Nimetulahites, an order of Turkish monks, so called from their founder, Nimetu-lahi, famous for his doctrine and the austeritj^ of his life. The Nimetula- hites originated in the 777th j'ear of the Hegira, and are now quite extensively spread in Mohammedan countries. Thej'' assemble once a week to sing hymns in praise of God. The candidates for this order are obliged to continue shut up in a chamber for forty days, where their daily allowance is but four ounces of food, and no one is permitted to visit them. At the end of this fast the other devotees take the novice by the hand and perform a kind of dance, in which they make several extravagant gestures. During this exercise the novice commonly falls down in a trance, and at such time the Mohammedans say he receives some wonder- ful revelation. See Broughton, Hist, of Religion, s. v.
Nim'rah (Heb. Nimrah', !Tn^3, assigned by both Gesenius and Furst to a root signifying limpid, and dif- ferent from that of "Ip3, a imnther ; Sept. Nn/(/3|0a, v. r. 'Sappa, 'Xfiftpaji), a place mentioned, in Numb, xxxii, 3, among those which formed the districts of the " land of Jazer and the land of Gilead," on the east of Jordan, petitioned for by Reuben and Gad. These towns ap- pear, from the waj' in which they are grouped, to have been all near the place of the Israelitish encampment in the plain of Moab, It is manifestly the same city which is afterwards mentioned as having been rebuilt by the Gadites, and which is called Beth-nimrah (ver. 36). The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, in pronounc- ing a curse upon Moab, say, " the waters of Nimrhn shall be desolate" (Isa. xv, 6; Jer. xlviii, 34) ; and they group Nimrim with some of the same places mentioned in connection with it by Moses, as Ileshbon and Elea- leh ; there can be no doubt, therefore, that the same town is referred to. It is worthy of note that the name Nimer and Nimreh occur in several localities east of the Jordan (Porter, Hand-book, p. 509, 510, 520) ; but most of these are not in the retpiired position. The state- ments of Eusebius and Jerome regarding this city are Cdnfuscil and contradictory. In the Onomasticon (s. v. Ncmra), Eusebius says of Nebra that it is "a city of IJeubon in Gilead, now a large village in Kafamea (tv ry Karavaiff), called Abara." There must be a cor- ruption of the text here, for Jerome writes the name Nemra, and says it is still a large village, but does not give its locality. Oi Nemrim (Eusebius, 'SiKtjpiij), both state that it is now a village called Benamei-ium, north of Zoar. But under Befhamnai-nm (Eusebius, Bii^va- /3pa)'), which tlicy identify with Nimrah, they say that " it is to this day the village of Bcthamnaris in the filth mile north of Libias." All these notices may have been I
originally intended for the same place, and the corrup- tion of the text has created the confusion (Roland, Pa- hest. p. 649, 650). About two miles east of the J(jrdan, near the road from Jericho to es-Salt, are the ruins of Nimrim, on the banks of a wady of the same name. The ruins are now desolate, but near them are copious springs and marshy ground. There can lie little doubt that this is the site of Nimrah, or Beth-Nimrah, which Joshua locates in the valley (xiii, 27); and that these springs are " the waters of Nimrim" on which Isaiah pronounced the curse (Porter, Hand-book, p. 308 ; Rob- inson, Bib. Res. i, 551 : Burckhardt, Syria, p. 355, 391). — Kitto. See Beth-Nijikaii.
Nimrim, the "Waters of (Heb. Nimrim', S"''n^3, prob. plur. of Nimrah [q. v.], i. e. limpidity; according to others, panthe7-s ; Sept. in Isa. 'Htj-iipt'ifi v. r. 'Se/.tpeifi and Nf/Soi'/t; in Jer. Nf/Spti'/i v. r. 'Sifipeii'), a stream or brook (not improbably a stream with pools) within the country of Moab, which is mentioned in the denun- ciations of that nation uttered, or quoted, by Isaiah (xv, 6) and Jeremiah (xlviii, 34). From the former of these passages it appears to have been famed for the abun- dance of its grass. It is doubtless the same with the Beth-Nimkah (q. v.) of Numb, xxxii, 36. A name re- sembling Nimrim stiU exists at the south-eastern end of the Dead Sea, in the Wady en-Nemeirah and Biaj en-Nemeirah, which are situated on the beach, about half-way between the southern extremity and the prom- ontory of el-Lissan (De Saulcy, Voyage, i, 284-, etc.; Seetzen, ii, 354). This may be the Bethnamarim of Eusebius and Jerome. See Nimrah.
Nim'rod (Heb. Nimrod', Tl^3, probably from the Persic Nabard, i. e. Lord; which corresponds to the Sept. T^tfSpwc; Josephus, 'Ne[3pibSi]c), the name given by Moses to the founder of the Babylonian monarchy (Gen. X, 10; comp. Ilegewisch, Ueber d. Aramder, in the Berl. Jfonafsschr. 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, ver. 7, see Rosenmldler on ver. 10), an origin tlionght by some to indicate that the original people of Babylon came from the south (comp. Euseb. Chron. Armen. i, 20 sq. ; Tuch, Gen. p. 230), the Egyptian or Hamitic region, expelling the Shemites (Asshur) from Shinar, and built Babylon, then, overflowing northward, founded Nineveh. (In Gen. x, 11 the marginal reading of the A. V. is preferable : ^Vi'X XiS"^, went forih to A ssyria [see Nordheimer, Heb. Gram, ii, 95].) Nimrod was a mighty hero ("1135, Gen. x, 8) and hunter before the Lord (comp. Schiller, Kleine Pros. Schr. i, 378 sq.). The later Oriental traditions enlarge this account. Josephus {Ant. i, 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 et3'mology of the name (as if from 'T^'2, 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, ^d Ulngheigh, p. 44 sq.), the constellation o^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. xi, 309 sq. ; comp. //. xviii, 486, (jBh'OC 'Qpiiovoi;; Hesiod, ]Vo)-ks and Days, 5S0 ; Pliny, vii, 10) and a mighty hunter {Odys. xi, .574). The Hebrew kesil' (3^03) is rendered 07ion (Isa. xiii, 10; Job xxxviii, 31) by the Syriac and the Sept. The word means a fool, an impious 2)e7-son, ajuilicd naturally to a proud blasphemer; and the chains or "bands of Orion" (Job xxxviii, 31) may be explain- ed in the same way (see Michael. Spicel. i, 209 stj. ; Snppl. p. 1319 sq. ; comp. Gesen. Comment, on Isa. i, 458 sq.). All we know of him serves to place Nimrod in the earliest period of Asiatic antiquity, and he can- not be regarded as a mere astronomical figure. But