Genesis 6:4
There were giants in the earth in those days;
Nephilim. This word occurs three times in the original Hebrew and is translated as "giants." "There were giants in the earth" (Gen. 6:4); "There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants" (Num. 13:33). These "Nephilim" were in the earth immediately before the flood and "after that" as Genesis 6:4 continues: "And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men (Heb. adam), and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown".
The giants that the spies saw were evidently descended from those Nephilim that were on the earth after the flood. The word Nephilim does not of itself indicate a gigantic structure (these beings were also very large); it rather looks to the height from which these beings have fallen. Naphal in Hebrew means "to fall," and the Nephilim are "fallen ones." Genesis 3:15 contains not only a promise concerning the seed of the woman but also a warning that there would be a seed of the serpent and that the conflict between these two seeds would constitute the conflict of the ages.
By the time of, and as a countermove of Satan to Abraham's call, this evil seed was concentrated in the land of Canaan, and the sword of Israel was as necessary as the previous waters of the flood if the purposes of God's Grace were to prosper. Another name given to this evil seed is the Rephaim (Gen. 14:5), which is translated as "giants" in Deuteronomy 2:11; Deut. 2:20; Deut. 3:11; Deut. 3:13; Joshua 12:4; Jos. 13:12; Jos. 15:8; Jos. 17:15; Jos. 18:16, and 1 Chronicles 20:4; 1 Chron. 20:6; and 1 Chron. 20:8. These Rephaim (Isa. 26:14 "deceased" in A.V.) have no resurrection. For the particular application to Dispensational Truth of this subject, see the teaching entitled Giants.
