The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 235

fianco (Augustine, Keil, Murphy, Bush). 2. Dathe, Rosenmiiller, Bohlen); i. e. the early Comm Deo, in God's sight, ns an nggrnvation Assyrians retired from Babylon beforo their of his ein-cf. eh. xiii. 3 (Cajctan). 3. As Cushito invaders, and, proceeding northward, a superlative, declaring his excellence-cf. founded the cities after mentioned ; but the eh. xiii. 10 ; xxx. 8 ; xxxv. 6; 1 Sam. xi. 7 ; marginal rendering seems preferable: "Out John iii. 3; Acts vii. 20 (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, of that land went (Nimrod) into Asshnr," Kalisch, 'Speaker's Commentary'). 4. With or Assyria, the country north-east of Babylon, tho Divine approbation, na one who broke the through which flows the Tigris, and which way through rude, uncultivated nature for had already received its name from the son tho institutions of Jehovah (Lange). Cf. eh. of Shem (the Targums, Drusius, Bochart, xvii. 18 ; xxiv. 40 ; 1 Sam. xi. 15; Ps. xli. Le Clerc, Do Wette, Delitzsch, Keil, Kalisch, 12. Probably the first or tho third conveys Lange, et alii). And bnilded Nineveh. The the sense of the expression. Wherefore it ea.pita! of Assyria, opposite j\fosul on the ia said, Even as Nimrod the (n) mighty Tigris, afterwards became the largest and hunter before the Lord. The precise import most flourishing city of the ancient world of this is usually determined by tho view (Jonah iii. 3; iv. 11), being fifty-five miles taken of the previous phrase. in circumference (Diod., ii. 3), and is now Ver. 10. - And the beginning of hie identified with the ruins of Nebbi-yunus and kingdom. Either his first kingdom, as con- Kouyunjik (Layard's' Nineveh,' vol. ii. pp.136 trasted with his second (Knobel), or the ff.). And the city Rehoboth. Rehoboth-i1-, commencement of his sovereignty (Keil, Ka- literally, the streets of the city (cf. Platrea, lisch), or the principal city of his empire a city in Dceotia), a town of which the site (Rosenmiiller) ; or nll three may be legiti- is unknown. And Calah. The mounds of mately embraced in the term reshith, only Nimroud (Layard and Smith), though Ka- it does not necessarily imply that Nimrod lisch and Murphy prefer Kalah Shergat .built any of the cities mentioned. Was (about fifty miles south of Nineveh), which Babel. Babylon, "the land of Nimrod" the former authorities identify with Asshnr (Micah v. 6), the origin of which is described the original capital of the country. in eh. xi. 1, grew to be a great city covering Ver. 12.-And Resen, i. e. Nimrond, be• an area of 225 square miles, reached its tween Kalah Shergat and Kouyunjik (K1• highest glory under Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. lisch); but if Calah be Nimroud, then Resen iv, 30), and succumbed to the Medo-Persian may be Selamiyeh, a village about half way, power under Belshazza.r (Dan. v. 31). The between Nineveh and Calah, i. e. Kouyunjik remains of this great city have been dis- and Nimroud, ut supra (Layo.rd). The covered on the east bank of the Euphrates same. Resen (Kalisch), which will suit if near Hillah, where there is a square mound it was Nimroud, whose remains cover a paral- called "Babil" by the Arabs (Rawlinson's lelogram about 1300 feet in length and 900 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. i. eh. 1). And feet in breadth ; but others apply it to Erech. The Orchoe of Ptolemy, identified Nineveh with the other towns as forming by Rawlinson as Wurka., about eighty miles one largo composite city (Knobel, Keil, south of Babylon. And Accad. 'Apxa.o Lange, Wordsworth). Is a. great city. (LXX.); the ciiy Sittace on the river Argade With this the record of Nimrod's achieve- (Bochart) ; Sakada, a town planted by Pto- ments closes. It is generally supposed that lemy below Ninus (Clericus); Accete, north Nimrod flourished either before or about the of Babylon (Knobel, Lo.nge); identified with time of the building of the tower of Babel ; the ruins of Nifi'er, to the south of ·Hillah but Prof. Chwolsen of St. Petersburg, in (Keil) ; with those of Akkerkoof, north of his 'Ueber die Ueberreste der .A.ltbabylon- Hillah (Kalisch). Rawlinson does not identify ischen Literatur,' brings the dynasty of tbe site ; George Smith regards it as "the Nimrod down a.s late as 1500 B.c., relyin<> capital of Sargon, tho great city Agad.i, near principally on the evidence of an origintl •tho city of Sippara on the Euphrates, nnd work composed by Qu.t'ami, a native Baby- north of Babylon" (' Assyrian Discoveries,' lonian, aml translated by lbn-wa'hschijjah, eh. xii.). And Calneh. Calno (Isa. x. 9) ; o. descendnnt of the Chaldreans, and assigned C11nneh (Ezek, xxvii. ?.3) ; Ctesiphon, cast of by Chwolsen to one of the earlier periods of the Tigris, north-east of Babylon (Jerome, Babylonian history, in which is mentioned Euse\Jius, Boche.rt, Michaelis, Kalisch); iden- the name of Nemrod, or Nemroda, as the tified with the ruins of Niffer on the east of founder of II Canaanite dynasty which mled tho Euphrates (Rawlinson). In the land of at Babylon (vide an excellent paper on this Shinar, Babylonia., ns distinguished from subject in 'l'umer's 'Biblical nncl Oriental Assyri11 (Isa. xi. 11), the lower part of Studies,' Edin., A. and C. Black, 1876). Mesopotamia, or Cho.ldrea. Perhaps the hardest difficulty to explain in Ver. 11. -Out of that land went forth connection with the ordinary date assigne,l ABBhur, the son of Shem (ver. 22; LXX., to Nimrod is the foct that in eh. xiv., which Vulgate Syriac, Luther, Calvin, Michaelis, speaks of the reigning monar,;:hs m. the  160 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [on. x. 1-B2,