Gomer

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The purchased wife of the prophet Hosea. She is said to have been the daughter of Diblaim—whether Father or mother—for it might the either. Her name signifies to finish or complete. (See Hosea 1:2-3 and Hosea 3:1-3) The history as it is given to us in the Bible, both of the prophet and this adulteress, appears very singular and surprising. But some light is thrown upon it from the account given us by writers concerning the customs of the east. Contracts for marriages, it is said, were never formed without giving with the woman a certain measure of corn, as well as money, for a marriage portion. The corn intimated the hope of fruitfulness in children. But it should seem in the case of Hosea, that the portion here was not given by the parents, but by the prophet; and that this was of the Lord. The Lord said unto Hosea, "Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms." And hence the prophet saith, "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley." (Hosea 3:2)

The spiritual sense of it is more plain than the literal. For the marrying an adulteress, and by the Lord's command, and the union of a prophet of the Lord with such a character, seems a measure not easily explained. But as typical of the Lord's being married to his adulteress Israel, the subject is not only clear, but highly instructive. We see in it God's grace amidst all our undeservings; and that "where sin hath abounded grace doth much more abound." To what a degree of spiritual adultery and fornication was our nature gone, when Christ betrothed that nature to himself! Here surely the prophet typified Christ, when he said, "Go yet, love a woman (beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress) according to the love of the Lord toward the children of, Israel." (Hosea 3:1)

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

1. Japhet's oldest; son; father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah (Genesis 10:2-3). A warlike ally of Magog (Scythia) Gog (Ezekiel 38:6), coming from the N. The Cimmerians warred in northwestern Asia from 670 to 570 B.C. Originally dwelling in what is now southern Russia, the Ukraine (the Crimea betrays their name, the Cimmerian Bosphorus); then being dispossessed by the Scythians, they fled across the Caucasus into Armenia and Asia Minor; they warred with Lydia, and burnt the temple of Diana of Ephesus

They are the stock of the Cymry (as the Welsh call themselves; the English gave them the name "Welsh," i.e. foreigners, though originally they occupied the whole of the British isles but were driven back by succeeding invaders to the northwestern extremities, which their two divisions, the Gael of Ireland and Scotland and the Cymry of Wales, occupy), and gave their name to Cumber-land. They once occupied the Cimbrie Chersonese (Denmark). The Galatians were Celts, and so sprung from Gomer.

2. Daughter of Diblaim. Gomer ("completion or ripeness"), namely, of consummate wickedness; daughter of doubled layers of grape-cake (Hosea 1:3). One completely given up to sensuality. Hosea in vision (not in external act, which would be revolting to purity)takes by God's command Gomer to wife, though a woman "of whoredoms"; symbolically teaching that out of this world, which whorishly has departed from the Lord, God takes a church to be sanctified by communion with Himself in Christ, as Gomer was sanctified by communion with the prophet, (1 Corinthians 7:14). The Savior unites to Himself the unholy, to make it holy. But (See HOSEA.)

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The eldest son of Japheth, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah (Genesis 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.

Copyright StatementThese dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography InformationEaston, Matthew George. Entry for 'Gomer'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/g/gomer.html. 1897.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

1. Genesis 10:2,3; 1 Chronicles 1:5; Ezekiel 38:6 , a son of Japheth, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. He is believed to have settled the northern shores of the Black Sea, and given name to the ancient Cimmerians and to the Crimea. About 700 B. C. a part of his posterity diffused themselves in Asia Minor. Traces of his name and parentage are also found in the Cymbri, Umbri, and Cambri of historians, in Kumero and Kumeraeg, the names of the Welsh people and language, and among various nations of Europe.

2. A harlot whom the prophet Hosea appears to have married in prophetic vision, as directed by God, that the Jews might be led to reflect on the guilt of their spiritual uncleanness or idolatry, Hosea 1:1-11 .

