Genesis 10:8

Begat] was the progenitor of.

Nimrod] the one personal figure of the chapter. Here his name is proverbial as that of a mighty hunter (Genesis 10:9). He founds both Babylonian and Assyrian civilisation (Genesis 10:10). There is no trace of Nimrod as an historical character on the monuments, and it has been suggested that the name (as if from marad, 'to rebel') was a deliberate mutilation and corruption of that of Merodach, the god of Babylon, made by one who wished to deny his divine character. If this was the case, the heathen deity who caught Tiamat in his net has been transformed in the Bible story into a mere human huntsman, a creature of the true God (cp. before Jehovah, Genesis 10:9), and the ancient cities that boasted of their divine origin are traced to a human founder.