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And 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,
And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

10:8 Cush begat Nimrod. As the “son of Cush” (that is, “bar-Cush”) Nimrod probably was later deified and worshipped as Baccus by the Romans. As the founder of Babylon, he also later became the chief god of the Babylonians “Merod-ach” or “Marduk.” His name is preserved in various ways, in many geographical sites or names of deities, having been the most influential leader of mankind when the nations were dispersed at Babel. One of the chief cities of the Assyrians was called Nimrud. He has also been identified as the tyrant Gilgamesh, in the famous Gilgamesh Epic found in the ruins of Nineveh.


10:8 Nimrod. Nimrod, the youngest and most illustrious son of Cush, was given a name meaning “Let us rebel!” and apparently trained by his father for this purpose.


10:9 mighty hunter. This phrase connotes a man mighty in wickedness. It is possible that his hero’s reputation was gained in hunting and slaying the giant animals that proliferated after the flood and were considered dangerous to the small human population of the first century. He built a great kingdom, with the capital at Babel in the plain Shinar (no doubt equivalent to Sumer) in the Tigris-Euphrates valley.


10:10 Accad. Erech is also “Uruk,” one hundred miles southeast of Babylon, the legendary home of Gilgamesh. Accad gave its name to the Akkadian empire, perhaps the same as the Sumerian empire. Calneh is unidentified.


10:11 Asshur. Asshur, a son of Shem, had evidently founded a settlement, but Nimrod “went forth into Asshur” (better rendering of “out of that land went forth Assur”), extending his empire and establishing also what would later become the Assyrian empire.


10:11 Nineveh. Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrians, was named after “Ninus,” evidently another name for Nimrod. Although both Babylonia and Assyria were later conquered by Semites, the Hamite Nimrod was their founder and first king. Nineveh was two hundred miles north of Babylon, on the Tigris River.


10:11 Rehoboth. Rehoboth and Resen have not yet been identified.


10:12 a great city. About twenty miles south of Nineveh, Calah has been excavated. It is still called “Nimirud.” These three satellite cities, with Nineveh, made up a metropolitan complex and is thus called a “great city.”


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