Nimrod

VIEW:29 DATA:01-04-2020

rebellion
(but probably an unknown Assyrian word)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


NIMROD (Gen_10:8-12, 1Ch_1:10, Mic_5:6).—A legendary personage, described in Gen_10:8 ff. as the first of the ‘heroes,’ ‘a mighty hunter before the Lord,’ the ruler of four ancient Babylonian cities, and the founder of the Assyrian Empire. In the statement that he was begotten by Cush, we have probably a reference to the Kash or Kasshu who conquered Babylonia about the 17th cent. b.c., and set up a dynasty which lasted 600 years: the rise of Assyria is said to date from the decline of Babylonia under the later Kassite kings. The nearest Babylonian parallel to the figure of Nimrod as yet discovered is Gilgamesh, the tyrant of Erech, whose adventures are recorded in the famous series of tablets to which the Deluge-story belongs, and who is supposed to be the hero so often represented on seals and palace-reliefs in victorious combat with a lion. It was at one time hoped that the actual name Nimrod might be recovered from the ideogram commonly read as iz. du. bar; and though this expectation has been dispelled by the discovery of the true pronunciation Gitgamesh, there is enough general resemblance to warrant the belief that the original of the Biblical Nimrod belongs to Babylonian lore. The combination of warlike prowess with a passion for the chase is illustrated by the numerous hunting scenes sculptured on the monuments; and it may well be imagined that to the Hebrew mind Nimrod became an ideal personation of the proud monarchs who ruled the mighty empires on the Euphrates and the Tigris.
J. Skinner.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Cush's son or descendant, Ham's grandson (Gen_10:8). "Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth," i.e. he was the first of Noah's descendants who became renowned for bold and daring deeds, the Septuagint "giant" (compare Gen_6:4; Gen_6:13; Isa_13:3). "He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah," so that it passed into a proverb or the refrain of ballads in describing hunters and warriors, "even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before Jehovah." Not a mere Hebrew superlative, but as in Gen_27:7 "bless thee before Jehovah," i.e. as in His presence, Psa_56:13 "walk before God." Septuagint translated "against Jehovah"; so in Num_16:2 lipneey, "before," means opposition. The Hebrew name Nimrod means "let us rebel," given by his contemporaries to Nimrod as one who ever had in his mouth such words to stir up his band to rebellion. Nimrod subverted the existing patriarchal order of society by setting up a chieftainship based on personal valor and maintained by aggression. The chase is an image of war and a training for it.
The increase of ferocious beasts after the flood and Nimrod's success in destroying them soon gathered a band to him. From being a hunter of beasts he became a hunter of men. "In defiance of Jehovah," as virtually" before Jehovah" (Pro_15:11) means, Nimrod, a Hamite intruded into Shem's portion, violently set up an empire of conquest, beginning with Babel, ever after the symbol of the world power in its hostility to God. From that land he went forth to Asshur and builded Nineveh. The later Babylonians spoke Semitic, but the oldest inscriptions are Turanian or Cushite. Tradition points to Babylon's Cushite origin by making Belus son of Poseidon (the sea) and Libya (Ethiopia): Diodorus Siculus i. 28. Oannes the fish god, Babylon's civilizer, rose out of the Red Sea (Syncellus, Chronog. 28). "Cush" appears in the Babylonian names Cissia, Cuthah, Chuzistan (Susiana). Babylon's earliest alphabet in oldest inscriptions resembles that of Egypt and Ethiopia; common words occur, as Mirikh, the Meroe of Ethiopia, the Mars of Babylon.
Though Arabic is Semitic, the Mahras' language in southern Arabia is non-Semitic, and is the modern representative of the ancient Himyaric whose empire dates as far back as 1750 B.C. The Mahras is akin to the Abyssinian Galla language, representing the Cushite or Ethiopic of old; and the primitive Babylonian Sir H. Rawlinson from inscriptions decides to resemble both. The writing too is pictorial, as in the earliest ages of Egypt. The Egyptian and Ethiopic hyk (in hyk-sos, the "shepherd kings"), a "king," in Babylonian and Susianian is khak. "Tyrhak" is common to the royal lists of Susiana and Ethiopia, as "Nimrod" is to those of Babylon and Egypt. Ra is the Cushite supreme god of Babylon as Ra is the sun god in Egypt. (See BABEL.) Nimrod was the Bel, Belus, or Baal, i.e. lord of Babel, its founder. Worshipped (as the monuments testify) as Bilu Nipra or Bel Nimrod, i.e, the god of the chase; the Talmudical Nopher, now Niffer. Josephus (Ant. 1:4) and the tortures represent him as building, in defiance of Jehovah, the Babel tower.
