Who Are The Nephilim
THE GIANTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Nephilim (/ˈnɛfɪˌlɪm/; Hebrew: נְפִילִים Nəfīlīm) are mysterious beings or people in the Hebrew Bible who are described as being large and strong. The Hebrew word Nephilim is sometimes translated as “giants”, and sometimes taken to mean “the fallen ones”. You will often read their origins are disputed. The Old Testament makes it clear they are offspring of fallen angels and humans.
This reference to them is in Genesis 6:1–4, Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose. So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days — and afterward as well — when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.
The Book of Numbers 13:33, Ten of the Twelve Spies sent into Canaan report the existence of Nephilim in Canaan, prior to its conquest by the Israelites.
A similar or identical biblical Hebrew term, read as “Nephilim” by some scholars, or as the word “fallen” by others, appears in the Book of Ezekiel 32:27.
