The Old Testament names several peoples known for their extraordinary size, and it can be difficult to tell how they were related. Were the Nephilim, Anakim, Rephaim, and every unusually large warrior part of one family tree? Scripture gives us some connections, but I do not want to fill in missing generations as though the Bible had named them. We can take these formidable people seriously while distinguishing known relationships from proposed ones.
The Names and Limits Scripture Gives
The Nephilim appear by name in two passages. Genesis 6 places them in the world before the Flood, where the sons of God took the daughters of men and children were born to them.
There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
I understand the sons of God in Genesis 6 to be fallen angels who had relations with women, producing the giants called Nephilim. The Old Testament’s use of that expression, together with the angelic rebellion described in Jude and 2 Peter, leads me to this reading. Genesis records the unions and the birth of children without explaining how beings from heaven participated in human reproduction.
The words “and also afterward” do not give us a post-Flood family tree. Scripture never says that any Nephilim survived the Flood or identifies anyone aboard the ark as carrying their lineage. It does not describe a second angelic event after the Flood either. When the name appears again in Numbers, we are not told what happened in the intervening generations.
The Hebrew name Nephilim, נְפִלִים, has also prompted debate about its meaning. The NKJV renders it “giants,” which fits the extraordinary figures described in Genesis and Numbers. Some connect the name with “fallen ones,” but the derivation is disputed, as the Brown-Driver-Briggs entry acknowledges. My understanding of their origin rests on the biblical passages, not on making a proposed word origin prove more than it can.
Later writings offer elaborate explanations that Genesis does not give. In the study on the Book of Enoch, I distinguish inspired Scripture from later claims about angelic Watchers, giant spirits, and hidden knowledge. Such claims need to be examined by Scripture, however often they have been repeated.
The other names help us distinguish particular peoples within this discussion. The Anakim descended from Anak, while Rephaim identifies an ancient people and can serve as a broader designation in the historical passages. The Emim and Zamzummim were both regarded as Rephaim, but their neighbors knew them by different names: Emim was the Moabite name, and Zamzummim was the Ammonite name. Og was a Rephaite king. Goliath and the other unusually large warriors at Gath appear much later, so we need to follow the relationships Scripture gives rather than assume that every name means the same thing.
Genesis 14 places Rephaim at Ashteroth Karnaim, where eastern kings defeated them. Deuteronomy later describes related peoples occupying their own lands under their own rulers. These were living peoples who fought actual battles. The same Hebrew consonants used for Rephaim, רְפָאִים, also occur in poetry about the departed dead, sometimes called shades. That use in poetry does not make the nations described in Deuteronomy spirits of the dead.
The broader study on giants in the Bible follows Genesis 6 and the response of faith across Scripture.
The Spies, the Anakim, and the Peoples East of Israel
The second passage naming the Nephilim records the spies’ return from Canaan. Moses identifies their report as bad before giving the words they used to discourage Israel.
And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants,
and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants);
and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Numbers connects Anak’s descendants with the Nephilim, and I cannot dismiss that connection simply because the spies gave a bad report. We also need to understand why Moses calls their report bad. They used what they had seen to frighten Israel into refusing God’s command, even though He had promised to bring the nation into the land.
The Anakim really were tall and formidable, and the fortified cities were real. Yet the spies’ comparison with grasshoppers expressed their fear rather than giving a measurement. They described how small they felt, then claimed that the inhabitants saw them the same way. Acknowledging an enemy’s strength was not their sin. They used that strength to insist that Israel could not obey the God who had already redeemed them from Egypt.
Numbers supplies the connection, but not an account of how the Nephilim appeared after the Flood. It does not tell us whether the later name identifies a line traced back to the ancient mighty men or a later group known by the same name. I won’t turn that silence into a confident claim that someone on the ark carried their lineage or that angels repeated the event after the Flood.
The Anakim’s nearer ancestry is named. They descended from Anak, whose father Arba is described as the greatest man among the Anakim. Kiriath Arba later became Hebron. Moses calls the Anakim a great and tall people and records the question, “Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?” At Kadesh Barnea, Israel treated that fearsome reputation as more decisive than the LORD’s promise and refused to enter the land.
Joshua and Caleb did not deny the danger. They answered that if the LORD delighted in Israel, He would bring the nation into the land, and they urged the people not to rebel against Him. The strength of the inhabitants could not cancel His command. I need to remember that an intimidating circumstance cannot make disobedience wise when God has clearly told me what to do.