If so (which his rebellious character makes likely) he abandoned Babel for a time after the miraculous confusion of tongues, and went and founded Nineveh. Eastern tradition pictures hint a heaven-storming giant chained by God, among the constellations, as Orion, Hebrew Keciyl, "fool" or "wicked." Sargon in an inscription says: "350 kings of Assyria hunted the people of Bilu-Nipru"; probably meaning the Babylon of Nimrod, nipru "hunter", another form of Nebrod which is the Septuagint form of Nimrod. His going to Assyria (Gen 10:10-11-12) accords with Micah's designating Assyria "the hind of Nimrod" (Mic_5:6). Also his name appears in the palace mound of Nimrud. The fourfold group of cities which Nimrod founded in Babylonia answer to the fourfold group in Assyria. So Kiprit Arba, "king of the four races," is an early title of the first monarchs of Babylon; Chedorlaomer appears at the head of four peoples; "king of the four regions" occurs in Nineveh inscriptions too; after Sargon's days four cities had the pre-eminence (Rawlinson, 1:435, 438,4 47).
The early seat of empire was in the southern part of Babylonia, where Niffer represents either Babel or Calneh, Warka Erech, Mugheir Ur, Senkereh Ellasar. The founder (about 2200 B.C.) or embellisher of those towns is called Kinzi Akkad, containing the name Accad of Gen_10:1. Tradition mentions a Belus king of Nineveh, earlier than Ninus; Shamas Iva (1860 B.C.), son of Ismi Dagon king of Babylon, founded a temple at Kileh Shergat (Asshur); so that the Scripture account of Babylon originating the Assyrian cities long before the Assyrian empire of the 13th century B.C. is confirmed. (Layard, Nineveh 2:231). Sir H. Rawlinson conjectures that Nimrod denotes not an individual but the "settlers," and that Rehoboth, Calah, etc., are but sites of buildings afterward erected; but the proverb concerning Nimrod and the history imply an individual; the Birs (temple) Nimrud, the Sukr (dam across the Tigris) el Nimrud, and the mound Nimrud, all attest the universal recognition of him as the founder of the empire.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Nim'rod. (rebellion; or the valiant). A son of Cush and grandson of Ham. The events of his life are recorded in Gen_10:8; ff., from which we learn
(1) that he was a Cushite;
(2) that he established an empire in Shinar, (the classical Babylonia), the chief towns being Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh; and
(3) that he extended this empire northward, along the course of the Tigris over Assyria, where he founded a second group of capitals, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

He is generally supposed to have been the immediate son of Cush, and the youngest, or sixth, from the Scriptural phrase, “Cush begat Nimrod,” after the mention of his five sons, Gen_10:8. But the phrase is used with considerable latitude, like “father” and “son,” in Scripture. “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar: out of that land he went forth to invade Assyria; and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resin, between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city,” Gen_10:8-12. Though the main body of the Cushites was miraculously dispersed and sent by Providence to their destinations along the sea coasts of Asia and Africa, yet Nimrod remained behind, and founded an empire in Babylonia, according to Berosus, by usurping the property of the Arphaxadites in the land of Shinar; where “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel,” or Babylon, and other towns: and, not satisfied with this, he next invaded Assur, or Assyria, east of the Tigris, where he built Nineveh, and several other towns. The marginal reading of our English Bible, “He went out into Assyria,” or to invade Assyria, is here adopted in preference to that in the text: “And out of that land went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh,” &c. The meaning of the word Nineveh may lead us to his original name, Nin, signifying “a son,” the most celebrated of the sons of Cush. That of Nimrod, or “Rebel,” was probably a parody, or nickname, given him by the oppressed Shemites, of which we have several instances in Scripture. Thus nahash, the brazen “serpent” in the wilderness, was called by Hezekiah, in contempt, nehushtan, “a piece of brass,” when he broke it in pieces, because it was perverted into an object of idolatrous worship by the Jews, 2Ki_18:4. Nimrod, that arch rebel, who first subverted the patriarchal government, introduced also the Zabian idolatry, or worship of the heavenly host; and, after his death, was deified by his subjects, and supposed to be translated into the constellations of Orion, attended by his hounds, Sirius and Canicula, and still pursuing his favourite game, the great bear; supposed also to be translated into ursa major, near the north pole; as admirably described by Homer,—
Αρκτον θ', ην και αμαζαν επικλησιν καλεουσιν, Η τ' αυτου στρεφεται, και τ' ‘Ωρεωνα δοκευει. Iliad v. 485.
