Giants In The Bible

In this study, we examine the giants that are mentioned in the bible and the various wars between them and the Israelites.  We see that the command to "utterly destroy" men, women, and children was to eliminate the giants from the earth.

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Scriptures:

• Genesis 6:1-4
• Job 16:14 (KJV)
• Numbers 13:27-33
• Deuteronomy 9:1-2
• Deuteronomy 2:10-11
• Deuteronomy 2:19-21
• Amos 2:9-10
• Deuteronomy 3:3-11
• Exodus 22:20
• Deuteronomy 20:16-18
• Joshua 11:21-23
• 1 Samuel 17:3-4
• 2 Samuel 21:18-22
• Joshua 2:8-11

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• Genesis 3:15
• Matthew 13:37-43

Review of Fallen Angels and Nephilim

• In Genesis, we saw the “sons of God” married the “daughters of man” and had children referred to as Nephilim or giants
• We saw various views of who these “sons of God” were and concluded that they were angels or beings from the spirit realm
• This was based on the text itself, New Testament references to this account, historical documents, other Jewish religious texts, and also the fact that this belief coincides with the beliefs of all of the other ancient cultures with whom the Jews were living at the time.
• It is clear that this would have been the understanding of the Jews of that period
• We saw that the Nephilim were half spirit beings and half humans and thought to be of supernatural size and referred to as giants
• The angels that sinned/fell are now held in bondage in Sheol/hell awaiting judgement
• These cannot be the demons of our time because they are still bound
• Many believe that the demons are the spirit half of the Nephilim when they die.  The human half dies, but the spirit being half continues to exist on the earth as a demon
• We looked at views of why giants continued to exist after the flood.   
• Some of the original Nephilim survived the flood
• Different angels “fell” after the flood
• the wives of Noah’s were of mixed genealogy
• Finally we looked at the prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 24 where he states that when He returns it will be like the days of Noah where people will be given and taken in marriage.
• One interpretation of this is that there will be another fall in the last days

3 Types of Demons

• Fallen Angels
• Angels in Heaven
• Sons of God
• Elohim
• thou shalt have no other elohim before me
• The ones from Genesis 6 are locked in Hell
• Spirit beings - whose residence is in Sheol
• Nephilim
• half spirit being half man hybrids
• Giants
• Physical beings whose residence was on earth
  

  • they are currently bound and in "the pit" (Sheol) 
• Demons
• the spirit part of the Nephilim after they die
• Spirit beings whose residence is on earth

Noah’s Day

Genesis 6:1-4

1When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend witha humans forever, for they are mortalb ; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes  [Gibborim] of old, men of renown.

• mighty men / heroes = Gibborim
• This word also means giants [giant warrior]
• It has a definite article

Job 16:14 (KJV)

14He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant[warrior].

• This is Gibborim and is translated “giant” in the King James Version
• Gibborim isn't a word meaning “giant”

Anakim

Numbers 13:27-33

27They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

30Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

• The descendants of Anak are descendants of the Nephilim
• Nephilim are a type of being = half angel half man
• Anakim are a race of Nephilim
• “Im” vs “ite”
• Since they say “all” the people were a great size, giants could also include:
• Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites and the Canaanites
• These are races which could have contained giants among them
• Anakim are sometimes referred to as Anakites

Deuteronomy 9:1-2

1“Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! 2The people are strong and tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’

• The Anakites are giants

Rephaim

Deuteronomy 2:10-11

10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites.
11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites[Rephaim], but the Moabites called them Emites.

• The Anakites and Emites  are considered Rephaites/Rephaim
• Rapha = giant in Hebrew
• Rephaim is a race of giants.  They are the offspring of a giant named “Rapha”.

Deuteronomy 2:19-21

When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot."
20 (That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites [Zamzummin].
21 They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place.

Terms for Giants:

• Rephaim/Rephaites
• Anakim/Anakites
• Emim/Emites
• Zamzummim/Zamzummites
• Gibborim (not exclusively)

There were giants among other nations

Og and the Amorites

Amos 2:9-10

9“Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them,

though they were tall as the cedars

and strong as the oaks.

I destroyed their fruit above

and their roots below.

10I brought you up out of Egypt

and led you forty years in the wilderness

to give you the land of the Amorites.

• The Amorites were giants
• Were all of the Amorites giants?

Deuteronomy 3:3-11

3 "So the LORD our God delivered Og also, king of Bashan, with all his people into our hand, and we smote them until no survivor was left.
4 "We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 "All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many unwalled towns.
6 "We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon [ one of the Ammonite cities], utterly destroying the men, women and children of every city.

7 "But all the animals and the spoil of the cities we took as our booty.
8 "Thus we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon
9 (Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir):
10 all the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11 (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits by ordinary cubit.)

• How tall was Og?
• His bed was 9 cubits by 4 cubits
• 1 cubit is 18 inches
• It was 6 x 14 feet
• Bashan was a city under control of the Amorites
• Og was an Amorite but called a Rephaim
• This shows that being an Amorite didn’t automatically carry the assumption of being a giant
• Since he was the only Rephaim [giant] left that meant the other Amorites weren’t giants by the time of this battle

There were giants among other races.

Charam / Kherem

• Was it customary to kill men, women, and children during war?
• No
• Why did God command them to do it?
• To get rid of the giants/Nephilim

Kherem:

1. Something that is forbidden because of its exclusive status either because it is accursed or it has exclusive use by God
2. Something that has been utterly destroyed, (appointed to) utter destruction

The irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying it

So if you turn a city over to God after you defeat them you can't use their spoils for your own benefit

Exodus 22:20

20“Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed [charam].

