Giants

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron... nine cubits was the length thereof.

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.

Joshua cuts off the Anakim from the hill country, but the text carefully notes a remnant survived in three Philistine cities: Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. Gath is the city Goliath later comes from.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Several more sons of the giant in Gath fall to David's men, including one "of great stature" with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. The passage explicitly names them "born unto the giant in Gath."

The KJV's "dead things" translates the Hebrew Rephaim. Many modern translations render it "the dead" or "the departed spirits," who tremble in the waters beneath. The same word used for the giant clans also names the shades of the dead in the underworld.

A third giant clan, the Zamzummim, again measured against the Anakim standard. The verse also records that the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, showing divine judgment against these clans wasn't limited to Israel's own conquest but extended to other nations clearing their own land.

Goliath of Gath, the giant champion of the Philistines. The Masoretic Text gives his height as "six cubits and a span" (about 9 feet 9 inches), while the older Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint read "four cubits and a span" (about 6 feet 9 inches), the reading most textual scholars favor.

A clan of giants dwelling in Canaan, descended from Anak, feared by the Israelite spies.

An ancient people of giant stature east of the Jordan, of whom King Og of Bashan was the last remnant.

A general term for the oversized clans and warriors of the ancient world tied to the Nephilim bloodline.

The offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" described in Genesis 6, traditionally understood as giants.

The giant king of Bashan defeated by Israel, described as the last remnant of the Rephaim.

If the Flood judged the Nephilim, why do the Anakim and Rephaim appear afterward? Three explanations, weighed.

This post walks the math behind 1 Enoch's giant and checks it against the tallest giant the Hebrew Bible actually measures. It covers cubit standards, manuscript variants, and why a 450-foot being could not stand on its own legs.

The Hebrew Bible never says whether the Nephilim could have children. Second Temple Jewish texts fill that silence with two contradicting answers.

A look at Ohio's Serpent Mound, its uncanny astronomical precision, the giant skeletons once reported nearby, and what the effigy's open-mouthed serpent may really be guarding against.

Did you know Goliath wasn't the only giant in Gath? Second Samuel 21 reveals a family of giants, including Goliath's brother Lahmi, who faced David’s men in battle.

If the Flood judged the Nephilim, why do the Anakim and Rephaim appear afterward? Three explanations, weighed.