“And the bear, surnamed also the wain, by the Egyptians, who is turning herself about there, and watching Orion.” Homer also introduces the shade of Orion, as hunting in the Elysian fields,—
Τον δε μετ', ‘Ωριωνα πελωριον εισενοησα Θηρας ομου ειλευντα, κατ' ασφοδελον λειμωνα Τους αυτος κατεπεφνεν εν οιοπολοισιν ορεσσι Χερσιν εχων ροπαλον παγχαλκεον, αιεν ααγες. Odyss. v. 571.
“Next, I observed the mighty Orion
Chasing wild beasts through an asphodel mead, Which himself had slain on the solitary mountains: Holding in his hands a solid brazen mace, ever unbroken.”
The Grecian name of this “mighty hunter” may furnish a satisfactory clue to the name given him by the impious adulation of the Babylonians and Assyrians. ‘Ωριων nearly resembles ‘Ουριαν, the oblique case of ‘Ουριας, which is the Septuagint rendering of Uriah, a proper name in Scripture, 2Sa_11:6-21. But Uriah, signifying “the light of the Lord,” was an appropriate appellation of that most brilliant constellation. He was also called Baal, Beel, Bel, or Belus, signifying “lord,” or “master,” by the Phenicians, Assyrians, and Greeks; and Bala Rama, by the Hindus.
At a village called Bala-deva, or Baldeo in the vulgar dialect, thirteen miles east by south from Muttra, in Hindustan, there is a very ancient statue of Bala Rama, in which he is represented with a ploughshare in his left hand, and a thick cudgel in his right, and his shoulders covered with the skin of a tiger. Captain Wilford supposes that the ploughshare was designed to hook his enemies: but may it not more naturally denote the constellation of the great bear, which strikingly represents the figure of a plough in its seven bright stars; and was probably so denominated by the earliest astronomers, before the introduction of the Zabian idolatry, as a celestial symbol of agriculture? The thick cudgel corresponds to the brazen mace of Homer. And it is highly probable that the Assyrian Nimrod, or Hindu Bala, was also the prototype of the Grecian Hercules, with his club and lion's skin.
Nimrod is said to have been “a mighty hunter before the Lord;” which the Jerusalem paraphrast interprets of a sinful hunting after the sons of men to turn them off from the true religion. But it may as well be taken in a more literal sense, for hunting of wild beasts; inasmuch as the circumstance of his being a mighty hunter is mentioned with great propriety to introduce the account of his setting up his kingdom; the exercise of hunting being looked upon in ancient times as a means of acquiring the rudiments of war; for which reason the principal heroes of Heathen antiquity, as Theseus, Nestor, &c, were, as Xenophon tells us, bred up to hunting. Beside, it may be supposed, that by this practice Nimrod drew together a great company of robust young men to attend him in his sport, and by that means increased his power. And by destroying the wild beasts, which, in the comparatively defenceless state of society in those early ages, were no doubt very dangerous enemies, he might, perhaps, render himself farther popular; thereby engaging numbers to join with him, and to promote his chief design of subduing men, and making himself master of many nations.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

nim?rod (נמרד, nimrōdh; Νεβρώδ, Nebrṓd): A descendant of Ham, mentioned in ?the generations of the sons of Noah? (Gen 10; compare 1Ch_1:10) as a son of Cush. He established his kingdom ?in the land of Shinar,? including the cities ?Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh? (Gen_10:10), of which only Babel, or Babylon, and Erech, or Uruk, have been identified with certainty. ?The land of Shinar? is the old name for Southern Babylonia, afterward called Chaldea ('erec kasdı̄m), and was probably more extensive in territory than the Šumer of the inscriptions in the ancient royal title, ?King of Shumer and Accad,? since Accad is included here in Shinar. Nimrod, like other great kings of Mesopotamian lands, was a mighty hunter, possibly the mightiest and the prototype of them all, since to his name had attached itself the proverb: ?Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh? (Gen_10:9). In the primitive days of Mesopotamia, as also in Palestine, wild animals were so numerous that they became a menace to life and property (Exo_23:29; Lev_26:22); therefore the king as benefactor and protector of his people hunted these wild beasts. The early conquest of the cities of Babylonia, or their federation into one great kingdom, is here ascribed to Nimrod. Whether the founding and colonization of Assyria (Gen_10:11) are to be ascribed to Nimrod will be determined by the exegesis of the text. English Versions of the Bible reads: ?Out of that land he (i.e. Nimrod) went forth into Assyria, and builded Nineveh,? etc., this translation assigning the rise of Assyria to Nimrod, and apparently being sustained by Mic_5:5, Mic_5:6 (compare J. M. P. Smith, ?Micah,? ICC, in the place cited.); but American Revised Version, margin renders: ?Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh,? which translation is more accurate exegetically and not in conflict with Mic_5:6, if in the latter ?land of Nimrod? be understood, not as parallel with, but as supplemental to, Assyria, and therefore as Babylon (compare commentaries of Cheyne, Pusey, S. Clark, in the place cited.).
Nimrod has not been identified with any mythical hero or historic king of the inscriptions. Some have sought identification with Gilgamesh, the flood hero of Babylonia (Skinner, Driver, Delitzsch); others with a later Kassite king (Haupt, Hilprecht), which is quite unlikely; but the most admissible correspondence is with Marduk, chief god of Babylon, probably its historic founder, just as Asshur, the god of Assyria, appears in Mic_5:11 as the founder of the Assyrian empire (Wellhausen, Price, Sayce). Lack of identification, however, does not necessarily indicate mythical origin of the name. See ASTRONOMY, II., 11.; BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, RELIGION OF, IV., 7.; MERODACH; ORION.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Nim?rod, a son of Cush, the eldest son of Ham (Gen_10:8-10). Five sons of Cush are enumerated in Gen_10:7 in the more usual manner of this chapter: but a change of phrase introduces Nimrod. This difference may indicate that while, in relation to the other five, the names have a national and geographical reference, this appellation is exclusively personal. It denotes intensively the extremely impious rebel. Hence we conceive that it was not his original proper name, but was affixed to him afterwards, perhaps even after his death, as a characteristic appellative.
No other persons connected with this work must be considered as answerable for the opinion which the writer of this article thinks to rest upon probable grounds, that the earlier part of the book of Genesis consists of several independent and complete compositions, of the highest antiquity and authority, marked by some differences of style, and having clear indications of commencement in each instance. If this supposition be admitted, a reason presents itself for the citation of a proverbial phrase in Gen_10:9. The single instance of minute circumstantiality, in so brief a relation, seems to imply that the writer lived near the age of Nimrod, while his history was still a matter of traditional notoriety, and the comparison of any hero with him was a familiar form of speech. It is also supposed that those, not fragments, but complete, though short and separate compositions (of which eight or more are hypothetically enumerated in J. Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, p. 202), were, under Divine authority, prefixed by Moses to his own history. Their series has a continuity generally, but not rigorously exact. If we place ourselves in such a point of time, suppose the age succeeding Nimrod, which might be the third century after the Deluge, we may see how naturally the origination of a common phrase would rise in the writer's mind; and that a motive of usefulness would be suggested with it. But both these ideas involve that of nearness to the time; a period in which the country traditions were yet fresh, and an elucidation of them would be acceptable and consonant to general feeling. The following is a close translation of the passage in which mention is made of Nimrod:?'And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a hero in the earth [or in the land]: he was a hero at the chase in the presence of Jehovah; on which account the saying is, Like Nimrod, the hero of the chase, in the presence of Jehovah. And the chief [city] of his dominion was Babel; and [he founded] Ezek and Akkad, and Kalneh, in the land of Shinar.'
Interpreters, with scarcely an exception, from the Septuagint and the Targums down to our own times, understand the whole case thus: that Nimrod was a man of vast bodily strength, and eminent for courage and skill in the arts of hunting down and capturing or killing the dangerous animals, which probably were both very numerous and frequently of enormous size; that, by these recommendations, he made himself the favorite of bold and enterprising young men, who readily joined his hunting expeditions; that hence he took encouragement to break the patriarchal union of venerable and peaceful subordination, to set himself up as a military chieftain, assailing and subduing men, training his adherents into formidable troops, by their aid subduing the inhabitants of Shinar and its neighboring districts; and that, for consolidating and retaining his power, now become a despotism, he employed his subjects in building forts, which became towns and cities, that which was afterwards called Babel being the principal. Combining this with the contents of Genesis 11, we infer that Nimrod either was an original party in the daring impiety of building the tower, or subsequently joined himself to those who had begun it. The former fact is positively affirmed by Josephus; but it is not probable that he could have any other evidence than that of the general interpretation of his countrymen. The late Mr. Rich, not thirty years ago, in the extensive plain where lie buried the ruins of Babylon, discovered the very remarkable mound with remains of buildings on its summit (of which see the figure in the article Babel), which even now bears the name of Birs Nimrod; and this may well be regarded as some confirmation of the common opinion.
As a great part of the ancient mythology and idolatry arose from the histories of chiefs and sages, decorated with allegorical fables, it is by no means improbable that the life and actions of Nimrod gave occasion to stories of this kind. Hence, some have supposed him to have been signified by the Indian Bacchus, deriving that name from Bar-Chus, 'son of Cush;' and, it is probable, by the Persian giant Gibber (answering to the Hebrew Gibbor, 'mighty man,' 'hero,' in Gen_10:8-9); and by the Greek Orion, whose fame as a 'mighty hunter' is celebrated by Homer, in the Odyssey, xi. 571-4. The Persian and the Grecian fables are both represented by the well-known and magnificent constellation.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Nimrod
(Heb. Nimnrod'; נַמְרֹד, probably from the Persic Nabard, i.e. Lord; which corresponds to the Sept. Νεβρώδ; Josephus, Νεβρώδης), the name given by Moses to the founder of the Babylonian monarchy (Gen_10:10; comp. Hegewisch, Ueber d. Aramaers, in the Berl. Monatsschr. 1794, p. 216 sq.). B.C. cir. 2450. The Mosaic account makes him the son of Cush (on the omission of his name among the children of Cush, Gen_10:7, see Rosenmüller on Gen_10:10), an origin thought by some to indicate that the original people of Babylon came from the south (comp. Euseb. Chron. Amer. 1:20 sq.; Tuch, Genesis p. 230), the Egyptian or Hamitic region, expelling the Shemites (Asshur) from Shinar, and built Babylon, then, overflowing northward, founded Nineveh. (In Gen_10:11 the marginal reading of the. A. V. is preferable: יָצָא אִשּׁוּר, went forth to Assyria [see Nordheimer, Heb. Gram. 2:95].) Nimrod was a mighty hero (גַּבּוֹר, Gen_10:8) and hunter before the Lord (comp. Schiller, Kleine Pros. Schr. 1:378 sq.). The later Oriental traditions enlarge this account. Josephus (Ant. 1:4, 2 sq.) identifies Nimrod with the builder of the tower of Babel, which he represents as an act of blasphemous impiety. This arises from the old etymology; of the name (as if from מָרִד, to rebel; Gesen. Thesaur. s.v.), and agrees with the remarkable fact that, according to the Persian astrology (Chron. Pasch. p., 36; Cedren. Hist. p. 14 sq.; comp. Hyde, A d Ulugbeigh, p. 44 sq.), the constellation of the Giant — that is, Orion (q.v.) — was named from Nimrod; and some have identified Nimrod with the Greek Orion (comp. Movers, Phon. p. 471; Baur, Amos, p. 351), who was also a giant (Odys. 11:309 sq.; comp. II. 18:486, σθένος ᾿Ωρίωνος; Hesiod, Works and ‘Days, 580, Pliny, 7:16) and a mighty hunter (Odys. 11:574). The Hebrew kesil' (כְּסַיל.) is rendered Orion (Isa_13:10; Job_38:31) by the Syriac and the Sept. The word means a fool, an impious person, applied naturally to a proud blasphemer; and the chains or “bands of Orion” (Job_38:31) may be explained in the same way (see Michael. Spicel. 1:209 sq.; Suppl. p. 1319 sq.; comp. Gesen. Comment. on Isaiah 1:458 sq.). All we know of him serves to place Nimrod in the earliest period of Asiatic antiquity, and he cannot be regarded as a mere astronomical figure. But the strangest opinion is that of Von Bohlen (Genesis, p. 126), who makes him the same with Merodach- Baladan! (comp. Tuch, Genesis p. 233; Gesen. Thes. 2:818. note). The only subsequent notice of the name Nimrod occurs in Mic_5:6, where the “land of Nimrod “is a synonyme either for Assyria, just before mentioned, or for Babylonia.
