Zilpah was the handmaid of Leah, Jacob's 1st wife, in yellow. The Biblical account shows Zilpah's status as a handmaid change to that of an actual wife of Jacob (Genesis 30:9,11). "When Leah saw that she had stopped giving birth, she took Zilpah, her maidservant, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bore Jacob a son, and Leah declared, "Good luck has come!" so she called his name, Gad.
Her handmaid status is regarded by some biblical scholars as indicating that the authors saw the tribe of Gad as being not of entirely Israelite origin; many scholars believe that Gad was a late addition to the Israelite confederation, as implied by the Moabite Stone, which seemingly differentiates between the Israelites and the tribe of Gad. Gad by this theory is assumed to have originally been a northwards-migrating nomadic tribe, at a time when the other tribes were quite settled in Canaan.
Leah bore Jacob 6 sons; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah. Leah was given Zilpah as a gift from her father when she married Jacob. Leah was known to have weak eyes, and it was her sister, Rachel who had all the beauty. When Rachel thought she couldn't conceive, she gave her handmaid, Bilhah, to Jacob to bear a child. Now, Leah must have decided to keep her numbers as the highest and gave Zilpah to Jacob to bear more children for Leah for credit to her name as the main mother of the family.
On the Exodus's first census, Gad had 45,650 men. On their 2nd and last census, they had 40,500 with a loss of 5, 150.
Gad was Joseph's 7th son. (Gen.30:10-11). This tribe was settled by Joshua in Gilead and Central Transjordan where they gained a warlike reputation. (Num. 32: Josh. 13:24). They flourished during the rule of King Saul(11th century BCE-1st king of Israel) and their position was consolidated under King David (1010-970 BCE).
The text of the Book of Genesis implies that the name of Gad means luck/fortunate, in Hebrew.
After the split in the kingdom with King Solomon's death in 922 BCE, Gad belonged to the Northern kingdom of Israel now called Samaria as the capital was in Samaria, and they suffered severely from Syrian attacks.
Painting by Francisco de Zurbarán (from Jacob and his twelve sons, c. 1640–45)
In 732 BCE, the region was devastated by Tiglath-Pileser III and most of its inhabitants were exiled by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. Later, it was occupied by the Ammonites, who worshipped fertility gods, the chief being Milkom.
When Jacob lay on his deathbed and was giving prophecies to each son, he went from Bilhah's older son, Dan, to Zilpah's oldest, Gad. He said, "Gad will recruit a regiment and it will retreat on its heel." "Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last."
Although the Gadites' territory was on the east of the Jordan, they crossed the river to assist their brothers in conquering the land. Jacob prophesied that after the conquest, Gad would return safely on its heel; that is, by the same roads and paths upon which it had initially traveled; and not one of the troops would be lost. This was explained by Rashi.
Gad: Verse 9: some men of the Gadites defected to David, to the stronghold in the wilderness---mighty warrior, soldier, who wielded shields and bucklers; their faces were like the face of lion, and they were fleet as deer on the mountains:
Verse 15: Thee were the heads of the army from the children of Gad, the least was equal to a hundred men and the greatest to a thousand men. These were the ones who crossed the Jordan during the first month, when it was overflowing all of its banks, and they chased away all the residents of the valleys, to the east and to the west...
Verse 19 simply notes Gad would be effective in military struggles. It is difficult to link this to any direct fulfillment due to the brevity of the prophecy. Some have seen a fulfillment of this prediction in the great number of troops who served King David from the tribe of Gad (1 Chronicles 12).
According to classical rabbinical literature, Gad was born on 10 Cheshvan, and lived 125 years.
These sources go on to state that, unlike his other brothers, Joseph didn't present Gad to the Pharaoh, since Joseph didn't want Gad to become one of Pharaoh's guards, an appointment that would have been likely had the Pharaoh realized that Gad had great strength.
There are two tombs traditionally attributed to Gad: one at Nevei Ganda, Rehovot, Israel, and a Muslim one at Ain Al-Jadur (lit. "Spring of Jadur", whereas Jadur is the Arabic name of Gad), west of Salt, Jordan.
It's known that Gad was part of the northern tribes that were exiled in 721 BCE by the Assyrians, but possibly some had escaped this and remained on the eastern side of the Jordan River. The map seems to show this possibility. They were men you wouldn't want to mess around with. It seems unlikely they could have been subdued by the Assyrians very easily. They were all Rambos!
Resource:
Tanakh (Stone Edition)
the New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gad_(son_of_Jacob)
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