Babylon was established by Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter and ruler on the Earth. He was the son of Cush, and his grandfather was Noah’s son Ham. Noah was Nimrod’s great grandfather. Hebrew sources claim that Nimrod was a hunter of souls where he gathered men onto the plains of Shinar. Ancient scribes have also endorsed the idea that Nimrod was the world’s first conqueror. He supposedly had vast armies at his disposal, and when he began to enslave men for his kingdom, he decided to have them build a tower to the heavens. The Bible states that the people of the world all spoke one language during the time of Nimrod. Many of these people began to gather into Shinar on their own even though Nimrod still continued to gather souls and slaves for the kingdom. He appears on the Bible Timeline during the 19th century BC.
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Nimrod’s name means “rebel” or “to rebel” and Hebrew scholars states that he lived his life in total defiance to the Lord. This ancient ruler hated God, and he wanted a man to be greater than the true Lord of Heaven. He preached rebellion and unbelief toward God and he taught (or forced) the people to follow his example. Many of the false religious belief systems that dominated the spiritual lives of ancient men were started by Nimrod. His wife was supposed to have introduced these new gods to the evil ruler, and many of these gods continued to be followed by the ancients as they spread out from the land of Shinar.
Before the people left the land of Shinar, they began to build a tower that would reach into the heavens. This tower was going to be used to make men great on the Earth. The Bible says that the tower was a literal building because they used materials such as brick and tar (bitumen). As they began to build this tower God stopped their defiance by causing all of the people that were gathered in Shinar to speak a different language. Since people could no longer communicate with each other, they had no choice but to stop the project. They then gathered themselves to other people that spoke in their language and started to migrate to other parts of the Earth. They left Shinar and took the worship of false gods with them as they spread out.
After the tower project was stopped the remaining people called the area “Babel” because the people sounded like they were babbling after God confused their language. This incident is historically recorded in many cultures in the Middle East and other parts of the world.
According to Genesis, Asshur was the second son of SethShem, who was the son of Noah. The Bible says in Genesis that Nimrod went out of the land of Shinar and migrated north and formed the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboath, and Calah. Some Biblical scholars claim that Asshur also founded a city after his name and the people who lived in Asshur became known as the Assyrians. Nimrod probably established these cities because of his desire for conquest even though Asshur could have been a conqueror as well.
After Nimrod had established these two cities, they were the first places of organized false worship. Pagan deities were honored by the people who lived in around these areas. Babylon and Asshur (Assyria) would become places that God would call the symbols for evil. False religion, evil, sinful practices and the love of money would rise from these two cities. God constantly judges Babylon all throughout scripture, and he does the same thing to Assyria primarily through the city of Nineveh. God used the Babylonians and the Assyrians to judge his people when they didn’t obey him. These events took place about 4000 years ago in the Middle East.
Biblical References:
- Genesis 10 Outlines the first forming of the nations and the formation of the first empire of the world under Nimrod. Nimrod creates new cities, and one of them was Asshur, which becomes Assyria.
- Gen 11 The people of the world are gathered in the land of Shinar under the rule of Nimrod, and they decide to build a tower into the heavens that would defy God. The Lord confuses their language, and the people spread out over the Earth. This is the beginning of Babylon.
- The Book of Nahum This book is dedicated to the judgments of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire. The prophet declared that it would fall and never again rise to its former glory
- Revelation 17 to 19:9 The final judgment of Babylon.
http://www.biblegateway.com/
http://bibleatlas.org/asshur.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asshur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushpia
http://www.buzzardhut.net/index/htm/Babylon/Nimrod.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod
http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/nimrod.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconstructed_Babylon_-1.jpg
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Your fifth paragraph contains incorrect information. Ashur was the second son of Shem, not Seth. Seth was not one of Noah’s sons.
Oops! thanks for catching that.
My question is as follows: Genesis 10 verse 11-12 (KJV) reads as follows: “11. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Reheboth and Calah, 12. And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.”