There is no ground for regarding Gen_10:9-11 as a later interpolation, an opinion maintained by Vater, Schumann, and others, and virtually adopted by Prof. Rawlinson. Nimrod is there briefly characterized thus: “He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty huiter before the Lord.” This narrative is so brief that it is rather obscure. For the Hebrew word relieved “mighty” the Sept. gives γίγας, as if in allusion this, physical stature in connection with his power, or too Gen_6:4, as if the old antediluvian Titans had been reproduced in Nimrod. It is hard to determine in what sense the phrase a “mighty one” or a “mighty hunter” is used. If the name Nimrod be a Shemitic one, then it plainly means “let us rebel or revolt;”:.but if it be, as some suppose, a Turanian word, its meaning is at present unknown. Much depends on the sense of the phrase “before the Lord.” Many, like Perizonius, Bochart, and others, give it only an intensive meaning-Deojudice, or quasi maximne — that is, in the Lord's estimation he was a mighty hunter. But with Hengstenberg we demur to the notion that the Hebrew superlative absolute can be expressed in this way with the solemn name of Jehovah. The phrase is by no means parallel to the so-called absolute superlative in such phrases as “trees of the Lord” (Psa_104:16), or “a city great to God” (Jon_3:3), or “a child fair to God” (Act_7:20). The instances quoted by grammarians and lexicographers will not sustain the usage, and Nordheimer shrinks from the full vindication of it (Heb. Gram. p. 791). For example, the phrase occurs in Gen_27:7, “That I may bless thee before the Lord,” that is, in his presence and with his seal and approval. A similar phrase, in which the name God is used, is found in Psa 56:14, “That I may walk before God,” that is, in the enjoyment of his blessing and protection. And so in many places in which the idiom is not to be diluted into a mere superlative. Abarbanel, Gesenius, and Van Bohlen explain the clause “before the Lord' as meaning here “whom God favors.” Prof. Rawlinson, also goes so far as to say that “the language of Scripture concerning Nimrod is laudatory rather than the contrary” (Ancient Monarchies, 1, 217).
But the preposition לַפְנֵי: has often, as Gesenius admits, a hostile sense — in front of, for the purpose of opposing (Num_16:2; 1Ch_14:8; 2Ch_15:10); and the Sept. gives it such a sense in the verse under consideration-ἐναντίον Κυρίου ‘“ against the Lord.” The Targums and Josephus give the preposition this hostile meaning. The context also inclines us to it. That the mighty hunting was not confined to the chase is apparent from its close connection with the building of eight cities. Such indeed denies that such a connection is indicated by the ו in 2Ch_15:10, and Keil as roundly asserts it; but there is no need to lay stress on any consecutive force in the conjunction — the connection and its results are apparent in the context. The prowess in hunting must have co-existed with valor in battle. What Nimrod did in the chase as a hunter was the earlier token of what he achieved as a conqueror. For hunting and heroism were of old specially and naturally associated, as in Perseus, Ulysses, Achilles, and the Persian sovereigns, one of whom, Darius, inscribed his exploits in hunting on his epitaph (Strabo, xv). The Assyrian monuments also picture many feats in hunting, and the word is often employed to denote campaigning. Thus Tiglath-pileser I “hunts the people of Bilu-Nipru,” and one of his ancestors does the same thing. Both are represented as holding” the mace of power,” a weapon used in hunting, and at the same time the symbol of royalty. Sargon speaks of three hundred and fifty kings who ruled over Assyria, and “hunted” the people of Bilu-Nipru. Bilu-Nipru means Babylon, and nipru, from napar, to hunt, may be connected with Nimrod, or Nebrod, as in the Sept. the name is spelled. The chase and the battle, which in the same country were connected so closely in aftertimes, may therefore be virtually associated or identified here. The meaning then will be, that Nimrod was the first after the flood to found a kingdom, to unite the fragments of scattered patriarchal rule, and consolidate them under himself as sole head and master; and all this in defiance of Jehovah, for it was the violent intrusion of Hamitic power into a Shemitic territory. The old hero's might and daring passed at length into a proverb, or became the refrain of a ballad, so that hunters and warriors of more recent times were ideally compared with him — “Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter.”
