Gammadim

Gammadim appears once in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel's lamentation over Tyre: The men of Arvad with your army were on your walls all around, and the Gammadim were in your towers (Ezekiel 27:11). The identity of the Gammadim is uncertain. The term has been variously interpreted as a people group — perhaps warriors from a place called Gamad — or as a Hebrew common noun meaning skilled warriors or men of valor, related to the word for forearm (gammād) or a cubit-measure suggesting compact, capable fighters.

In context, the Gammadim appear alongside the men of Arvad as mercenary or allied troops serving in Tyre's garrison forces, defending the city's towers. Tyre's cosmopolitan military arrangements, drawing soldiers from Persia, Lydia, Libya, Arvad, and Helech among others, reflected the commercial empire's ability to hire skilled fighters from across the Mediterranean world. The Gammadim's precise ethnicity or geographical origin remains unidentified from other ancient sources, making this one of several obscure terms in Ezekiel's detailed description of Tyre's trading and military partnerships.