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Genesis 10 · a question people ask

Nimrod was "a mighty hunter before the LORD". Is that praise or a warning?

Interpretation

The text doesn't say whether Nimrod was good or bad. It says a saying grew up about him (10:9), and it lists the cities he began and built (10:10-12). Protestants read it two ways.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

A famous hunter, nothing more

"Before the LORD" simply says how great he was, and the saying about him (10:9) is a mark of fame, not blame. Jonah 3:3 uses a similar expression: the Hebrew calls Nineveh a great city "to God", which the WEB translates "an exceedingly great city".

Genesis 10:9 · Jonah 3:3

A warning

"Mighty" (gibbor) is the word for "the mighty men who were of old" in 6:4, and Nimrod's kingdom begins at Babel (10:10), the city of the tower story in the next chapter (11:9). God later sends Jonah to Nimrod's city Nineveh "for their wickedness has come up before me" (Jonah 1:2).

Genesis 6:4 · Genesis 10:10 · Genesis 11:9 · Jonah 1:2

The verses

“Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, “like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD”. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and the great city Calah.”
Genesis 10:8-12 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Genesis 10

Genesis 10: Every nation, one family

Counted name by name, Genesis 10 lists seventy descendants of Noah's sons and says every nation came from that one family. The families listed here are "the families of the earth" God promises to bless through Abram two chapters later.

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions