Hebrew word · H1586

גֹּ֫מֶר

gomer

Gomer

Ethnic/territorial name: the Cimmerians.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.10.2;

son of: Japheth (H3315);

brother of: Magog (H4031), Madai (H4074), Javan (H3120), Tubal (H8422), Meshech (H4902) and Tiras (H8494);

father of: Ashkenaz (H0813), Riphath (H7384A) and Togarmah (H8425)

§ Gomer = "complete"

1) the eldest son of Japheth and grandson of Noah; the progenitor of the early Cimmerians and other branches of the Celtic family

2) the unfaithful wife of the prophet Hosea; Hosea's relationship with her was symbolic of God's relationship with wayward Israel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 10:2

Range of meaning

Ethnic/territorial name: the Cimmerians.

Against the English

English versions simply transliterate it. Few readers know that it names a historically documented people.

Used elsewhere in the period

Assyrian records call them Gimirri / Gimirrāya. Homer (Odyssey 11.14) and Herodotus (1.15; 4.11–12) call them Kimmerioi. They were nomads from the Pontic steppe who attacked Urartu, Phrygia and Lydia c. 714–650 BC. In Ezekiel 38:6, 'Gomer and all its troops' march with Gog from 'the far north.' Josephus (Antiquities 1.123) linked Gomer with the Galatians of his own day.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 10:2 גֹּ֣מֶר [were] Gomer

    The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

    Here: Almost certainly the Cimmerians: horse-riding people from north of the Black Sea, called Gimirrāya in Assyrian records and Kimmerioi in Greek. They broke into Anatolia (modern Turkey) in the late 8th and 7th centuries BC. They are unrelated to Gomer the wife of Hosea, a woman who has the same name.

  2. Genesis 10:3 גֹּ֑מֶר Gomer

    The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 1:5 גֹּ֣מֶר Gomer

    The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

  2. 1 Chronicles 1:6 גֹּ֑מֶר Gomer

    The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 38:6 גֹּ֚מֶר Gomer

    as well as Gomer with all its troops, and Beth-togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.

Hosea · 1

  1. Hosea 1:3 גֹּ֖מֶר Gomer

    So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.