Gomer, and all his bands,.... Or all his army, as the Targum. Gomer was the eldest son of Japheth, Genesis 10:2, from whom descended the people called by the Greeks Galatians, or Galio-Grecians, as Josephus i says, who before were from him called Gomarians: others think that Phrygia, and the inhabitants of it, are meant; but, whether one or the other, they were both people of the lesser Asia, which is now in the hands of the Turks:
the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands; Togarmah was one of the sons of Gomer, Genesis 10:3 whose posterity, according to the Greeks, as Josephus k says, were the Phrygians; but others rather think the Cappadocians descended from him; and that Togarmah designs their country, which also is a part of the Turkish dominions; Ezekiel 27:14. Several moderns, as Calmet l observes, believe that the children of Togarmah peopled Turcomania in Tartary, and Scythia, and which he approves of; and the Turks are mentioned by Ben Gorion m as one of the ten families of Togarmah. The Targum renders it here the province of Germany; as it is also interpreted in the Talmud n, but wrongly:
and many people with thee; from other places and nations, besides those named; especially out of the lesser Asia, as Pamphylia, Cilicia, and other places; and perhaps from Tartary, and elsewhere,
i Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1. k lbid. l Dictionary in the word "Togarmah". m Heb. Hist. l. 1. c. 1. p. 3. n T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 10. 1.