Giants

Heb. nephilim, meaning “violent” or “causing to fall” (Gen 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying “wonder,” and hence “monsters” or “prodigies.” In Num 13:33 this name is given to a Canaanitish tribe, a race of large stature, “the sons of Anak.” The Revised Version, in these passages, simply transliterates the original, and reads “Nephilim.”

Heb. rephaim, a race of giants (Deut 3:11) who lived on the east of Jordan, from whom Og was descended. They were probably the original inhabitants of the land before the immigration of the Canaanites. They were conquered by Chedorlaomer (Gen 14:5), and their territories were promised as a possession to Abraham (15:20). The Anakim, Zuzim, and Emim were branches of this stock.

In Job 26:5 (R.V., “they that are deceased;” marg., “the shades,” the “Rephaim”) and Isa 14:9 this Hebrew word is rendered (A.V.) “dead.” It means here “the shades,” the departed spirits in Sheol. In Sam. 21:16, 18, 20, 33, “the giant” is (A.V.) the rendering of the singular form ha raphah, which may possibly be the name of the father of the four giants referred to here, or of the founder of the Rephaim. The Vulgate here reads “Arapha,” whence Milton (in Samson Agonistes) has borrowed the name “Harapha.” (See also 1 Chr 20:5, 6, 8; Deut 2:11, 20; 3:13; Josh 15:8, etc., where the word is similarly rendered “giant.”) It is rendered “dead” in (A.V.) Ps 88:10; Prov 2:18; 9:18; 21:16: in all these places the Revised Version marg. has “the shades.” (See also Isa 26:14.)

Heb. ‘Anakim (Deut 2:10, 11, 21; Josh 11:21, 22; 14:12, 15; called “sons of Anak,” Num 13:33; “children of Anak,” 13:22; Josh 15:14), a nomad race of giants descended from Arba (Josh 14:15), the father of Anak, that dwelt in the south of Palestine near Hebron (Gen 23:2; Josh 15:13). They were a Cushite tribe of the same race as the Philistines and the Egyptian shepherd kings. David on several occasions encountered them (2 Sam 21:15-22). From this race sprung Goliath (1 Sam 17:4).

Heb. ‘emin, a warlike tribe of the ancient Canaanites. They were “great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” (Gen 14:5; Deut 2:10, 11).

Heb. Zamzummim (q.v.), Deut 2:20 so called by the Amorites.

Heb. gibbor (Job 16:14), a mighty one, i.e., a champion or hero. In its plural form (gibborim) it is rendered “mighty men” (2 Sam 23:8-39; 1 Kgs 1:8; 1 Chr 11:9-47; 29:24.) The band of six hundred whom David gathered around him when he was a fugitive were so designated. They were divided into three divisions of two hundred each, and thirty divisions of twenty each. The captians of the thirty divisions were called “the thirty,” the captains of the two hundred “the three,” and the captain over the whole was called “chief among the captains” (2 Sam 23:8). The sons born of the marriages mentioned in Gen 6:4 are also called by this Hebrew name.