The Watchers, the Nephilim, and Giants

Who are the Watchers, the Nephilim and the races of Giants? They are each mentioned in Scripture as enemies of Israel. The Watchers mentioned in the book of Daniel had once been placed on earth to guard humans, like angelic soldiers guarding the spiritual realm over places on earth.

“I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven”  (Daniel 4:13).

Years before the ‘days of Noah,’ some of the Watchers became attracted to human women and chose to abandon their heavenly position and procreate with humans. The women birthed the Nephilim.

 “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.  There were Nephilim 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” (Genesis 6:1-4).

Nephilim is often translated ‘giants’ though a better definition would be ‘those who came down, those who descended or those who were cast down.’  Because they had angelic spiritual fathers and human mothers, they were half-breeds.  Sumerian cuniform, one of the earliest writing systems, claims that these half-breeds became a race of Nephilim called Anakim –– the immortals of Sumerian and Babylonian mythology.

Anakim meant ‘those of royal blood’ and were known as “those who from heaven to earth came.” The Anakim made up the Council of gods, fallen angels, who met to discuss their future actions with each other as well as their plans with mankind.

“They were a ‘people great and tall, the ‘Anakim, whom you know about and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anakim?’” (Deuteronomy 9:2).

The Anakim are depicted as fully human or half-human with animal parts because their procreation activities became utterly abominable (Leviticus 18:23), hence the reason for the flood. These immortals are commonly seen in movies like Chronicles of Narnia as the centaur (half-human, half horse) and the faun (half-human, half goat).

The Anakim were the the Nephilim gods that Abraham’s father served in Ur which is why God called Abraham to leave his father’s house.

“And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, lived on the other side of the River Euphrates in old times; and they served other gods’” (Joshua 24:2).

The race of giants, the Anakim, lived in Canaan when the ten Israelite spies went to scout out the Promised Land. The fruit they found in the Eshkol Valley was so large that two men had to carry one cluster of grapes on a pole (Numbers 13:23).

“We also saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33).

“What sort of place is it that we’re heading for? Our brothers made our courage fail when they said, ‘The people are bigger and taller than we are; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky; and finally, we have seen ‘Anakim there'” (Deuteronomy 1:28).

Another race of giants that challenged Israel as they fought to gain possession of the Promised Land were called the Rephaim.

“Like the Anakim, they too are regarded as Rephaim …” (Deuteronomy 2:11).

It is believed that Goliath descended from this race of Nephilim. When David went to kill Goliath, he picked up five stones, one for Goliath and four for his remaining ‘giant’ brothers.

“There came out a champion from the camp of the P’lishtim named Golyat, from Gat, who was nine feet nine inches tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he wore a bronze armor plate weighing 120 pounds. He had bronze armor protecting his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was as big as a weaver’s beam, and the iron spearhead weighed fifteen pounds. His shield-bearer went ahead of him” (1 Samuel 17:4-7).

Og, the King of Bashan was the last of the Rephaim after David and his mighty men killed the brothers of Goliath.

“And there was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born to the giant.  When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck and killed him. These four were born to the giant at Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants” (2 Samuel 21:20-22).

“For only Og, king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits, and its width four cubits by the usual cubit” (Deuteronomy 3:11).

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