Genesis Chapter 10 verse 8 Holy Bible
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
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And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who was the first of the great men of the earth.
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And Cush begot Nimrod: he began to be mighty on the earth.
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And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
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And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
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Cush became the father of Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
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And Cush hath begotten Nimrod;
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - And Cush begat - not necessarily as immediate progenitor, any ancestor being in Hebrew styled a father - Nimrod; the rebel, from maradh, to rebel; the name of a person, not of a people; - Namuret in ancient Egyptian. Though not one of the great ethnic heads, he is introduced into the register of nations as the founder of imperialism. Under him society passed from the patriarchal condition, in which each separate clan or tribe owns the sway of its natural head, into that (more abject or more civilized according as it is viewed) in which many different clans or tribes recognize the sway of one who is not their natural head, but has acquired his ascendancy and dominion by conquest. This is the principle of monarchism. Eastern tradition has painted Nimrod as a gigantic oppressor of the people's liberties and an impious rebel-against the Divine authority. Josephus credits him with having instigated the building of the tower of Babel. He has been identified with the Orion of the Greeks. Scripture may seem to convey a bad impression of Nimrod, but it does not sanction the absurdities of Oriental legend. He began to be a mighty one - Gibbor (vide Genesis 6:4); what he had been previously being expressed in ver. 5 - in the earth. Not ἐπι τῆς γῆς (LXX.), as if pointing to his gigantic stature, but either among men generally, with reference to his widespread fame, or perhaps better "in the land where he dwelt, which was not Babel, but Arabia (vide ver. 6).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) Cush begat Nimrod.--This does not mean that Nimrod was the son of Cush, but only that Cush was his ancestor. In the days of Nimrod population had become numerous, and whereas each tribe and family had hitherto lived in independence, subject only to the authority of the natural head, he was able, by his personal vigour, to reduce several tribes to obedience, to prevail upon them to build and inhabit cities, and to consolidate them into one body politic.He began to be a mighty one.--Heb., gibbor= warrior. (See Note on Genesis 6:4.) The LXX. translate giant, whence in fable Nimrod is identified with the Orion of the Greeks, in Hebrew Chesil, and in Arabic Jabbar; but this identification is entirely fanciful, as is probably the idea that he is the Izdubar of the Chaldean legends (Chald. Genesis, p. 321). Following the unscholarlike method of explaining Hamite names by Hebrew roots, commentators interpret Nimrod as meaning rebel; but the Biblical narrative speaks rather in his commendation, and the foolish traditions which blacken his reputation date only from the time of Josephus. Mr. Sayce connects his name with the Accadian town Amarda (Chald. Gen., p. 191).