My understanding is that Asshur, the son of Shem went out of the land of Shinar and built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah and Resen. Your comments on these verses are as follows: “The Bible says in Genesis that Nimrod went out of the land of Shinar and migrated north and formed the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboath, and Calah. Some Biblical scholars claim that Asshur also founded a city after his name and the people who lived in Asshur became known as the Assyrians. Nimrod probably established these cities because of his desire for conquest even though Asshur could have been a conqueror as well.”
From your comments, it seems that it is Nimrod who went out of the land of Shinar and built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah and Resen. Could you please explain as I am getting confused now.
How long from Nimrod to King Nebuchadnezzar?
I think Nimrod was king of Babel. Babel not Babylon. Babel being from 1000 to 1500 yrs before Babylon & in a different location. Nimrod was of Ham Nebuchadnezzar was of Japheth. I guess because both cities start w b & both rulers start w n. Real easy to get mixed up.
Babel is the same as Babylon, Babylon is just the greek version of saying it
Nebuchadnezzar however, reigned over Neo-Babylon, which is what historians call Babylon after it has emancipated itself from Assyrian rulership
BTW, Nebuchadnezzar is from Shem, not Japheth
Persians are from Japheth, you must have mixed him up with Xerxes I
nimrod founded babel, centuries later the Assyrians founded babylon
It is clear from the reply’s there are lots of misinformation in this article so, If you know you have made many mistakes in this article and still have not removed it, isn’t that the spirit of pride, of which we know is of the Evil one?
Hi Lisa which error are you speaking of? The way I read the comments (except for the first one which was corrected) are addressing the comment before it.
nimrod founded babel , the decendents of his uncle asshur founded babylon
I think Nimrod’s father Cush or Kish actually started Babel but it was Nimrod his son that took over and built the city to it’s greatness! The tower was built for one purpose, to worship the host of heaven which GOD hated!!! Certain people believe there was a portal there to the spirit realm! The fallen angels are still around and gave mankind certain knowledge that GOD didn’t want them to have! The nephalim DNA has always existed which Nimrod was introduced to and became the feared giant that he was! Only a finite number of fallen angels are chained in the abyss! The Apostle Paul said satan himself can appear as something else, so can his cohorts! Can millions of people be deceived when they say they were abducted by aliens and that they did something to them! These are nothing more than fallen angels incognito changing people’s DNA! Read Daniel chapter 2 about the image King Neb saw! The last generation is the feet and toes of this image. Look at verse 43 which says they will mingle themselves with the seed of men! Come quickly LORD JESUS !!!
Assyrians weren’t destroyed thousands of years ago. I am Assyrian and I still exist. Biased article filled with misinfo AND disinfo
Apologies Mimz, after seeing your comment and revisting this article we’ve made some updates. I can only speculate that the original author meant the Assyrian Empire, but either way we have removed that sentence.
weren”t the assyrians brown skinned
Well, Nimrod can not build the tower, it is likely Japheth. It takes an entire family unit, or the entire Table Of Nations is worthless. Ok, when the languages are mixed up, if someone speaks Russian, his wife and young children will speak Russian, each one is not speaking a different language. If they did, then birth has zero to do with a nation, it is language. That means that it is probably 14 languages spoken at the tower, and these family groups would move out into the world from that point. Japheth makes the most sense since his groups are basically missing from the Old Testament. Nimrod would then be tasked to tear it down, and rebuild from scratch. He then builds more cities, and returns. I find it hard to believe that Numbers 12 is an issue held strictly to Aaron and Miriam; Moses is married to a Cushite, and they do not like it. If Moses is blind to it, God would not be, so out of nowhere, in the Table Of Nations, a Cushite named Nimrod is spoken. That would make Nimrod mighty like the 37 men of David, not the pre flood ones. Sad part to that is one of the 37, Uriah the Hittite; the Hittites came from Canaan. Another from the line of Ham that probably needs more thought. Anyway, I am sure that people will always connect Nimrod to the tower, although I am not sure why he would leave a great city to build a great tower in Babel. It was centuries after Nimrod before Babel would be great, but it is what it is.