NIMROD (Hebr. Nimrādh, Septuagint Neṣnā). - Son of Cush, of Hamitic stock, of whom it is said that he was a great hunter and founded an empire (Gen. 10:8-12) in Babel and other cities of the land of Shinar (= Sumer), from which he went to Asshur, to found Nineveh and other Assyrian centers (whence Assyria is called in Mic. 5:5 and the land of N.).

Attempts to trace in Sumero-Akkadian literature a name of which the biblical one may be considered an echo have been made in many ways, but without definitive results, because they are always hypothetical reconstructions. Many think of the name of Nimurta (NIN-IB), god of war and hunting. Linguistically better is a reconstruction such as Nin-Marad "Lord of Marad" (ancient Sumerian city).

In the popular imagination (which has an echo in Dante's Nembrotto [Inf. XXXI, 34 ff.; Purg., XII, 34 ff.; Par. XXVI, 126]) it became a proverbial expression for a gigantic and brutal being.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. Kraeling, The origin... of Nimrod, in Journal of semitic languages and literatures, 38 (1921), pp. 214-20; various articles by A. Deimel, in Biblica, 2 (1921), pp. 71 ff., 461 ff.; 8 (1927), 323 ff.

Giovanni Rinaldi

@incollection{ec8_nemrod_ebr_nimradh_settanta_ne, author = {Rinaldi, Giovanni}, title = {Nemrod (Ebr. NimrĀDh, settanta neṣṇā)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1738}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/nemrod-ebr-nimradh-settanta-nesna} }

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