gad () was, according to the book of genesis, the first son of jacob and zilpah, the seventh of jacob overall, and the founder of the israelite tribe of gad. however some biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the israelite confederation. the text of the book of genesis implies that the name of "gad" means "luck"/"fortunate", in hebrew.