The Targum of pseudo-Jonathan (to Gen. x. 11) presents Nimrod the cause of Ashur leaving Babel before the building of the tower, to establish Assyria, where he built four other cities, namely, Nineveh, Rehobot, Calah, and Resen (comp. Naḥmanides ad loc.). This exegesis may relate to the two Nimrods of Arabic tradition.
According to another account, when Nimrod was eighteen years old, war broke out between his Hamite kinsmen, the [[פתרסים|Pathrusites]], and the Japhethite [[דדנים|Dodanim]]. The latter were at first victorious placing Ashur in charge of Cana'an, but Nimrod, at the head of a small army of invaders from Casluh, attacked and defeated them and forced Ashur east of the Euphrates out of Canaan. After this he was made king over all the people on earth, appointing Terah his minister. It was then, elated by so much glory, that Nimrod changed his behavior toward Yhwh and became the most flagrant idolater.
When the adult Abraham began to preach against idolatry warning of Nimrod's fall, Nimrod had him thrown into a heated furnace; and it was on this account, according to one opinion, that Nimrod was called "Amraphel" ( = "he said, throw in"; Targ. pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. xiv. 1; Gen. R. xlii. 5; Cant. R. viii. 8). When Nimrod was informed that Abraham had come forth from the furnace uninjured, however, he remitted his persecution of the worshiper of Yhwh.
However, the survival of Abraham did not cause Nimrod to change his conduct; he remained an idolater.
===Nimrod's Dream===
Abraham had warned Nimrod not only of the coming destruction but also subjugation to Elam. However, Nimrod had ignored him. According to the "Sefer ha-Yashar" (l.c.), he at this time acquired the name "Amraphel" in allusion to the fall of his princes during the dispersion.
The destruction of the tower did not change Nimrod's heart and, at the head of a small army, he set out with the intention of punishing his rebellious generals. Ten years later Nimrod , at the head of a small army, came to wage war with Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, who had been one of Nimrod's generals, and who after G-d's dispersion (at the hand of the Dodanim) of the builders of the tower went to Elam and formed there an independent kingdom. Nevertheless, Cherdorlaomer routed and subjugated him.