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

the eldest son of Japheth, by whom a great part of Asia Minor was first peopled, and particularly that extensive tract which was called Phrygia, including the subdivisions of Mysia, Galatia, Bithynia, Lycaonia, &c. The colonies of Gomer extended into Germany, Gaul, (in both of which traces of the name are preserved,) and Britain, which was undoubtedly peopled from Gaul. Among the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of this island, namely, the Welsh, the words Kumero and Kumeraeg, the names of the people and the language, sufficiently point out their origin. In fact, under the names of Cimmerii, Cimbri, Cymrig, Cumbri, Umbri, and Cambri, the tribes of Gomerians extended themselves from the Euxine to the Atlantic, and from Italy to the Baltic; having added to their original names those of Celts, Gauls, Galatae, and Gaels, superadded.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

GOMER. 1. One of the sons of Japheth and the father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah ( Genesis 10:2 f., 1 Chronicles 1:5 f.), who along with Togarmah is included by Ezekiel in the army of Gog ( Ezekiel 38:6 ). Gomer represents the people termed Gimirrâ by the Assyrians, and Cimmerians by the Greeks. Their original home appears to have been north of the Euxine, but by the 7th cent. b.c. they had completely conquered Cappadocia and settled there.

2. Daughter of Diblaim, wife of the prophet Hosea (wh. see).

L. W. King.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. Eldest son of Japheth, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. Gomer is supposed to be the progenitor of the early Cimmerians who occupied the Tauric Chersonese, of which the name of the Crimea is a relic. In the 7th century they devastated the western part of Asia Minor. Genesis 10:2,3; 1 Chronicles 1:5,6; Ezekiel 38:6 .

2. Daughter of Diblaim, and 'wife' of Hosea. Hosea 1:3 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Gomer (go'mer), perfect. 1. The eldest son of Japheth, Genesis 10:2-3, the father of the early Cimmerians, of the later Cimbri and the other branches of the Celtic family. 2. The wife of Hosea. Hosea 1:3.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Hosea 1:3Hosea 1:2 Genesis 10:2Jeremiah 51:27 1 Chronicles 1:6Ezekiel 38:6

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. id. גֹּמֶר , vanishing, or perh. heat, i.e., passion; Sept. Γαμέρ and Γομέρ or Γόμερ ), the name of a man and of a race descended from him, also of a woman.

1. The eldest son of Japheth (B.C. post 2514), son of Noah, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah (Genesis 10:2), whose descendants seem to have formed a great branch of the south-eastern population of Europe (Genesis 10:3; compare 1 Chronicles 1:5). In the Scriptures, however, the people named Gomer (mentioned along with Togarmah in the armies of Magog, Ezekiel 38:6) imply rather an obscure and but vaguely-known nation of the barbarous north (Rosenmü ller, Alterth. I, 1:235 sq.). The Jerusalem Targum renders Genesis 10:3 by אפריקי, African; Arab. תרךְ, Turk. Bochart (Phaleg, 3:81) identifies the name, on etymological grounds, with Phrygia (from גמר, to consume, and φρυγία, from φρύγειν, to roast); Phrygia being, according to ancient testimony, a χώρα εὐεκπύρωτος, and part of it bearing the name of κατακεκαυμένη, or burnt (Strabo, 13:628; Diod. 3:138). But to this it seems a fatal objection that the Phrygians formed only a branch of the Togarmians (Josephus, Ant. 1:6, 1; Jerome, Quaest. in Genesis 10:3), 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. Yoma, 10 a); for this comes under Ashkenaz; a branch of Gomer. Wahl (Asien, 1:274) compared Gamir, the ancient name for Cappadocia, and Kalisch (Comm. in Gen.) seeks to identify it with the Chomari, a nation in Bactriana, noticed by Ptolemy (6:11, § 6). Most of the interpreters take Gomer to be the ancestor of the Celtae, and more especially of the Cimmerii, Κιμμἐριοι (Herodotus, 1:6, 5, 103), who were already known in the time of Homer (Odyss. 11:14). To judge from the ancient historians (Herodotus, Strabo, Plutarch, etc.), they had in early times settled to the north of the Black Sea, and gave their name to the Crimea (from the Arab. krim, by transposition from the Heb.), the ancient Chersonesus Taurica, where they left traces of their presence in the ancient names, Cimmerian. posporus, Cimmerian Isthmus, Mount Cimmerium, the district Cimmeria, and particularly the Cimmerian walls (Herod. 4:12, 45, 100; AEsch. Prom. Vinct. 729), and in the modern name Crimea.

