Nephilim (Gen 6:4)

Adam’s Aftermath

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⁴ (The Nephilim were on earth in those days.*)

 הַנְּפִלִ֞ים הָי֣וּ בָאָרֶץ֮ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵם֒

Today we meet the Nephilim. This is a parenthetical remark, as the Hebrew grammar shows us; if you are scoring at home, note that the subject is followed by a perfect verb rather than preceded by an imperfect consecutive. (We’ll get to that asterisk next time.) Why “Nephilim” with a Hebrew suffix rather than “Nephilites,” like Hittites or Amorites? Because this is not an ethnic group stemming from a particular place on earth — we will not meet any of those until we get to the Table of Nations in chapter 10.

So what are they?

The Bible gives us no information about this other than what we read in the rest of the verse, which makes it sound as if they were (1) the children of those mixed human/divine marriages, and (2) famously heroic. Much more on those two aspects when we proceed. First, let’s take a look through the rest of the Bible to see whether we can glean any more information.

^{Num 13:33} There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.