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Thus Bil-Nipru would be aptly translated as "the Hunter Lord," or "the god presiding over the chase," while, at the same time, it might combine the meaning of "the Conquering Lord" or "the Great Conqueror." On these grounds it is reasonable to conclude that we have, in this instance, an admixture of hero-worship in the Chaldaean religion.
It has, however, been conjectured that, like Bil-Nipru, he represented the deified hero, Nimrod, who may have been worshipped in different parts of Chaldaea under different titles. The city peculiarly dedicated to Nergal was Cutha or Tiggaba, which is constantly called his city in the inscriptions.
Bil-Nipru is probably the Biblical Nimrod, the original founder of the monarchy, the "mighty hunter" and conqueror. At the same time, however, that he is this hero deified, he represents also, as the second god of the first Triad, the classical Jupiter.
Nimrod, again, was certainly the founder of the kingdom; and, therefore, if Bil-Nipru is his representative, he would be Belus under that point of view.
When Belus, however, is called the first king, the founder of the empire, or the builder of Babylon, it seems necessary to understand Bil-Nipru or Bel-Nimrod. Nimrod, we know, built Babylon; and Babylon was called in Assyrian times "the city of Bil-Nipru," while its famous defences the outer and the inner wall were known, even under Nebuchadnezzar, by the name of the same god.
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