They forsook this abode under the pressure of the Scythian tribes, and during the early part of the 7th century B.C. they poured over the western part of Asia Minor, committing immense devastation, and defying for more than half a century the power of the Lydian kings. They were finally expelled by Alyattes, with the exception of a few who settled at Sinope and Antandrus. It was about the same period that Ezekiel noticed them as acting in conjunction with Armenia (Togarmah) and Magog (Scythia). The connection between Gomer and Armenia is supported by the tradition, preserved by Moses of Chorene (1:11), that Gamir was the ancestor of the Haichian kings of the latter country. After the expulsion of the Cimmerians from Asia Minor their name disappears in its original form; but there can be little reasonable doubt that both the name and the people are to be recognized in the Cimbri 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 favor of the latter (Sallust, Jug. 114; Florus, 3:3; Appian, De Reb. Ill. 4; Bell. Civili. 1:29; 4:2; Diodor. 5:32; 14:114; Plutarch, Cam. 15; Mar. 25, 27; Dion. Cass. 44:42; Justin, 24:8; 38:3, 4); and the probability is that the Cimbri were Celtic, and of the same tribe as the Cymry of Britain (Prichard, Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, by Latham, page 142; Latham, Germania of Tacitus, Epilegom. page 165 sq.). By the ancients the Cimsnermi and the (Cimbri were held to be one people; the abodes of the latter were fixed durinag the Roman empire in the north and west of Europe, particularly in the Cimbaic Chersonese (Denmark), on the coast between the Elbae and Rhine, and in Belgium, thence they had crossed to Britain, and occupied at one period the whole of the British isles, but were ultimately driven back to the western and northern districts, which their descendants will occupy in two great divisions, the Gael in Ireland and Scotland, the Cymry in Wales. The latter name preserves a greater similarity to the original Gomer than either of the classical forms, the consonants being identical. The link to connect "Cymry" with "Cimbri" is furnished by the forms Cambria and Cumber- land. The whole Celtic race may therefore be regarded as descended from Gomer, and thus the opinion of Josephus (Ant. 1:6, 1), that the Galatians were sprung from him, may be reconciled with the view propounded (Michaelis, Supplem. page 335 sq.). From the place Gomer occupies in the roll of nations in Genesis, it may be presumed that the people descended from his was one of the oldest, and this woaed fall in with the half-mythic character of the Cimmerii as they appear in Homer It is plain also from Ezekiel 38:6 that the race of Gomer 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, wcho 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 Galatme spoke a hamegmeage not greatly differingg from that of the Treveri (Proleg. Lib. 2, ad Ep. ad Galatas) may have an important bearing an the subject of the migrations of the original Gomerian stock. (See Ethnology).

2. The name of the daughter of Diblaim, a harlot who became the wife or concubine (according to some, in vision only) of the prophet Hosea (Hosea 1:3). B.C. cir. 725.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Go´mer

1. The eldest son of Japhet, son of Noah, whose descendants Bochart supposes to have settled in Phrygia (; comp. ). Most of the interpreters take him to be the ancestor of the Celtæ, and more especially of the Cimmerii, who were already known in the time of Homer. To judge from the ancient historians, they had in early limes settled to the north of the Black Sea, and gave their name to the Crimea, the ancient Chersonesus Taurica. But the greater part of them were driven from their territories by the Scythians, when they took refuge in Asia Minor, B.C. 7.

In the Scriptures, however, the people named Gomer imply rather an obscure and but vaguely known nation of the barbarous north.

Josephus says expressly, that the ancestor of the Galatians, a Celtic colony, was called Gomer.

2. The name of the daughter of Diblaim, wife of the prophet Hosea .