Nephilim

The Nephilim, rendered giants in the KJV, were mighty men on the earth before the Flood, and the name is used again of the sons of Anak in Canaan. Christian traditions differ on Genesis 6: some read the sons of God as fallen angels who took human wives, others as the godly line of Seth or as human rulers, and the passages each reading cites are listed below.

Giants in the earth

• Genesis 6:1-3
  ¹And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, ²That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose. ³And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years.”
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• Genesis 6:4
  There were giants 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.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.
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Sons of God as angels

• Job 1:6
  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
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• Job 2:1
  Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him.
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• Job 38:7
  When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
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Angels that sinned

• 2 Peter 2:4-5
  ⁴For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; ⁵And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
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• Jude 1:6-7
  ⁶And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day. ⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
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• 1 Peter 3:19-20
  ¹⁹By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison ²⁰Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.
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Cited for the human reading

• Genesis 4:26
  And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.And to Seth also a son was born, and he called him Enosh. At that time men began to call upon the name of the LORD.
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• Deuteronomy 14:1
  Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.You are sons of the LORD your God; do not cut yourselves or shave your foreheads on behalf of the dead,
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• Matthew 22:30
  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.
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Giants in Canaan

• Numbers 13:32-33
  ³²And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature. ³³And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”
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• Deuteronomy 2:10-11
  ¹⁰The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;(The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites. ¹¹Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.Like the Anakites, they were also regarded as Rephaim, though the Moabites called them Emites.
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• Deuteronomy 3:11
  For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
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• Joshua 11:21-22
  ²¹And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.At that time Joshua proceeded to eliminate the Anakim from the hill country of Hebron, Debir, and Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah and of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction, along with their cities. ²²There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.No Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites; only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod did any survive.
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Goliath and the sons of the giant

• 1 Samuel 17:4
  And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,
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• 2 Samuel 21:20-22
  ²⁰And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.And there was still another battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, ²¹And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him.and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him. ²²These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.
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See also

• Angels
• Demons
• Noah
• David

Notes

1. Verses are quoted in the translation chosen in the Translation menu at the top of the page. See Translations for sources and copyright notices.
2. Each reference links to the full chapter so the verse can be read in context.