Concerning the later life of Nimrod, the Scriptures give not the slightest information, nor even ground for conjecture. But, after seventeen or more centuries, a dubious and supposititions narrative got into credit, of which the earliest promoter that we know was Ctesias, but which, variously, amplified, has been repeated by many compilers of ancient history down to our own times. Rollin, Shuckford, and Prideaux seem to have given it a measure of credit. It is briefly to this effect: Some make Nimrod to be Belus, and consider Nin (for os and us are only the Greek and Latin grammatical terminations) to have been his son; others identify Nimrod and Ninus. It is further narrated that Ninus, in confederacy with Aric, an Arabian sovereign, in seventeen years spread his conquests over Mesopotamia, Media, and a large part of Armenia and other countries; that he married Semiramis, a warlike companion and a continuer of his conquests, and the builder of Babylon; that their son Ninyas succeeded, and was followed by more than thirty sovereigns of the same family, he and all the rest being effeminate voluptuaries; that their indolent and licentious character transmitted nothing to posterity; that the crown descended in this unworthy line one thousand three hundred and sixty years; that the last king of Assyria was Sardanapalus, proverbial for his luxury and dissipation; that his Median viceroy, Arbaces, with Belesis, a priest of Babylon, rebelled against him, took his capital, Nineveh, and destroyed it, according to the horrid practice of ancient conquerors — those pests of the earth — while the miserable Sardanapalus perished with his attendants by setting fire to his palace, in the 9th century before the Christian aera. That some portion of true history lies intermingled with error or fable in this legend, especially the concluding part of it, is probable. Mr. Bryant is of opinion that there are a few scattered notices of the Assyrians and their confederates and opponents in Eupolemus and other authors (of whom fragments are preserved by Eusebius), and in an obscure passage of Diodorus. To a part of this series, presenting a previous subjugation of some Canaanitish, of course Hamitic, nations to the Assyrians, a revolt, and a reduction to the former vassalage, Mr. Bryant thinks that the very remarkable passage, Gen_14:1-10, refers; and he supports his argument in an able. manner by a variety of ethnological coincidences (Anc. Mythol. 6:195-208). But whatever we know with certainty of an Assyrian monarchy commences with Pul, about B.C. 760; and we have then the succession in Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon. Under this last it is probable that the Assyrian kingdom was absorbed by the Chaldeo-Babylonian Kitto. The chief events in the life of Nimrod, then, are (1) that he was a Cushite; (2) that he established an empire in Shinar. (the classical Babylonia), the chief towns being Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh; and (3) that he extended this empire northward along the course of the Tigris over Assyria, where he founded a second group of capitals, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen. These events correspond to and may be held to represent the salient historical facts connected with the earliest stages of the great Babylonian empire.
