1450-572: The events described in Genesis and Exodus, which contain the early stories about Jacob and his immediate descendants, as non-historical. The Bible divides the tribe of Reuben into four clans or families, the Hanochites, Palluites, Hezronites, and Carmites, which according to the Bible were descended from Reuben's sons Hanoch, Pallu, Hazron, and Carmi. Genesis 49 contains the Blessing of Jacob ,

1500-408: The fertility of the land, they said: "One handful of enjoyment on this side is better than two on the other" ( Lev. R. 3:1). However, because they crossed the river to help their brethren in the conquest of Palestine, just as Simeon did when he took his sword and warred against the men of Shechem, they were found worthy to follow the tribe of Simeon at the sacrifices on the occasion of the dedication of

1550-460: The formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BC, the Tribe of Gad was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges (see the Book of Judges ). In the First Book of Samuel , King Nahash of Ammon appears abruptly as the attacker of Jabesh-Gilead , which lay outside

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1600-486: The king of Israel fortified Ataroth". Also Mesha calls his father " Chemosh-gad, king of Moab, the Dibonite", indicating that Dibon was already a major Moabite settlement for a long time (his father having been king for thirty years before him). This shows that in the middle of the 9th century BCE the Moabites still recognized Gad as a separate tribe, and as a part of the kingdom of Israel, but had been pushing them north for

1650-527: The land of Ephraim . The people of Israel had been oppressed by Jabin , the king of Canaan , whose capital was Hazor , for twenty years. Stirred by the wretched condition of Israel she sends a message to Barak , the son of Abinoam, at Kedesh in Naphtali , and tells him that the Lord God had commanded him to muster ten thousand troops of Naphtali and Zebulun and concentrate them upon Mount Tabor ,

1700-491: The mountain at the northern angle of the great plain of Esdraelon . At the same time she states that the Lord God of Israel will draw Sisera , commander of Jabin's army, to the Kishon River . Barak declines to go without the prophet. Deborah consents, but declares that the glory of the victory will therefore belong to a woman. As soon as the news of the rebellion reaches Sisera, he collects nine hundred chariots of iron and

1750-527: The name of their first king. Song of Deborah According to the Book of Judges , Deborah ( Hebrew : דְּבוֹרָה , Dəḇōrā ) was a prophetess of Judaism , the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel , and the only female judge mentioned in the Hebrew Bible . Many scholars contend that the phrase, "a woman of Lappidoth", as translated from biblical Hebrew in Judges 4:4 denotes her marital status as

1800-446: The people of Israel, sending messengers throughout the whole territory, and Saul , a herdsman at this time, responded by raising an army which decisively defeated Nahash and his cohorts at Bezek . The strangely cruel terms given by Nahash for surrender were explained by Josephus as being the usual practice of Nahash. A more complete explanation came to light with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls : although not present in either

1850-622: The reason why these three tribes are passed over in favour of Judah in the J-version of the Jacob's deathbed blessing (composed in Judah before the fall of Israel). The Tribes of Israel had banners described by the Book of Numbers , such the Lion of Judah . Jewish writers have diverged on whether the banner of Reuben bore the symbol of a man or male child (Aben Ezrah), a mandrake , or a child holding

1900-494: The semitic god of fortune; Like Asher, Gad's geographic details are diverse and divergent, with cities sometimes indicated as being part of Gad, and sometimes as part of other tribes, and with inconsistent boundaries, with Gilead sometimes including Gad and sometimes not. Furthermore, the Moabite Stone seemingly differentiates between the kingdom of Israel and the tribe of Gad, saying "the men of Gad dwelled in

1950-569: The south it was exposed to the Moabites , and like the other tribes east of the Jordan was exposed on the north and east to Aram-Damascus and later the Assyrians . Gad is mentioned in the Mesha Stele (ca 840 BCE), where the Moabite king Mesha boast about his conquest of Atoroth (very probably Khirbat Ataruz ): "And the men of Gad dwelled in the country of Ataroth from ancient times, and