Anakim names a particular people, not every tall inhabitant of Canaan. Scripture places them especially in the hill country, and it names Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai as the men Caleb later drove from Hebron. Joshua’s campaign left remnants in Gaza, Ashdod, and Gath. Gath becomes significant again when Samuel describes the warriors who came from there.
Deuteronomy also takes us to Moab, east of the Jordan, where Israel was not permitted to seize the land God had given to the Moabites. The Emim had lived there before the Moabites settled it.
(The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.
They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the LORD gave them.)
The Emim were numerous and tall like the Anakim, and they were regarded as Rephaim. Emim was the name the Moabites used for them. Moses associates these peoples without calling them the same tribe, and their displacement belonged to Moab’s earlier history rather than Israel’s conquest.
A similar history lay behind Ammon’s possession of its land. The Ammonites called the former inhabitants Zamzummim and regarded them as Rephaim. Deuteronomy 2:20-21 describes them as numerous and tall like the Anakim, then says the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, who settled in their place. Moses also recalls Esau’s descendants displacing the Horites in Seir. Israel was approaching the Jordan after God had already demonstrated His authority over these neighboring lands.
Some explanations derive Zamzummim from murmuring or buzzing, then use that proposed meaning to support claims about sinister rituals. Deuteronomy gives no such explanation. Moses tells us about the people’s territory, stature, and displacement, and those recorded details give us a sounder basis for understanding them than speculation about their name.
These histories did not promise Israel weak enemies. They showed that established peoples and intimidating strength could not put a territory beyond God’s authority. He had given different lands to different peoples, and Israel had to obey the boundaries and commands He gave them. The conquest was not permission to seize any neighboring territory they wanted.
Og, Goliath, and the Warriors from Gath
Israel itself encountered a Rephaite king in Og of Bashan. The nation defeated him at Edrei and took his fortified cities. Deuteronomy 3:11 points to an iron bedstead in Rabbah of the Ammonites measuring nine cubits long and four cubits wide. If we use an eighteen-inch cubit, the bed measured approximately thirteen and a half feet by six feet.
A cubit was based roughly on the distance from elbow to fingertip, but ancient standards varied, so modern conversions remain approximate. We also need to notice what the verse measures: Og’s bed, not Og himself. A bed can be longer than its occupant, and some have understood this object as a royal couch or memorial. However we understand its use, its dimensions cannot establish the king’s exact height. I can accept the extraordinary size of the object without claiming a bodily measurement Scripture never gives.
Og’s fortified cities and fearsome reputation help us understand the victory. God had told Moses not to fear him and had promised to deliver him into Israel’s hand. Israel did not have to be taller or stronger than Og’s people to trust that promise, because the king’s size and defenses could not prevent God from fulfilling it.
Og ruled an Amorite kingdom, but that does not make every Amorite a Rephaite or a giant. Amorite can name a broad Canaanite people and sometimes refers more generally to the land’s inhabitants. When Amos compares the Amorite’s height to cedars and strength to oaks, he magnifies the strength of the enemy God removed. The comparison does not give us men as tall as treetops or establish the ancestry of every Amorite.
Goliath’s height is given more directly. He came from Gath, one of the cities where Anakim had remained after Joshua’s campaign.
And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.
And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.
The Masoretic Text, the traditional Hebrew text followed here by the NKJV, gives Goliath’s height as six cubits and a span, commonly estimated at more than nine feet. A span was roughly the distance across an outstretched hand, from thumb to little finger. The shekels measure the weight of his armor and spearhead rather than the value of coins. Samuel describes equipment carried by an extraordinary champion, though the ancient measures do not allow extremely precise modern conversions.
Samuel later records more battles involving unusually large warriors from Gath. Their connection with that city is worth noticing, but he does not trace every warrior’s ancestry back to the Anakim. He does give specific details about their families and physical characteristics.
Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant.
So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
The unnamed man had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four altogether. The term for extra fingers or toes is polydactyly. Scripture describes his unusual condition without explaining its cause or saying that every member of the giant family line shared it. We can believe the recorded detail without treating it as proof of hidden ancestry whenever someone has an extra finger or toe.
These four warriors were born to “the giant,” or Rapha, in Gath, but they are not all identified as Goliath’s sons. The parallel account in 1 Chronicles 20:5 names Lahmi, whom Elhanan killed, as Goliath’s brother. The NKJV likewise identifies Elhanan’s opponent as Goliath’s brother in 2 Samuel 21:19. We should preserve the relationships the accounts actually name rather than combine them into one imagined household.