1. There is abundant evidence that the race which first held sway in the lower Babylonian plain was of Cushite or Hamitic extraction. Tradition assigned to Belus, the mythical founder of Babylon, an Egyptian origin, inasmuch as it described him as the son of Poseidon and Libya (Diod. Sicul. 1:28; Apollodor. 2:1, § 4; Pausan. 4:23, § 5); the astrological system of Babylon (Diod. Sicul. 1:81), and perhaps its religious rites (Hestiveus ap. Josephus, Ant. 1:4, 3) were referred to the same quarter; and the legend of Oannes, the great teacher of Babylon, rising out of the Erythraean sea, preserved by Syncellus (Chronogr. p. 28), points in the same direction. The name Cush itself was preserved in Babylonia and the adjacent countries under the forms of Cossaei, Cissia, Cuthah, and Susiana or Chuzistan. The earliest written language of Babylonia, as known to us from existing inscriptions, bears a strong resemblance to that of Egypt and Ethiopia, and the same words have been found in each country, as in the case of Mirikh, the Meroe of Ethiopia, the Mars of Babylonia (Rawlinson, Herod. 1:442). Even the name Nimrod appears in the list of the Egyptian kings of the 22d dynasty, but there are reasons for thinkinig that dynasty to have been of Assyrian extraction. Putting the above-mentioned considerations together, they leave no doubt as to the connection between the ancient Babylonians and the Ethiopian or Egyptian stock (respectively the Nimrod and the Cush of the Mosaic table). More than this cannot be fairly inferred from the data, and we must therefore withhold our assent from Bunsen's view (Bibelwerk, v. 69) that the Cushite origin of Nimrod betokens the westward progress of the Scythian or Turanian races from the countries eastward of Babylonia; for, though branches of the Cushite family (such as the Cossaei) had pressed forward to the east of the Tigris, and though the early language of Babylonia bears in its structure a Scythic or Turanian character, yet both these features are susceptible of explanation in connection with the “original eastward progress of the Cushite race.
2. The earliest seat of empire was in the south part of the Babylonian plain. The large mounds which for a vast number of centuries have covered the ruins of ancient cities have already yielded some evidences of the dates and names of their founders, and we can assign the highest antiquity to the towns represented by the mounds of Niffar (perhaps the early Babel, though also identified with Calneh), Warka (the Biblical Erech), Mugheir (Ur), and Senkereh (Ellasar), while the name of Accad is preserved in the title Kinzi-Akkad, by which the founder or embellisher of those towns was distin;guished (Rawlinson, 1:435). The date of their foundation may be placed at about B.C. 2200. We may remark the coincidence between the quadruple groups of capitals noticed in the Bible, and the title Kiprat or Kiprat-arba, assumed by the early kings of Babylon, and supposed to mean “four races” (Rawlinson, 1:438, -447).
3. The Babylonian empire extended its way north-ward along the course of the Tigris at a period long anterior to the rise of the Assyrian empire in the 13th century B.C. We have indications of this extension as early as about 1860, when Shamas-Iva, the son of Ismi-dagon, king of Babylon, founded a temple at Kilehshergat (supposed to be the ancient Asshur). The existence of Nineveh itself can be traced up by the aid of Egyptian monuments to about the middle of the 15th century B.C.; and though the historical name of its founder is lost to us, yet tradition mentions a Belusas king of Nineveh at a period anterior to that assigned to Ninus (Layard's Nineveh, 2:231), thus rendering it probable that the dynasty represented by the latter name was preceded by one of Babylonian origin.;
It is impossible with certainty to identify Nimrod with any names as yet deciphered on the Assyrian monuments. Von Bohlen throws discredit on the whole story by identifying him with the historical MerodachBaladan. Remembering, however, that the Septluagint and Josephus write the name Nebrod or Nebrodes, we have the less difficulty in identifying the deified Nimrod with Nipru, Bil-Nipu, or Bel-inimrod, signifying “the lord,” “the hunter;” Enu, another title, being the corresponding or Cushite term for Bil, Bel, or BaaL Thus Babylon is called the city of Bil-Nipru; and its fortifications are named in Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions Ingur-Bilu- Nipru. The chief seat of his worship as a god was at Nipru (Niffar or Calneh) and at Calah (Nimrud). The son of Bil-Nipru and his wife Beltis or BeltaNiprata, was Nin, the Assyrian Hercules, and epponymously connected with Nineveh. Whether this identification be accepted or not, it mav be added, in conclusion, that the shadow of Nimrod has never left his country. The famous ruined palace is named after him, and so is a temple — the Birs; a dam across the river is called Sukr-el-Nimrod; and Layard tells us that when the head of one of those singular figures was laid bare, his attention was turned to it by the wild exclamation, “Obey! hasten to the diggers; they have found Nimrod himself!” while the workmen were amazed and terrified at the sudden apparition. Arabian story prattles of him as a worshipper of idols and the persecutor of Abraham. See Frostneich, De-venatore Nimrodo (Altdorf, 1706); Jour. Soc. Lit. April, 1860.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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