The tribe descended from Gad (son of Jacob) acquired their inheritance in the land east of the Jordan that they had conqured from Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan. This included the fertile land of Gilead.
Gadites were known for their valour. In the conflict between Saul and David, some Gadites defected to David; they are described as "brave warriors, ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear. Their faces were the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains. . . . These Gadites were army commanders; the least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand. It was they who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight everyone living in the valleys, to the east and to the west" (1 Chron 12:8-14). The Gileadites Barzillai and Elijah probably hailed from the tribe. The tribe did not survive the Assyrian onslaught and were hauled into permanent exile like the rest of the northern tribes. Their territory was later taken over by the Ammonites.
©ALBERITH
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