“A mighty hunter before the LORD”
Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; so it is said, 'Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.' (Genesis 10:8–9 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A compliment about a legendary outdoorsman and big-game hunter.
The cultural key
Nimrod is introduced as the founder of the first empires, including Babel and the great Assyrian cities (the next verses). 'Mighty hunter' was royal propaganda language: Assyrian kings had themselves carved slaying lions to advertise their power. The phrase 'before the LORD' is pointedly ambiguous, either simple fact ('in the LORD's sight') or defiance ('in God's face'), and later Jewish tradition took the darker sense, making Nimrod the tyrant who raised Babel's tower against heaven.
Recovered meaning
The proverb sounds admiring, but it sits one paragraph before Babel for a reason. Nimrod is the Bible's first strongman-empire-builder, and 'mighty hunter before the LORD' carries a shadow of a man whose greatness set itself against God.