Races of Giants

The pages of the Bible speak of entire races of giants. Among them, are the Anakims, the Rephaims, the Emims, the Zamzummims, and the Amorites. Who were these large-statured folks?

The Reverend Finis Jennings Dake (1902–1987), who penned the Dake Annotated Reference Bible, the first widely-distributed study bible from a Pentecostal perspective, said this about giants in his work:

The Anakims were a great and tall people (Deut. 1:28; Deut. 2:10-11,21; Deut. 9:2; Joshua 11:21-22; Joshua 14:12-14). Anak himself was a giant (Numbers 13:33). If all Anakims were as big, we can be assured other giants were also. The land of Ammon was “a land of giants,” for “giants dwelt therein in old time” (Deut. 2:19-20). The Emims were also “great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” (Deut. 2:10-11). The same was said of the Zamzummims who formerly inhabited the land of Ammon (Deut. 2:19-21).

Rephaims

Dake said the following concerning the Rephaims:

A “valley of the giants” is mentioned in Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16. This is the valley of Rephaim, the name of another branch of the giant races mentioned in Scripture (Genesis 14:5; Genesis 15:20; 2 Samuel 5:18,22; 2 Samuel 23:13; 1 Chron. 11:15; 1 Chron. 14:9; Isaiah 17:5).

The Rephaims were well-known giants, but unfortunately, instead of retaining their proper name in Scripture, the translators used dead (Job 26:5; Psalm 88:10; Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 9:18; Proverbs 21:16; Isaiah 14:8; Isaiah 26:19); and deceased (Isaiah 26:14).

It should have been a proper name in all these places, as it is ten times otherwise. See notes on these passages which prove that giant bodies are referred to instead of great wickedness.

Rephaim is translated “giant” in Deut. 2:11,20; Deut. 3:11,13; Joshua 12:4; Joshua 13:12; Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16; 2 Samuel 21:16,18,20,22; 1 Chron. 20:4,6,8.

The phrase “remnant of the giants” in Deut. 3:11; Joshua 12:4; Joshua 13:12 should be “remnant of the Rephaims,” because there were many nations of giants other than the Rephaims who filled the whole country trying to contest God’s claim on the promised land. They are listed as Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Hivites, Anakims, Emims, Horims, Avims, Zamzummims, Caphtorims, and Nephilims (Genesis 6:4; Genesis 14:5-6; Genesis 15:19-21; Exodus 3:8,17; Exodus 23:23; Deut. 2:10-12,20-23; Deut. 3:11-13; Deut. 7:1; Deut. 20:17; Joshua 12:4-8; Joshua 13:3; Joshua 15:8; Joshua 17:15; Joshua 18:16).

It is clear that there were giants all over the biblical lands. After the Hebrew god freed the children of Israel from their four-hundred-year bondage in Egypt, giants—large in physical stature and great in number—prevented them from entering the land that God had promised them. Giants inhabited their promised land; these men were so tall that the Israelites were as grasshoppers next to them.

The Giant Campaign

Though the children of Israel were afraid of the giants that inhabited their promised land, they ultimately obtained it. The Israelites waged a vicious war in which they took possession of the land and annihilated the giants.

 16 So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same; 17 Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them. 18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle. 20 For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses. 21 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. 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. 23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

Joshua 11:16–23 (King James Version)

Cruel Commands

A cursory reading of the Old Testament reveals that the god of the Hebrews was merciless and cruel toward the enemies of Israel. Repeatedly, he commands the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child when they go into battle. Could this cruel and barbaric command have had a deeper purpose? Could this have been a way of stamping out the giants and their offspring?

I have often wondered if a number of giants might have escaped this extermination campaign. Could a remnant have fled the Levant? Did some of these mighty men find refuge from the armies of Joshua and Caleb in Europe or on the shores of the New World? In my book, Giants: Men of Renown, I explored this idea and looked at stories from Ireland, South America, the islands of the South Pacific and more, in which giants arrived in ships and makeshift vessels. Were these giants driven from the biblical lands by the armies of Israel?


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