2000-412: The tent of Jael and lies down to rest. He asks for a drink, she gives him milk and he falls asleep. While he is asleep she hammers a tent-pin through his temple. The Biblical account of Deborah ends with the statement that after the battle, there was peace in the land for 40 years ( Judges 5:31 ). The Song of Deborah is found in Judges 5:2–31 and is a victory hymn , sung by Deborah and Barak, about

2050-453: The territory he laid claim to. Having subjected the occupants to a siege , the population sought terms for surrender , and were told by Nahash that they had a choice of death (by the sword) or having their right eyes gouged out. The population obtained seven days' grace from Nahash, during which they would be allowed to seek help from the Israelites , after which they would have to submit to the terms of surrender. The occupants sought help from

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2100-472: The territory included the plain of Madaba . The exact border between Reuben and the Tribe of Gad , generally considered to have been situated to the north of Reuben, is somewhat inconsistently specified in the Bible, with Dibon and Aroer being part of Gad according to Numbers 32:34, but part of Reuben according to Joshua 13:15–16. On that basis, the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) claimed that

2150-458: The territory of Reuben was an enclave in the territory of Gad. The territories described in Joshua 13 depict Gad as being to the north of Reuben, while the description in Numbers 32 and 34 has Reubenites living near Heshbon, surrounded by Gadites. Yohanan Aharoni interpreted the description in Numbers as referring to the actual distribution of Reubenites and Gadites around the time of David , and

2200-646: The tribe being lost , and according to the Book of Jeremiah , their former lands were (re)conquered by the Ammonites . Ethiopian Jews , also known as Beta Israel , claim descent from the Tribe of Dan, whose members migrated south along with members of the tribes of Gad, Asher , and Naphtali , into the Kingdom of Kush , now Ethiopia and Sudan , during the destruction of the First Temple . The Igbo in Nigeria claim descent from Gad through his son Eri, also

2250-462: The tribe of Gad joined with the kingdom of Judah instead. Nevertheless, when Tiglath-Pileser III annexed the kingdom of Israel in about 733–731 BC, Gad also fell victim to the actions of the Assyrians , and the tribe were exiled; in the Talmud , it is Gad, along with the tribe of Reuben , that are portrayed as being the first victims of this fate. The manner of the exile led to the further history of

2300-468: The tribes of Gad, Simeon and Judah. Michael Coogan writes that for the redactors of the Song of Deborah, that the Canaanite general Sisera ends up being murdered by a woman ( Jael )—the ultimate degradation—"is a further sign that Yahweh ultimately is responsible for the victory". Though the presence of victory hymns is conventional in the Hebrew Bible, the Song of Deborah is unusual in that it

2350-406: The war against Sisera , the people instead idly resting among their flocks as if it were a time of peace, though the decision to do so was taken with a heavy heart. Nahash appears abruptly as the attacker of Jabesh-Gilead , which lay outside the territory he laid claim to. Having subjected the occupants to a siege , the population sought terms for surrender , and were told by Nahash that they had

2400-454: The west side of the Jordan, the Book of Numbers records that the Israelites defeated Sihon and Og, kings east of the Jordan. The tribes of Reuben and Gad requested that they be given land in the territory east of Jordan, because it was suitable for their needs as livestock grazers. In exchange for their promise to help with the conquest of the land west of the Jordan, Moses accepted their request and granted to them and half of Manasseh land east of

2450-414: The wife of Lapidoth . Alternatively, "lappid" translates as "torch" or "lightning", therefore the phrase, "woman of Lappidoth" could be referencing Deborah as a "fiery woman." Deborah told Barak , an Israelite general from Kedesh in Naphtali , that God commanded him to lead an attack against the forces of Jabin king of Canaan and his military commander Sisera (Judges 4:6–7); the entire narrative

2500-539: Was allocated the central region of the three, east of Ephraim and West Manasseh, though the exact location is ambiguous. Among the cities mentioned in Numbers 32:34 as having at some point been part of territory of the Tribe of Gad were Ramoth , Jaezer , Aroer , and Dibon , though some of these are marked in Joshua 13:15–16 as belonging to Reuben . The location was never secure from invasion and attacks, since to

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