Deuteronomy 2 and 3 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Nephilim and the Giants
The Nephilim of Genesis 6 are named again in the report of the spies, and Deuteronomy 2 and 3 list the giant peoples of Moab, Ammon and Bashan.
Israel feared the giants of Hebron in the days of Moses, and the last giants the Bible names died in the wars of David.
- First taught
- Genesis 6:4 “The Nephilim were on…”
- Fullest statement
- Deuteronomy 2:10 to 11 “(The Emites used to live there, a people…”
Titian, David and Goliath, c. 1542-1544. Public domain.
Summary
The Bible names several peoples of great stature in Canaan and beyond the Jordan, from the Anakim of Hebron to the Rephaim of Bashan.
- Caleb took Hebron from the three sons of Anak, and Joshua left Anakim only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.
- Four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell to David and his servants, in battles at Gob and at Gath.
- Readers take the sons of God before the Flood as angels, as the line of Seth, or as kings.
Two Verses Name the Nephilim
The name nephilim stands in two verses only, one before the Flood and one in the report of the spies.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.The verse sets the Nephilim on the earth in the days before the Flood, whose account begins in the next verse.
We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”The spies gave this report to the whole camp, and that night the people wept and spoke of going back to Egypt (Numbers 14:1 to 4).
The Giant Clans from Abram to David
Seven texts from Genesis 14 to 2 Samuel 21 name the giant peoples as Israel meets them.
Each row gives the moment, what happens to the giants and its verse.
- The days of AbramChedorlaomer defeats the Rephaites, the Zuzites and the EmitesGenesis 14:5
- The spies in CanaanThe spies report the Nephilim at Hebron and feel like grasshoppersNumbers 13:32 to 33
- The march to BashanIsrael strikes down Og of Bashan and his army at EdreiNumbers 21:33 to 35
- The wars of JoshuaJoshua devotes the Anakim of the hill country to destructionJoshua 11:21 to 22
- The allotment of JudahCaleb receives Hebron as his inheritanceJoshua 14:13 to 14
- The reign of SaulGoliath of Gath, six cubits and a span in height, comes out as the Philistine champion1 Samuel 17:4
- The reign of DavidDavid and his servants fight four battles with the Philistines2 Samuel 21:15 to 22
The five peoples and their lands1 table or figure
Five rows, one for each people, with the land it held and the verse that names it there.
| People | Land | Verse |
|---|---|---|
| Anakim | Hebron and the hill country | Numbers 13:22 |
| Rephaim | Bashan | Deuteronomy 3:13 |
| Emites | Moab | Deuteronomy 2:10 to 11 |
| Zamzummites | Ammon | Deuteronomy 2:20 to 21 |
| Descendants of Rapha | Gath | 2 Samuel 21:22 |
The Emites and the ZamzummitesDeuteronomy 2:10 to 21
Adam Clarke, on Deuteronomy 2:11, takes the Emites, the Anakim and the Rephaim to be probably one people called by different names in the lands where they lived. Rashi, in his commentary on the Torah, says the Anakim were also called Rephaim because the hands of all who saw them grew weak.
Og king of BashanDeuteronomy 3:11
(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)The bed still standing in Rabbah was a witness to the size of the king Israel had defeated.
Joshua 12:4 and 13:12 still call Og one of the remnant of the Rephaim. Albert Barnes takes the iron of the bed to be the black basalt of the country, and John Wesley reckons its length at four yards and a half.
Rashi, on Deuteronomy 3:11, says Og escaped the battle of Genesis 14:5 and was the escapee who brought the news to Abram in Genesis 14:13.
Hebron and the sons of AnakJoshua 14:15
The three descendants of Anak there were Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai. Hebron was once called Kiriath-arba after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim (Joshua 14:15).
Josephus, in the Antiquities of the Jews (5.2.3), says a race of giants was left at Hebron until the city was taken, with bodies so large that their bones were still shown in his day.
Gath and the descendants of Rapha2 Samuel 21:15 to 22
Ishbi-benob fell in a battle whose place the text does not name, and Saph and the brother of Goliath fell at Gob. The fourth, a man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, fell at Gath. The same wars stand in 1 Chronicles 20:4 to 8, which sets the battle with Sippai at Gezer.
The Hebrew Names of the Giants
Four Hebrew names belong to the giants, and the Septuagint rendered nephilim as gigantes, giants.
The four names, each with its Strong's number, its gloss in Strong's dictionary and the chapters where it stands.
The same Hebrew letters as rephaim, listed by Strong's as H7496, name the dead.
Calvin reads the nephilim before the Flood as strong men who practised violence and tyranny, and he grants that the word means great stature in the report of the spies.
The name Anak has also been read from what its bearers wore.
“The name is derived from the son of Arba, a great man among the Arabians (Jos 15:14), who probably obtained his appellation from wearing a splendid collar or chain round his neck, as the word imports. The epithet ‘giant’ evidently refers here to stature.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Numbers 13:33Evangelical
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Scripture gives no account of how giants stood in Canaan after the Flood.
The Flood took all flesh outside the ark, and Genesis still says the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and afterward as well. The text does not say who the Nephilim of afterward were.
The link comes from the spies, whose report the text calls bad (Numbers 13:32). Joshua and Caleb answer it with trust in the LORD (Numbers 14:9), and Adam Clarke notes that they never deny the great stature of the people.
Rashi, commenting on the spies' words, calls the Anakim descendants of Shemchazai and Azael, who fell from heaven in the generation of Enosh. Chuck Missler, in Return of the Nephilim, reads the Anakim and the Rephaim as Nephilim after the Flood.
The Giants and the Promised Land
The giants stood between Israel and the land God had promised.
The Rephaites stand in the list of peoples whose land God promised to Abram (Genesis 15:20). Moses set the old question Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? before Israel (Deuteronomy 9:2). He answered it with the LORD, who goes across ahead of them as a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 9:3).
Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, though his height was like that of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below.The LORD claims through Amos that the land was won by his hand, against a people as tall as cedars.
Where the Reading Divides
Three readings of the sons of God have stood since the first centuries, and each accounts for the giants in its own way.
The Watchers and the Nephilim sets out the full case for the angelic reading.
Three readings, each with its holders and their works and the texts it rests on.
| Reading | Holders and works | Texts it rests on |
|---|---|---|
| Angels who took human wives | Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1; Irenaeus, Against Heresies; Chuck Missler, Return of the Nephilim | the sons of God, bene ha'elohim, in Job 1:6 and 38:7; Jude 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4 to 5 |
| The line of Seth | Augustine, The City of God 15.23; John Calvin, Commentaries on Genesis (1554); C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (English 1866) | the line of Seth in Genesis 4:26 and 5; Matthew 22:30 |
| Kings and nobles | the Targum Onkelos; Rashi on Genesis 6:2; Meredith G. Kline, Divine Kingship and Genesis 6:1 to 4 (1962) | the use of elohim for judges in Exodus 21:6 |
Josephus says the sons of the angels did deeds like those of the giants of the Greeks, and the book of 1 Enoch, a study resource outside the canon, tells the story at length. Chuck Missler names the corruption of the human line as a reason for the Flood.
On the Sethite reading the mighty men of renown are tyrants of ordinary birth. Augustine takes the giants to be men of great size, born both before the sons of God married the daughters of men and after they married. After Augustine it became the common reading of the Western church.
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.The verse names the two groups whose identity divides the readings.
“By the former is meant the family of Seth, who were professedly religious; by the latter, the descendants of apostate Cain.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Genesis 6:2Evangelical
The dynastic reading makes the giants the warriors of kings who gathered many wives. Calvin calls the Targum's form of it, a marriage of the sons of nobles with the daughters of common people, frigid.
Books to Read Next
Four works on the giants and the sons of God, three of them free to read.
Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis
John Calvin · 1554
Calvin's commentary takes Genesis verse by verse, with the Latin and the English of each verse set side by side.
Read Calvin on Genesis 6 at CCELThe City of God
Augustine of Hippo · 426
Book 15, chapter 23, asks whether angels took wives and how the giants were born.
Read Book 15 at New AdventThe Antiquities of the Jews
Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston · 1737
Josephus tells of the giants before the Flood in Book 1 and of the giants at Hebron in Book 5.
Read the Antiquities at Project GutenbergDivine Kingship and Genesis 6:1 to 4
Meredith G. Kline · 1962
Kline's article sets out the dynastic reading in the Westminster Theological Journal, volume 24.
In print: find it wherever books are sold.
The Giants Fall Before the LORD
Caleb and David met the giants trusting the LORD who had promised the land.
The spies measured themselves against the descendants of Anak, while Caleb remained loyal to the LORD and asked for the hill country where the Anakim lived (Joshua 14:8 and 12). Christ, the Son of David, disarmed the powers and authorities and triumphed over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15). The text asks the reader to follow the LORD as Caleb did, who wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel (Joshua 14:14), and to fear no power that stands against God's people.
And all those assembled here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give all of you into our hands.”David names the LORD as the one who saves before he goes out against the champion of Gath.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Hebrew dictionary.
- Rashi on the Torah, in Pentateuch with Rashi's Commentary, tr. M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann (1929 to 1934)
- Targum Onkelos on Genesis 6:2, in the Metsudah Chumash (2009)
- Augustine, The City of God, tr. Marcus Dods.
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis (1554), tr. John King (1847)
- Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, tr. William Whiston (1737)
- R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (1912)
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, volume 1, The Pentateuch (English 1866)
- Meredith G. Kline, Divine Kingship and Genesis 6:1 to 4, Westminster Theological Journal 24 (1962)
- Chuck Missler, Return of the Nephilim.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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