the fifth son of Cush, and in all appearance much younger than any of his brothers: for Moses mentions the sons of Raamah, his fourth brother, before he speaks of him. What the sacred historian says of him is short; and yet he says more of him than of any other of the posterity of Noah, till he comes to Abraham. He tells us, that "Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth;" that he was... a "mighty hunter before the Lord," even to a proverb; and that "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."

From this account he is supposed to have been a man of extraordinary strength and valour. Some represent him as a giant; all consider him as a great warrior. It is generally thought, that by the words a mighty hunter, is to be understood, that he was a great tyrant; but some of the rabbins interpret those words favourably, saying, that Nimrod was qualified by a peculiar dexterity and strength for the chase, and that he offered to God the game which he took; and several of the moderns are of opinion, that this passage is not to be understood of his tyrannical oppressions, or of hunting of men, but of beasts. It must be owned, that the phrase before the Lord may be taken in a favourable sense, and as a commendation of a person's good qualities; but in this place the generality of expositors understand it otherwise.

Hunting must have been one of the most useful employments in the times just after the dispersion, when all countries were over-run with wild beasts, of which it was necessary they should be cleared, in order to make them habitable; and therefore nothing seemed more proper to procure a man esteem and honour in those ages, than his being an expert hunter. By that exercise, we are told, the ancient Persians fitted their kings for war and government; and hunting is still, in many countries, considered as one part of a royal education.

There is nothing in the short history of Nimrod which carries the least air of reproach, except his name, which signifies a rebel; and that is the circumstance which seems to have occasioned the injurious opinions which have been entertained of him in all ages. Commentators, being prepossessed in general, that the curse of Noah fell upon the posterity of Ham, and finding this prince stigmatized by his name, have interpreted every passage relating to him to his disadvantage. They represent him as a rebel against God, in pernading the descendants of Noah to disobey the divine command to disperse, and in setting them to build the tower of Babel, with an impious design of scaling heaven. They brand him as an ambitious usurper, and an insolent oppressor; and make him the author of the adoration of fire, of idolatrous worship given to men, and the first persecutor on the score of religion. On the other hand, some account him a virtuous prince, who, far from advising the building of Babel, left the country, and went into Assyria, because he would not give his consent to that project.

Nimrod is generally thought to have been the first king after the flood; though some authors, supposing a plantation or dispersion prior to that of Babel, have made kings in several countries before his time. Mizraim is thought by many who contend for the antiquity of the Egyptian monarchy, to have begun his reign much earlier than Nimrod; and others, from the uniformity of the languages spoken in Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and Canaan, affirm those countries to have been peopled before the confusion of tongues.

The four cities Moses gives to Nimrod constituted a large kingdom in those early times, when few kings had more than one; only it must be observed, that possessions might at first have been large, and afterwards divided into several parcels; and Nimrod being the leader of a nation, we may suppose his subjects settled within those limits: whether he became possessed of those cities by conquest or otherwise, does not appear; it is most probable he did not build Babel, all the posterity of Noah seeming to have been equally concerned in that affair; nor does it appear that he built the other three, though the founding of them, and many more, with other works, are attributed to him by some authors. It may seem also a little strange, that Nimrod should be preferred to the regal dignity, and enjoy the most cultivated part of the earth then known, rather than any other of the elder chiefs or heads of nations, even of the branch of Ham. Perhaps it was conferred on him for his dexterity in hunting; or, it may be, he did not assume the title of king till after his father Cush's death, who might have been settled there before him, and left him the sovereignty; but we incline to think, that he seized Shinar from the descendants of Shem, driving out Ashur, who from thence went and founded Nineveh and other cities in Assyria.

The scripture does not inform us when Nimrod began his reign: Some date it before the dispersion; but such a conjecture does not seem to suit with the Mosaic history: for before the dispersion we read of no city but Babel; nor could there well be more, while all mankind were yet in a body together; but when Nimrod assumed the regal title, there seem to have been other cities; a circumstance which shows it was a good while after the dispersion. The learned writers of the Universal History place the beginning of his reign 30 years from that event, and in all likelihood it should be placed rather later than earlier.

Authors have taken a great deal of pains to find Nimrod in profane history: some have imagined him to be the same with Belus, the founder of the Babylonish empire; others take him to be Ninus, the first Assyrian monarch. Some believe him to have been Ezechias, the first Chaldean king after the deluge; and others perceive a great resemblance between him and Bacchus, both in actions and name. Some of the Mahomedan writers suppose Nimrod to have been Zohak, a Persian king of the first dynasty; others contend for his being Cay Caus, the second king of the second race; and some of the Jews say he is the same with Amraphel, the king of Shinar, mentioned by Moses. But there is no certainty in these conjectures, nor have we any knowledge of his immediate successors.

The scripture mentions nothing as to the death of Nimrod; but authors have taken care that such an essential circumstance in his history should not be wanting. Some of the rabbins pretend he was slain by Esau, whom they make his contemporary. There is a tradition that he was killed by the fall of the tower of Babel, which was overthrown by tempestuous winds. Others say, that as he led an army against Abraham, God sent a squadron of gnats, which destroyed most of them; and particularly Nimrod, whose brain was pierced by one of those insects.