Genesis 10:10

10. The beginning of his kingdom He was the first to build great cities, the seats of luxury and idolatry, which have crushed the masses of mankind by bloody despotisms, whereas the primary design of God seems to have been for mankind to scatter themselves in smaller masses under a patriarchal government . The four places here mentioned may not have been founded by Nimrod personally; they are mentioned as the germs of the great Babylonian empire.

Babel Babylon, whose origin is more fully described in the next chapter, identified with the modern Babil.

Erech The great necropolis of Babylonia, situated on the Euphrates.

Accad A name often found by Rawlinson in the Babylonian inscriptions, the native name of the primitive inhabitants (and language) of Babylonia, (Rawl. Her., 1:319,) situated on the Tigris. This was the beginning of the famous empire of Babylon.

Calneh Ctesiphon, Sept., χαλαννη , a compound of Kal or Khal, the almost universal Babylonian and Assyrian prefix denoting place, as Khal-asar, fort of Asshur, Khal-nevo, temple of Nebo, etc. (Rawl., Her., 1: 480.) Anna is a Babylonian name for the first god in the Chaldean triad, corresponding to the Greek Pluto, and so Kal-neh, or χαλαννη , probably means temple of Anna . Shinar is the early Hebrew name for the great plain afterward known as Babylonia or Chaldea, through which flow the lower Euphrates and the Tigris; perhaps derived from sh’ne and ar, signifying “two rivers . ” The monuments and the cuneiform inscriptions of this region, now being deciphered, show the Hamitic origin of this kingdom, and its intimate relationship with Egypt . The Babylonian and Assyrian languages contain strong Shemitic elements, as well as Aryan traces, which have been very baffling to scholars; but Renan, a high authority on such a subject, concludes, from purely philological reasons, that the basis of the Assyro-Babylonian nationality was an Hamitic race, resembling the Egyptians; that this was succeeded by a large Shemitic population; and that this, in turn, was dominated over by Aryan (Japhetic) warriors. G. Rawlinson proves at length the Hamitic origin of the Chaldees ( Ancient Mon., I, iii) from tradition, language, and physical characteristics. Thus was there a primeval fusion, as well as separation, of races on the plain of Shinar.

Babylon is often made in Scripture the type of unholy ambition, despotism, and idolatry. It is noteworthy that the covenant people founded no vast cities or military monarchies. Cain builds the first city; Nimrod founds Babylon and Nineveh; the descendants of Ishmael and Esau dwelt in cities, while the sons of Isaac and Jacob yet dwelt in tents, confessing “that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”