David did not kill every champion himself. His servants shared in the later victories, and Jonathan, who killed the man with twenty-four fingers and toes, was the son of David’s brother Shimea. The defeat of these formidable opponents continued beyond David’s encounter with Goliath in the valley of Elah, through men who served under him.
The Conquest Was Judgment, Not Genetic Cleansing
The removal of the Anakim had a particular place in God’s dealings with Israel, and their unusual size alone cannot explain why He commanded it.
And at that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains: from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities.
None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod.
God was fulfilling His covenant promise and judging Canaanite wickedness. Genesis 15 had already described His patience while the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete. Scripture gives those reasons for the conquest rather than describing a test of ancestry or DNA. Israel received a unique command by direct revelation, which gave them no continuing license to attack neighboring peoples because of their height or ancestry.
Caleb’s request for the hill country shows how he understood God’s promise decades after the unbelieving report. He knew that Anakim still occupied fortified cities there, yet trusted the LORD to be with him and fulfill what He had said. His courage did not depend on imagining a smaller enemy. He assessed the difficulty honestly without making it a reason to reject God’s word.
The people spared during the conquest also help us understand its purpose. Rahab responded in faith and was incorporated into Israel. The Gibeonites obtained a treaty through deception and survived because Israel honored its oath. Their conduct was different from Rahab’s, yet neither outcome fits an explanation governed by a genetic test. Later, Israel itself was removed from the land for practicing the abominations God had judged in Canaan. His stated judgment concerned moral rebellion, and belonging to Israel did not make that rebellion acceptable.
Faith Refuses to Make the Enemy Larger Than God
The ten spies made the inhabitants’ strength decisive in their assessment of the land. Joshua and Caleb faced the same evidence, yet understood that rebellion against the LORD was the greater danger. Their confidence came from His presence and promise, rather than from a theory that explained the enemy’s bloodline.
David likewise heard Goliath defy the armies of the living God and remembered how God had delivered him before. He did not pretend that the champion was small or unarmed. Israel’s soldiers had weapons and training, yet fear kept them from answering Goliath’s challenge. David went forward with his sling because he trusted the God whose name Goliath had defied, rather than his own size or strength.
I cannot turn those victories into a promise that every hardship will end as I want. Israel had specific commands and promises, and we need to trust what God has actually said to us, including His calls to endure suffering. A real obstacle does not excuse sin, but faith also does not entitle me to demand an outcome God has never promised.
Spiritual warfare is real, but Scripture does not tell Christians to diagnose every struggle as a “Nephilim spirit” or search for a hidden giant bloodline. Ephesians 6 tells us how God equips us to stand. His truth and righteousness protect us, the gospel of peace makes us ready, and faith and the assurance of salvation guard us against the enemy’s attacks. We resist deception through His Word and remain dependent on Him in prayer. I need to use what He has provided rather than search for instructions He has never given. The study on angels follows the wider biblical teaching about their service, rebellion, and judgment.
Jesus Christ is Lord over every visible and invisible power, so our hope rests in Him rather than our knowledge of an enemy’s ancestry. The eternal, uncreated Son became fully man without ceasing to be God and lived without sin. Wicked people tortured and killed Him, but He voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His saving sacrifice through His shed blood and death was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, or bruise Jesus, or pour wrath upon Him. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acted in unity, and no ancient warrior or unseen power could thwart the risen Lord.
Christ died for the whole world, so His offer of salvation is genuine for everyone, even though people can resist it. We need to respond in repentance and faith. Everyone who truly believes is forgiven and justified, declared righteous before God, and receives new life through the new birth. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals the believer, whose eternal security rests in God. Obedience grows from that new life; it neither earns nor keeps salvation. A superficial profession of faith is no proof of new birth, but neither does genuine faith mean that a believer has become sinless. Our response to Christ should lead us to obey Him rather than excuse lawlessness or become absorbed in supposed hidden bloodlines.
My Final Thoughts
I can affirm the reality of these formidable peoples without pretending that God supplied a complete post-Flood family tree. We know where many of them lived and how certain groups were related, but we are not given the intervening generations between Genesis 6 and Numbers 13. Their strength was real, but it could not cancel God’s promise.
I need to take the revealed details seriously and leave unanswered questions where Scripture leaves them. Fascination with ancestry should not displace obedience to the Lord who has spoken. The response of faith is to trust Him and act on His Word, even when the opposition is intimidating.