Story of Nimrod
Genesis 10:8-12
There is very little about Nimrod in the written Torah, but the oral Torah has some amazing insight about Nimrod and his background.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT ALL SCRIPTURAL, MOST OF THE INFORMATION BELOW WAS PASSED DOWN THROUGH ORAL TRADITION AND MAY NOT BE COMPLETELY ACCURATE AS MEN OFTEN EXAGGERATE AND SPECULATE.
Background Story
After the flood, God commanded the people to go forth and populate the earth. Waiting for the flood waters to drop, people stayed on the mountain for a while. When the waters finally drained and the valleys were shown, the majority left the mountain where the ark landed and traveled to the plains. Many were still afraid of another flood and stayed up on the higher grounds. The plains they first started building in was called Shinar.
2 years after the flood, Shem gives birth to Arphaxad who went out and created the Chaldeans - all his offspring were one in the same with Babylonians.
The Curse
One day Noah's son, Ham, 'saw Noah's nakedness' after Noah had drunk a lot of wine and fell asleep. This is important because after Noah awoke he knew what his younger son did to him (Genesis 9:20-27) and he said, "Cursed be Canaan (Ham's firstborn) - a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren and blessed be my son Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant!"
'Seeing his nakedness' is assumed to mean having sex with someone and relates to Leviticus 20:17, "If a man marries his sister and have sexual relations, then he has uncovered the nakedness of his sister, he bears his guilt". Another possibility is that they just 'saw him naked' and rather than covering him up - he went and told his brothers about it to mock him. Basically showing zero respect for his father and thus implies the curse. Since God had already blessed Noah and his son in Genesis 9:1, Noah instead cursed Ham's own son, Canaan. And while it seems unfair to Canaan, the use of "Ham, the father of Canaan" in Genesis 9:22 denotes that Canaan had the same spirit as his father.
The Reign of Nimrod
Ham had a son named Cush who then had a son named Nimrod. When Nimrod was 18 years old a war broke out between the Hamites (descendants of Ham) and Noah's other son, Japhethites (descendents of Japheth). Japethites were victorious but Nimrod gathered a small army of Cushites (the sons of Ham's son, Cush), attacked them and defeated them. After this he was made a king and ruled over Babylon and his empire extended over multiple cities which he established north including Nineveh, Rehoboath, and Calah.
Under fear, the people started to build the tower of Babel, this tower was to be so tall that even if God wanted to flood the earth again, the people would live. This gained a lot of traction since those who lived on the mountain saw it as a way to be a part of the larger community while also being safe from a second flood.
God was angry at them for many reasons since they tried to be like God and build a tower to avoid his wrath, and not spread out and multiply as commanded. But God decided to have mercy and only scramble their language which would force them to spread out while also thinning their numbers and making the tower project impossible. It is unknown if Nimrod was the one who carried out the order or if it was just something that happened by the people in the land that Nimrod ruled over.
Nimrod, fearing the curse that Shem's descendants would overthrow his throne, he forced many of Shem's descendants to leave the lands he ruled over. There was one person who did not leave though, his name was Terah. Terah was the direct line of Shem, but Nimrod didn't fear Terah. Shem was still living at the time, and despite his Shem's family following the true God, Terah (7 generations down from Shem) left his family to worship the great Nimrod whom Terah thought was a god. Terah was Nimrod's right hand man and commanded Nimrod's armies and drove his own people (Shem) out of their lands.
Nimrod's Source of Power
The mysticism background on why Nimrod was seen as a god is because of his stolen attire. God made clothing for Adam and Eve, and anyone wearing the clothing was unable to be harmed by animals. In fact, the animals would be docile and like a household pet doing as you commanded. The garment of Adam was passed down to Methuselah and then down to Noah. Noah used it to gather all the animals into the ark and then Ham or Cush stole the garment after the flood and gave it to Nimrod. Nimrod was known for his great hunting skills because no animal would dare challenge him. He was wearing the garment and so animals would essentially bow to him and he would murder them. Because of this, many people thought he was a god, for no mere man could have even the animals worship him.
Nimrod was known as the god of the Chaldeans (which is interchangeable with Babylonians). Nimrod was deified as Saturn or Satur in Chaldee.
Satur was represented as a half man half goat deity. The early Babylonians called the sun "the goat" and said the goat was the "sun god" thus Nimrod was half-goat half-man. Isaiah 13:21 also identifies Satur as belonging to the Bablyon. They would celebrate the sun god's day of rest on Sunday to distinguish themselves from the old ways of Shabbat (God's rest day) observance.
A Challenger Arises
One day, Nimrod saw a new star in the East and every night it grew brighter. Nimrod's council agreed it meant a baby would be born and it would challenge Nimrod's power. To prevent this, all new baby boys would have to die including everyone in his palace and in his slave's huts. The one put in charge of all of this was Terah, Nimrod's most trusted.
Terah gathered up all his men to round up expectant mothers and the palace was converted into a giant maternity ward of sorts. If you had a baby girl, then it lived. If you had a baby boy, it was killed. This went on for a while until one night, the star that grew in brightness darted west then east then north then south. His council told him that the only explanation is that the son who is to take the throne is the one that is born THIS very night and it would be from your most trusted. Terah was the most trusted servant and his wife was about to give birth, but given the recent decrees - Terah kept the pregnancy a secret and when the boy was born he hid him in a cave using a secret passage from the palace. As Terah was returning to the palace he heard a baby cry because one of his servants had just had a baby boy. Terah took the baby and handed him to his wife to nurse just as Nimrod's messengers arrived to take Terah's son. Terah willingly handed over the servant's baby to Nimrod and claimed it as his own, knowing full well that his baby was safe. Nimrod trusted Terah even more now, but Terah knowing Nimrod was afraid of a baby did not believe Nimrod to be a god anymore.
Terah's son that survived was Abraham, the father of many nations.
Nimrod's Death
Fast forward a bit and we have Nimrod going off to hunt, and legend has it that Esau (grandson of Abraham, Terah's son) saw Nimrod in a field and killed him while other Jewish sources say he died from wild animals and one saying he challenged God and God killed him with a swarm of gnats. Either way, he died. Unfortunately, during this time, Nimrod's wife had an affair and was pregnant. Since Nimrod never returned, she hid her bad deeds and declared that the Saturn (the goat god/sun) had used his light rays to impregnate her through miraculous conception and she would give birth to her husband Nimrod again who would now be reborn as Tammuz (also known as Cronus). The people rejoiced and recorded the birthday of their god as December 25th which they called "Saturnalia" to mark the birth of their redeemer.
Generational Confusion
Since Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah but Abraham was the 8th generation from Nimrod it doesn't seem possible that they would have lived in the same time. However, looking at the ages of people immediately after the flood we can see how lifespans were affected and calculate the possibility of 10 generations all living together. The age of people born after the flood was about 450 years, after a few generations the lifespan started to drop significantly down to about 230 years. Noah (born prior to the flood) started having kids at the age of 500. It's unknown when Ham had Cush, but he is estimated that Ham have lived over 500 years. I attached a chart showing how this would be possible between the 2 lineages as well as noting the Chaldean people.
And for those of you interested in how this story plays into Jesus' lineage, here is a chart highlighting Terah:
