Nephilim: Part 2 Giants in the Land

After the Children of Israel escaped from Egypt, Moses sent ten spies into Canaan to scout out the land. Two spies came back with good reports, while the rest warned of the Nephilim.

Numbers 13 v 31-33

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.

We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Due to this discovery, Moses leads the people into the Wilderness for 40 years.

The spies described those living in the land as giants and understood them to be Nephilim. The land flowing with milk and honey, the Promised Land, was occupied by people of great size.

Typically, translations describe how the spies felt like they were grasshoppers in the eyes of the Nephilim. But this word can also be translated as locust. I’m tending to prefer this interpretation as it fits in with the earlier verse.

Numbers 3 v 23

When they reached the Valley of Eshkol, a they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.

So the spies felt like they were locusts compared to the giants. They went through the land and were stealing food, much like how a swarm of locusts comes and cuts crops.

Anak is also mentioned in the text. His name means long-necked, giving the impression of a large human. His children were defeated by Joshua’s army when they invaded the land.

Another name associated with the Nephilim is the Rephaim. The Children of Israel meets one of the last of the Rephaim, King Og.

Deuteronomy 3 v 1

Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

Later in the text we are told he was one of the last of his kind and his bed was huge at 14 feet long and 6 feet wide.

Deuteronomy 3 v 11

Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.

This bed may not suggest how giant sized he was, as it may have been a ceremonial bed, used for particular kind of worship to a god.

We see the Rephaim mentioned several times in Scripture. The kings who kidnapped Lot in Genesis 14, defeated the Rephaim as they conquered the Land of Canaan.

Genesis 14 v 5

In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim and the Horites in the hill country of Seir.

Abraham musters his servants and defeats these kings, rescuing Lot.

The invasion of the Promised Land by Joshua and his army has generally been depicted as an unchristian act and in some circles seen as slightly embarrassing. Some even use it as an avenue of attack against the Christian idea of a loving God.

There are many explanations and defences of the invasion, including it was allegorical and never happened or the inhabitants were simply removed from the land.

In terms of the Nephilim argument, Joshua only wipes out the giant clans. These were the cities in the hill country. For example, when Hebron is taken, the text mentions the three sons of Anak. These were Nephilim.

Joshua 15 v 14

From Hebron Caleb drove out the three Anakites—Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, the sons of Anak.

Much later in the Bible, we come across the story of David and Goliath.

1 Samuel 17 v 4-7

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armour of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

It is usually sited that Goliath was 9 feet 9 inches or just over 3 metres. This is based on the assumption that the cubit was 18 inches. Though throughout antiquity, the cubit ranged in size, depending on the era and location. For example, there were three different kinds of cubit at the time of the Exodus.

Goliath’s height gets even more harder to pin down as the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, states he was only four cubits and a span. Based upon 18 inches per cubit, that means Goliath was well over 6 feet. This might seem a climb down from 9 feet. But to the average person for this time, who was 5ft 5 inches, even 6 feet was approaching a giant. Literally, head and shoulders above everyone else.

We always need to be careful with numbers in the Bible, especially in the early books. Numbers had both a numerical use and a symbolic meaning in the ancient world. So if Goliath was 6 cubits plus a span, then it might have a deeper meaning.

Six represents the number of working days before the Sabbath, the day of rest. So by saying Goliath was six cubits and a span, the text is saying that he was setting himself up against God’s order.

Just like how the Nephilim were defeated by God bringing the Flood, and Joshua defeated them in the Conquest, David kills Goliath. And brings about a new order. The Flood brings about the Noahic Covenant. Joshua establishes the Kingdom of Israel. And after the death of Goliath, the Davidic line is established.

Even though Saul was an Israelite king, his description suggests he had Nephilim tendencies.

1 Samuel 9 v 2

Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.

By mentioning this detail, I wonder if the writer of 1 Samuel is foreshadowing the problems Saul would cause to Israel through his kingship.

Nephilim are mentioned in passing in the Book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 33 v 27

But they do not lie with the fallen warriors of old, who went down to the realm of the dead with their weapons of war—their swords placed under their heads and their shields resting on their bones—though these warriors also had terrorized the land of the living.

The root of the Hebrew word Nephilim comes from naphal, which means to fall, to fail or to cast down. This implies the Nephilim are likely the fallen ones mentioned by Ezekiel. He mentions the Nephilim are warriors of old who terrorised people, and are now in the ‘realm of the dead’.

I suspect there may be other mentions of the Nephilim in the Old Testament. They appear to be a recurring enemy of God and His people. And when they are defeated, we know God is advancing His plan of salvation.