The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot 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 the mighty hunter before the LORD.” And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). Genesis 10:6-12
Picture 1: The Hamitic peoples are shown with the yellow-orange ovals on the map. Notice they settled primarily in Israel, Syria, Jordan and Africa.
The descendants of Ham settled in the Middle East and Africa and gave rise to the darker skinned races. Linguists still refer to this group of languages as Hamitic tongues. Ethiopia is also known as Kush. Seba refers to modern Saudi Arabia. Nimrod is mentioned as the first powerful leader and that he founded cities such as Babel and Nineveh. In a Western Civilization class you will learn that early human civilizations consisted of city states. There were no large empires at first. Each city was like its own separate nation and they warred with neighboring cities. Throughout history there are a few famous individuals who were able to get several cities to unify into one larger nation or empire. Alexander the Great’s father Philip II was famous for unifying Macedonia. Alexander inherited it after his father’s death and grew it into the second largest empire in world history, second only to the Roman Empire. Narmar unified Egypt into the Old Kingdom when the pyramids were built. A man by the name of Sargon is the first important individual to show up and unify the Mesopotamian region. Archaeologists credit him for founding the very cities mentioned in these verses. The most likely person to be identified as the Nimrod of the Bible is Sargon. If the name Sargon sounds familiar it is probably because there was an Assyrian King who attacked Israel by that name. He actually named himself Sargon because this first Mesopotamian ruler was his hero. Archaeologists call the Assyrian King Sargon II to differentiate them and they are separated by hundreds of years.
Picture 2: Bronze bust of Sargon. You will notice this strange beard appearance on a lot of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures and carvings. The men of these cultures braided their beards.
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