Page 319 - Foundations

There were still a large number of giants across the Jordan in the land of Canaan whom the people
of Israel would have to conquer. It was the presence of giants in the land that had so terrified the
hearts of ten of the twelve spies that Moses sent into look over the land forty years earlier.

Numbers 13:27-29, 31-33
“We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this
is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and
very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the
Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the
Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan... We are not able to go up against the
people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land
which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land
that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also
we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers
in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

The term “Anakim” is a patronym denoting that the ancestor of this family of giants was Anak. The
Anakim were a giant race of people, a sub-group of a broader race of giants known as “Nephilim.”
The word “Nephilim” translates into English as “fallen ones.” (More on that later.) The Anakim were
extraordinarily large people, giving rise to the comparison of the Israelites as grasshoppers. This was
exaggeration, of course, for a grasshopper is no higher than a man’s foot. It was accurate, however,
to describe the people of Canaan as bigger and taller than the Israelites, especially those who were
of the family of the Anakim who were true giants.

Deuteronomy 1:28
Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities
are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”

The generation of Israelites who were afraid to face the giants died over the course of the next forty
years as they wandered in the wilderness. When this unbelieving generation had passed away, Joshua
led the next generation to take possession of the land of Canaan. Joshua did not deceive the people.
He fully declared to them that there would be giants they would meet in battle. However, Joshua
assured the people that Yahweh would fight for Israel, and the giants would be defeated.

Deuteronomy 9:1-3
“Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and
mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim,
whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’
Know therefore today that it is Yahweh your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming
fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and
destroy them quickly, just as Yahweh has spoken to you.”

We can be assured that the giants in the land of Canaan were much more than a marginally taller and
stronger race of people. They were extraordinarily larger, taller, and stronger that the Israelites. There
had to be such a mismatch in physical attributes that the glory for victory in battle necessarily went