Prophet Gad

Prophet and seer in David's reign

Gad is presented in the books of Samuel and Chronicles as a prophet closely associated with King David. In 2 Samuel 24:11 he is given the title 'the king's seer.' His ministry was that of conveying the word of God to the king at decisive moments, both in counsel and in correction.

After David ordered a census of Israel and afterward confessed his sin, God sent Gad to present David with a choice among three forms of punishment (2 Samuel 24:11-13; 1 Chronicles 21:9-13). When the ensuing plague had run its course, Gad instructed David to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:18), a site that later tradition associated with the Temple. The parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21:18-19 links this instruction to the appearance of the angel of the Lord.

Writings attributed to Gad

The acts of King David were said to have been recorded in part in the writings of Gad. 1 Chronicles 29:29 refers to 'the book of Gad the seer' as one of the sources preserving the history of David's reign. This work is generally considered lost, and is known only through this scriptural mention.

Commemoration among the Forefathers

The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers falls in the second Sunday before the Nativity, within the Nativity Fast, and commemorates the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh together with the prophets and righteous who awaited the Messiah. In remembering Gad among these forefathers, the Church places him in the line of those through whom God prepared the way for the Incarnation, recalling the promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.