Our commentary
Giants in the Bible: Nephilim, Anakim, Rephaim, Og and Goliath
Our own look at a common question, by David Dell. The background on this page is ours, not a summary of the book.
The King James Version uses the word “giants” for more than one group of people, and behind it stand more than one Hebrew word. Here is every major giant tradition in the Old Testament, in the order the story tells it, with the verses themselves.
The Nephilim (Genesis 6)
The first giants appear just before the Flood:
“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.” Genesis 6:4 (KJV)
“Giants” here translates the Hebrew nephilim. The verse ties them to the union of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men,” and who those sons of God were is one of the oldest debates in biblical interpretation (we lay out the three main views in Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6?). For the modern “ancient astronaut” spin on these verses, see Nephilim and UFOs.
The Anakim: “we were as grasshoppers”
The word nephilim appears once more, when Moses' spies return from Canaan:
“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.” Numbers 13:33 (KJV)
The sons of Anak, the Anakim, lived around Hebron. Notice how the same report is introduced in the verse before it:
“And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.” Numbers 13:32 (KJV)
That's why readers disagree about the Anakim–Nephilim link. Some take it as a real descent from the pre-Flood Nephilim (Genesis 6:4 does say “and also after that”). Others note that the Bible itself calls the spies' report “evil” and treat “which come of the giants” as frightened exaggeration. Either way, Joshua later drives the Anakim out of the hill country, with one telling exception:
“There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.” Joshua 11:22 (KJV)
The Rephaim, Emim and Zamzummim
Deuteronomy pauses its history to note that other tall peoples once held the land east of the Jordan, known by different names to different neighbors:
“The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.” Deuteronomy 2:10–11 (KJV)
“(That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:” Deuteronomy 2:20–21 (KJV)
These peoples are grouped as Rephaim, another Hebrew word the KJV often renders “giants.” Elsewhere the word rephaim is also used for the shades of the dead, which is part of why scholars still debate what it originally meant.
Og king of Bashan and his iron bed
The most famous of the Rephaim is Og, king of Bashan, defeated by Israel before the crossing of the Jordan:
“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.” Deuteronomy 3:11 (KJV)
Nine cubits by four is roughly 13½ by 6 feet if you reckon a cubit at about 18 inches. The text gives the bed's size, not Og's height. Still, the writer clearly expects the reader to be impressed: the bed was a landmark people could go and see.
How tall was Goliath?
“And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.” 1 Samuel 17:4 (KJV)
In the traditional Hebrew text (the Masoretic Text, followed by the KJV) “six cubits and a span” works out to about 9 feet 9 inches. But the Dead Sea Scrolls copy of Samuel, the Greek Septuagint and the first-century historian Josephus all give “four cubits and a span,” about 6 feet 9 inches. That's still a giant of a man in the ancient world, and it's a real textual question that scholars continue to weigh. Notice that Goliath is “of Gath,” one of the three cities where Joshua 11:22 says Anakim remained.
The sons of the giant in Gath
Goliath isn't the last. Second Samuel 21 records several more battles with Philistine champions, including one with an unusual feature:
“And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.” 2 Samuel 21:20 (KJV)
“These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.” 2 Samuel 21:22 (KJV)
What happened to the giants?
People often ask whether the Nephilim are still alive today. Inside the Bible's own story, the giant peoples are steadily removed: the Flood comes after Genesis 6, “the LORD destroyed” the Zamzummim (Deuteronomy 2:21), Og “only” remained of the Rephaim (Deuteronomy 3:11), Joshua cleared the Anakim from the hill country, and the last named giants of Gath fall in David's time. After 2 Samuel 21 the giant peoples drop out of the history.
What the Bible keeps returning to isn't height but origin: the question of what crossed over in Genesis 6. That question is the subject of Who were the Watchers?
Sources: Genesis 6:4; Numbers 13:32–33; Deuteronomy 2:10–21, 3:11; Joshua 11:21–22; 1 Samuel 17:4; 2 Samuel 21:15–22 (KJV) · Goliath (Masoretic vs. Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls height) · Rephaite · Anakim · Og