Thread: All instances of giants in the Bible

All instances of giants in the Bible.

Nephilim

Gen 6:4 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.

This word is used twice in the Bible, the other one is here :

Numbers 13:33 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.

And refers to a tribe called the Anakim. Their city was Arba after their forefather who was counted as the greatest man (adam) among them. This city was called Hebron after the Israelites conquered it just after the death of Joshua. These were eventually nearly destroyed :

Joshua 11:22 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 .

Goliath and his brothers were apparently among the remnant of the Anakim in Gath :

1 Samuel 17:4 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.

In addition to the Anakim there were two tribes compared to the Anakim in terms of height :

Deut 2:10 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall , as the Anakims; 11 Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.

Deut 2:20 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
21 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:

The Emims and the Zamzummims, which are referred to in past tense. The Emims are mentioned in Genesis 14, where Abraham rescues Lot. In the same sentences there is also a reference to the Zuzims which at least bears a resemblance to Zamzummims. There is no mention of these tribes again and the Israelites never dealt with those in their conquest of the land of Canaan.

Rephaim

Goliath and his brothers are referred to as Rephaims in 2 Samuel 21 and 1 Chronicles 20 and possibly other men from the same town of Gath. As we saw earlier, these were apparently of the remnant of the Anakim found in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.

1 Chron 20:8 These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

In addition, a tribe called Rephaim are mentioned along with the Emims in Genesis 14 :

Genesis 14:5 And in the fourteenth * year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

Ashteroth Karnaim was a city in Bashan.

Joshua 12:4 And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

Og the king of Bashan is referred to as a Rephaim, a remnant of the giants found in the same city of Ashtaroth at the time of Abraham and Lot.

Joshua 13:12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out .

Deut 3:11 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
12 “And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites.
13 The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the giants).

It seems uncertain whether only Og himself was a giant or if his people or part of his people were also giants. They were destroyed by the Israelites under Moses.

In addition to the above, there are references to "the valley of the Rephaim", named after its previous inhabitants. By the time of the Exodus there are only two tribes referred to as giants, the Anakim that Goliath and his brothers were a remnant of and the Rephaim that king Og was a remnant of.

These two tribes had either been destroyed or nearly destroyed by Moses and Caleb, by the time of Judges 1:10.

On this map we can see the locations of various tribes at the time of Joshua :



According to the following verse, Bashan was included under the tribe of the Amorites :

Deut 31:4 And the Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites and their land, when He destroyed them.

As we can see from the map, their two kingdoms east of the river Jordan were placed far apart and were distinct. Sihon ruled in Heshbon, Og in Edrei and in Ashteroth which was further to the North.

Deut 3:8 “And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon
9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir),
10 all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants.[a] Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.
12 “And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, and half the mountains of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. 13 The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the giants
14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and called Bashan after his own name, Havoth Jair,[c] to this day.)

Only Og the king of Bashan (and possibly parts of the people that belonged to him) were counted as remnants of the Rephaim. Only the region of Argob with Bashan in it was called the land of the giants. The Reubenites and Gadites possessed the land of the Amorites that had been ruled by king Sidon. Mannaseh possessed Bashan and his son Jair (the part of the tribe descended from him) later conquered all the region of Argob which was therefore distinct from the Amorite land given to the other two Israeli tribes. Which excludes the Amorites under king Sidon from the discussion on tribes referred to in terms of giants.

Deut 1:4 after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei.

In the above verse, the two kings are mentioned in terms of two separate peoples.

These two kings were conquered by Moses before they crossed the river Jordan, where there were more Amorites :

Joshua 7:7 And Joshua said, “Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!

Joshua was dealing with the king of Ai and later with five Amorite kings (10:5), none of which are mentioned in terms of giants. The only giant tribe mentioned west of the river Jordan was the Anakim, whom Caleb conquered after the death of Joshua :

Joshua 15:14 Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there: Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.

This is the general instruction given to the Israelites concerning the destruction of the Canaanite tribes :

Deut 7:1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.
4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

Similar lists with minor alterations are found throughout the Old Testament. The giant tribe of the Anakim and the kingdom of Bashan with its giant(s) are never singled out in these lists. Bashan was ruled by one of many Amorite kings and belongs under that general tribe. I'm not sure which general tribe the Anakim belonged under, if any particular one, other than that they ruled the city of Hebron west of the Jordan. Their remnant came to be located much further to the west, along the coast of the Philistines.

I can also find no mention of marriages between Israelites and Anakims or Rephaims. Nor involving the Zamzummins/Zuzims or Emims mentioned in Genesis 14:5, at the time of Abraham and Lot. Their height had a detrimental effect on the morale of the Israelites per Numbers 13:33 and were difficult to conquer in one-on-one combat per the accounts in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles but they are a very small part of the greater picture of the conquering of the Canaanite peoples and the need to avoid mixing with those peoples and taking on their detestable practices, including the worship of their various idols.

We know where Og and possibly a number of other giants dwelt - the remnant of the Rephaim tribe of Genesis 14:5 : among the Amorites of Bashan. But where did the Anakim dwell at the time of Joshua ? Their original city was Kirjath-Arba named after Anak's father Arba, which the Israelites called Hebron. Their conquest is summed up here :

Joshua 11:21 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.

From the map just above this post, we can see the town of Debir southwest of Hebron. The town of Anab is just west of Debir.



