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Person · Early Patriarch

Gomer

Man living at the time of the Patriarchs

Gomer, a son of Japheth, was the father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, as listed in the Table of Nations.

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Gomer is mentioned in the Table of Nations (Gen.10.2-3, 1 Chronicles Gen.1.5-6) as one of the sons of Japheth, the son of Noah. He is listed alongside his brothers Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Gomer is also named as the father of three sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The descendants of Gomer are believed to have settled in the region around the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, possibly in the area of modern-day Turkey, Armenia, and parts of Eastern Europe. In Ezk.38.6, Gomer is mentioned along with Beth-togarmah as one of the allies of Gog, a future enemy of Israel. This suggests that the descendants of Gomer were still recognized as a distinct people group during the time of Ezekiel's prophecy. Some scholars have proposed a connection between Gomer and the ancient Cimmerians, a nomadic people who inhabited the region north of the Black Sea in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, but this identification remains uncertain.

Family

Father
Japheth

Bible dictionary

Gomer Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Complete; vanishing. (1.) The daughter of Diblaim, who (probably in vision only) became the wife of Hosea (1:3). (2.) The eldest son of Japheth, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah (Gen. 10:2, 3), whose descendants formed the principal branch of the population of South-eastern Europe. He is generally regarded as the ancestor of the Celtae and the Cimmerii, who in early times settled to the north of the Black Sea, and gave their name to the Crimea, the ancient Chersonesus Taurica. Traces of their presence are found in the names Cimmerian Bosphorus, Cimmerian Isthmus, etc. In the seventh century B.C. they were driven out of their original seat by the Scythians, and overran western Asia Minor, whence they were afterwards expelled. They subsequently reappear in the times of the Romans as the Cimbri of the north and west of Europe, whence they crossed to the British Isles, where their descendants are still found in the Gaels and Cymry. Thus the whole Celtic race may be regarded as descended from Gomer.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Gomer appears

5 verses in 3 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H1586

Genesis2
1 Chronicles2
Ezekiel1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.