Shrouded in mystery and clouded by myth and tradition, Nimrod remains a pivotal personality in world history.
Here, I’ll decode some of Nimrod’s significance while leaving the rest to your personal research and imagination.
Cush begat Nimrod: 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 hunter before the LORD.
Genesis 10:8-9
Nimrod
The sense of the words, “before the Lord,” is “against the Lord.”
“A mighty hunter before the Lord” = “A mighty hunter against the Lord.” The things that Nimrod did were in opposition to God.
Meaning of the name
Gesenius
According to Gesenius’ lexicon, Nimrod’s name in the underlying language means:
Outline of Biblical usage
Nimrod = “rebellion” or “the valiant.” The son of Cush, grandson of Ham, and great grandson of Noah; a mighty hunter, he established an empire in the area of Babylon and Assyria.
Outline of Biblical Usage
Josephus
According to Josephus, Nimrod was a mighty hunter and a powerful king who lived after the Great Flood. He is credited with the construction of the infamous Tower of Babel. Josephus also describes Nimrod as a tyrant who led a rebellion against God, demanding that the people worship him instead.
Josephus also seems to suggest that Nimrod intended to escape future divine deluges by building a tower tall enough to rise above the highest-possible flood waters.
van der Toorn and van der Horst
Nimrod’s name means “We shall revolt” (Nimrod before and after the Bible, van der Toorn and van der Horst, Harvard Theological Review, 1990).
St. Augustine
St. Augustine took the underlying phrase rendered “before the Lord” to mean “against the Lord” because the phrase can mean either… [Nimrod] was a hunter against the Lord.” The word “hunter can only suggest a deceiver, oppressor and destroyer of earth-born creatures. Thus he, with his subject peoples, began to erect a tower against the Lord, which symbolizes his impious pride ( See van der Horst, page 19).
Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon
= a god e.g. Marduk,
= *Namra-uddu, a star-god.
Name of Babylonian king or prince: Nu-marad = ‘Man of Marad’
— son of כּוּשׁ (which see), hero and hunter Genesis 10:8, 9 (J; king in Babylonia, builder of Nineveh, etc. Genesis 10:10f.), נִמְרוֺד 1 Chronicles 1:10; אֶרֶץ נִמְרֹד Micah 5:5 (|| אֶרֶץ אַשּׁוּר); Greek Version of the LXX Νεβρωδ.
Nimrod’s identity
For more about the city of Babel and its tower, see my article on the topic.
Noah
Some scholars trace Minrod back to the giants of Genesis chapter six. This case would almost necessitate that Noah was Nimrod. I doubt the validity of such a supposition.
I say that to illustrate the wide ranges of belief regarding Nimrod, making him a topic more difficult to decode than Babel and its ziggurat.
A god
Was Nimrod Zoroaster (astrology and fire worship)?
Murderer of Abraham
Some ancient texts suggest that Nimrod and Abraham fought, and Nimrod killed Abraham.
Great-grandson of Noah
One thing we know for sure about Nimrod is his lineage through Noah. Cush was cursed by Noah and given land in Africa. The Cushites, however, did not go to their assigned region. Instead, we find them in the land of Shem.
Nimrod’s character
Nimrod may be the first warrior after the flood. Some experts speculate that his acumen with weapons for hunting led to his inuring by his followers.
Some speculate that Nero developed from hunter to leader to tyrant. He subjugated his and other peoples to build his cities, including Babel.
Biblical references to Nimrod
Genesis 10:8-12
Cush begat Nimrod: 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 hunter before the LORD.
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, 12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same [is] a great city.
Genesis 10:8-12
1 Chronicles 1:10
Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth.
1 Chronicles 1:10
Micah 5:6
They shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver [us] from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
Micah 5:6
More about Nimrod
For more information and speculation about Nimrod, please read:
See also: Nimrod: The Making of a Nemesis.
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