• idolatry

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

16However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17Completely destroya them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.

• Other tribes living in the Promised Land who worshipped other Gods were sentenced to Kherem
• These were all Canaanite tribes (descendants of Canaan)
• They had Nephilim offspring mingled among them

The Nephilim and their offspring were sentenced to Kherem

Killing the Last Giants

Moses and Joshua led the Israelites on multiple campaigns to kill the giants that were in the Promised Land.

Joshua 11:21-23
21 Then Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab and from all the hill country of Judah and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities.
22 There were no Anakim left in the land of the sons of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod some remained.
23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Thus the land had rest from war.

• God’s goal was to wipe out the Anakim / giants
• Joshua killed all of the giants in the Promised Land
• Once the last Anakim was killed they no longer had any wars.
• Joshua didn't kill the giants in the neighboring lands

Were there still Canaanites left in Canaan?

• Yes
• But the “utter destruction” was no longer needed once the giants were gone.

Goliath

• Giants remained in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod
• These were Philistine cities
• Philisti neighbored Canaan
• Does this bring anything to mind?

1 Samuel 17:3-4

3The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. 4A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.a

• Goliath was one of the Anakim that Joshua didn’t destroy
• Goliath was 9 feet 9 inches
• All of the remaining giants were among the Philistines

David Fought Other Giants

2 Samuel 21:18-22

18In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.

19In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jairc the Bethlehemite killed the brother ofd Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.

20In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 21When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him.

22These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

• Joshua killed off all of the giants in Canaan
• David killed off the last remaining giants who were Philistines
• The Philistine giants are the last giants mentioned in the bible.  It appears that David wiped them all out.  

Outcome of the Wars

Joshua 2:8-11

8Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Seaa for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.b 11When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

We saw earlier that the Egyptian plagues, and miracle of the Red Sea were signs and wonders used by God to show is superiority over other Gods.  The result of this was to be that other nations would turn to follow YHWH.  The kherem (utter destruction) of the nations in a like manner made the inhabitants of the other nations reverence god.

Conclusion

In Noah’s day, the earth had been polluted by angelic beings who decided to leave their home in the spirit realm and come to earth to marry human women.  The offspring they created were giants.  God sent a flood to cleanse the earth of these giants.   After the flood, Nephilim were still on the earth, so God chose a different means to eliminate them from the earth.

God used Moses, Joshua, and David to lead Israelite armies in “utterly destroying” the giants and their offspring by killing their men, women and children.   Although the utter destruction of the other nations served other purposes such as bringing honor to God, and killing those who worshipped other gods, we see that the wars ceased once the last of the giants was destroyed.  Even though other Canaanite people remained in Canaan, God did not command that they be “utterly destroyed”.   Thus showing that the primary goal was the elimination of the giants and their offspring.

In The Weeds

Last week, we looked at a passage (Luke 17:26  , Matthew 24:37) where Jesus stated that in the last days before His second coming it will be like the days of Noah.  Thus  Jesus hinted that there will be another fall of the angels before His return.

As further evidence of this, we can examine God’s prophecy in Genesis 3, and Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 13:

Genesis 3:15

15And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring [seed] and hers;

he will crushb your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

• There will be a conflict between the human seed and Satan’s seeds
• The Nephilim, Fallen Angels and demons can be seen as Satan’s seed

Explanation of The Parable of the Weeds

Matthew 13:37-43

37He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. [seeds of the woman]  The weeds are the people of the evil one , 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil[seeds of the devil].  The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

40“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age [bound and thrown into the pit]. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

• The angels will return in the last days and hybrid beings will be mixed among us.   
• The fact that we can’t distinguish the wheat from the tares means that they may not create giants this time  
• Jesus will eventually send His angels to remove them from the earth.

There are multiple parables about seeds and soil in the bible.  

All of the other parables are about bad soil...this is the only parable about bad seeds.
Summary

• There are 3 types of demons:
1. Fallen angels
2. Nephilim
3. Disembodied Nephilim spirits (spirits of dead Nephilim)
• We saw that there were multiple words used to describe giants
• The giants in the promised land were Anakim
• Anakim were descendents of Rephaim who are giants and descendents of the Nephilim
• Gibborim was another word used to described giants which was often translated “mighty men” or “mighty warrior”
• Moses killed a giant named Og whose bed was 6x14 feet
• Kherem is a type of warfare which was an offering to God where in battle you kill not only the fighting men, but women and children as well
• Kherem was carried out by Moses, Joshua and David primarily for the purpose of eliminating the giants from the earth
• Moses and Joshua led campaigns to kill all of the giants in the promised land
• The only giants they left alive were in Philistia
• Goliath was one of these remaining Philistine giants
• David and his men killed all of the remaining giants
• Finally, we looked at the parable of the weeds, and saw that the weeds that got intermingles with the children of God will be the new Nephilim of the end times

Presenter: Michael Leadon

References

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6658-giants

Nephilim, Giants, and the Canaanites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxrfYE-iE-o

The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser

Extra Verses

Fighting Giants

Joshua 12

2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, both the middle of the valley and half of Gilead, even as far as the brook Jabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon;
3 and the Arabah as far as the Sea of Chinneroth toward the east, and as far as the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward toward Beth-jeshimoth, and on the south, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah;
4 and the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,
5 and ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half of Gilead, as far as the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
6 Moses the servant of the LORD and the sons of Israel defeated them; and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh as a possession.

1 Chronicles 20:4-8

4In the course of time, war broke out with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rephaites, and the Philistines were subjugated.

5In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.

6In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 7When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.

8These were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

Parable of the Weeds

Matthew 13: 24-30

24Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28“ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29“ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”