GOMER ; Sept. ragip). 1. A son or Japhet, from whom descended Ashkenaz, Rip. hath, and Togarmah (Gen. x. 2, 3).
2. A people descended from him, the troops of which appear along with those of Togarmah in the army of Gog (Ezek. xxxviii. 6). Bochart, follow ing the Targ. Hierosol., and the Midrash Gen., which give or 41r1Zt: (i.e., Phrygia), as its equivalent, concludes that Gomer was the stem-name of the Phrygians ; and this lie endea vours to confirm by an etymological parallel be tween the Aram. -Ina, to consume, and Optryla, from Opiriecp, to roast (Phrygia being, according to ancient testimony a xthpa defonipcoTos, and part of it bearing the name of rarareicavilevn, or burnt ; Strab. xiii. p. 628 ; Diod. p. 138). But to this it seems a fatal objection that the Phrygians formed only a branch of the Togarmians (Joseph. Antrq. i. 6. ; Hieron. Quast. In Gen. x. 3), and therefore cannot be regarded as the stem whence the Togarmians themselves sprang. The same objection applies to the suggestion that Gomer is the German race (Talm. Yonia, loa); for this comes under Ashkenaz, a branch of Gomer. Much more probable is the suggestion that Gomer is to be connected with the Kip.cdpiat of Homer (Od. xi. 14) and Herodotus (i. 6, 15, ro3 ; iv. 12), or the Clmbri, of the north of Europe, described by the classical writers sometimes as a German, sometimes as a Celtic race. The preponderance of authority is in favour of the latter (Sall. Yug-. 114; Flor. iii. 3 ; Appian, De Reb. Ill. 4; Ea. Civ. 29 ; iV. 2 ; Diod. v. 32 ; xiV. 114 ; Plut.
nz. 15, Mar. 25, 27 ; Dion. Cass. xliv. 42 ; Justin, xxiv. 8 ; xxxviii. 3, 4) ; and the probability is that the Cimbri were Celtic, and of the same tribe as the Cymry of Britain (Prichard, Eastern On:gin of the Celtic Nations, by Latham, p. 142 ; Latham, GC, •
mania of Tacitus, Epilegom. p. clxv., ff.) By the ancients the Cimmerii and the Cimbri were held to be one people ; an opinion which, though repu diated by many, is still regarded with favour by such men as Bunsen and Knobel. On the pre sumption that they were different, we are indined to connect Gamer rather with the Cimmerii than with the Cimbri. From the place Gomer occu pies in the roll of nations in Genesis, it may be presumed that the people descended from him was one of the oldest, and this would fall in with the half-mythic character of the Cimmerii as they appear in Homer. It is plain also from Ezek. xxxviii. 6, that the race of Gamer was regarded by the Hebrews as living to the far north of Palestine, and this accords exactly with the site assigned to the Cimmerii by Herodotus, who places them on the Caucasus, and represents them as skirting the Euxine and coming down on Asia Minor by way of Colchis, and across the river Halys. If the Cimmerii and the Cimbri are identified, and the latter be regarded as a Celtic-speaking people, the statement of Jerome that the Galatx spoke a lan guage not greatly differing from that of the Treveri (Proles". La ii., ad Bp. ad Galatas), may have an important bearing on the subject of the migrations of the original Gomerian stock. Cf. Joseph. An tiq. i. 6. 1.
3. The wife of the Prophet Hosea (Hos. 1. 3).— W. L. A.