Deuteronomy 9:2
KJV
A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!
The Anakim are described as "great and tall," with the proverbial saying, "Who can stand before the children of Anak?" — a phrase that had become a byword for an enemy no one believed could be beaten.
This verse shows the Anakim were not just physically imposing but had entered Israelite speech as a proverb of dread. The saying itself is evidence of how deeply the reputation of these clans ran in the ancient imagination.
CKQ Commentary
C.K. Quarterman points out that a proverb doesn't form around an ordinary enemy. "Who can stand before the children of Anak?" is the language of a people regarded as categorically unbeatable, the same dread that made ten of the twelve spies refuse to enter the land in Numbers 13. The fear was not invented; it was proverbial, meaning it was already old and widely shared by the time Deuteronomy records it.
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