All three cities are within 10 miles of each other in the main mountain range west of the river Jordan and represent the main area where the Anakim dwelt. They were also found dispersed or pocketed elsewhere in the mountains around the land of Canaan. After Joshua's campaign they retreated West to the coastal area of Philistia where they were still found among the Philistines by the time of David. There is no mention of a remnant of the Rephaim of Bashan after Moses conquered king Og.

What was the size of these giants ?

From modern times, the largest human being ever recorded was Robert Wadlow of the United States who was half an inch short of 9 feet tall. There are numerous photos to prove it but I'm not going to post any. Mr. Wadlow was very frail and his great height was mostly due to his having extremely long legs. Functional, proportional giants like Goliath from the Bible have been smaller. A good example is Neil Fingleton, Britain's tallest man, standing 7'7" tall without suffering from any form of gigantism, he is just genetically extremely tall with a functional build.

How tall was Goliath ? The various Hebrew manuscripts that they use to translate the Bible into English vary on this. Some claim 9'9" which is what they commonly use in modern translations, one manuscript claims 8'3" and others claim 6'9". The 70 BC Septuagint translation into Greek which is what Paul often quotes and also many of the church fathers, claims 6'9". The first century Jewish historian Josephus also gives his height as 6'9".
So which one is correct ? We don't know. To the typical 5'3" Israelite, even a 6'9" warrior twice his weight and in full armor would seem like an impossible adversary in one-on-one combat. So that version isn't impossible. What else does the text say ?

1 Samuel 17:4 And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 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. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 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.

A conversion chart gives the weight of his coat of mail as 150 pounds or 68 kilos. That is very heavy but nothing a normal, well trained man couldn't carry, though slowly. The spearhead on his spear weighed 17 pounds or 8 kilos. That was not something they would throw however, they held the spear in both hands and used it as a ramming device. The description of the shaft of the spear suggests that he had very large hands. If we picture a 6'9" and very powerfully built man then this still makes sense, it would be comparable to some of the largest and strongest competitors in modern Stongman events, some of them are that tall and weigh 400 pounds, have huge hands and could carry the described equipment easily. Goliath could also have been a functional yet taller giant, standing 8'3" or even 9'9".

Which version is the most likely ? I don't know. Even if Goliath was a very functional, very strong 6'9" giant, that doesn't mean that other giants of the time weren't even taller, just less functional and less fit for battle. Others could still have been 7 or 8 feet tall. There is another account of an Egyptian warrior whose height is given as about the same as Neil Fingleton.

What we do know, is that 2 out of the 3 versions given by the manuscripts are wrong. Either they have moderated Goliath's height or they have exaggerated it or both. Someone inserted a lie somewhere. If we look at other accounts of giants from non-Biblical Jewish sources, they range from up to 20 feet tall in the book of Jubilees to hundreds of feet in the book of Enoch (3000 ells is probably even more than that). It is typical of orally preserved accounts that interesting things get exaggerated in time, an other Jewish account (or myth/fairytale) has king Og of Bashan throwing mountains. So the exaggeration option seems likely. I'd say the 20 feet giants in the non-inspired book of Jubilees is most probably a wild exaggeration. It is still possible that someone found it hard to believe that Goliath was 9'9" tall and decided to moderate the text somewhat but we can't be sure.

What about king Og of Bashan, except for the Jewish fairytale where he throws mountains ?

Deut 3:11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.

The size of king Og's bed is given as a bit over 4 meters long and 2 meters wide. People have assumed that that means that king Og was almost 4 meters tall himself, based on the size of a typical modern bed. That may not be the case at all, especially considering that Og was a king. I visited the Topkapi palace in Istanbul, Turkey in 2011, the palace of the sultans of the Ottoman empire. In the harem quarters they have several beds that are roughly 12 by 10 feet, or twice as long as the ones who would use them, in either direction. As interesting as the size of king Og's bed is the fact that it was made of iron which was very expensive at that time and making a 4x2 meters iron bedstead was a matter of some extravagance, fitting of a local king. So how tall was actually king Og ? We don't know.

Goliath was 33 feet tall

Originally Posted by Cardinal TT

Goliath was 33 feet tall

Carrying the thinnest armor available and a toothpick for a spear. David had a hard time reaching his head with his sling too. He had to listen to Elvis sing for a while to find his aim.

The Hebrew manuscripts referring to Goliath's height give it as 4, 5 or 6 cubits and a span. A cubit is supposed to relate the length of a forearm. The more ancient Egyptian and Sumerian cubits were a little bit longer but the Biblical cubit is considered to be fairly exactly 18 inches or 1 1/2 feet. The ancient Greek and Roman cubits are within a fraction of an inch from that. A Biblical span is exactly half a cubit, or 9 inches.

I checked this now and the non-Biblical book of Jubilees talks about Rephaim giants in the Bashan area that were between 7 and 10 cubits tall (29:9-10), between 10'6" and 15'. So the giants in the book of Jubilees weren't actually 20 feet tall as I said above. The 20 feet reference is found elsewhere.

My guess about king Og is that they never actually measured the man himself but the size of his bedstead (13.5 x 6 feet) became well known, especially after his death when they decided to put it on display and the bed itself contributed to exaggerations concerning his alleged height. And possibly the height of the Rephaim tribe in that area, in general.

Giant babies were born 5 feet tall