GIANT

The Bible gives accounts of men of extraordinary size. There was Og, king of Bashan, one of the Rephaim, whose bier was nine cubits (4 m; 13.1 ft) in length and four cubits (1.8 m; 5.8 ft) in width. (De 3:11) Goliath of Gath, whom David killed, was six cubits and a span (2.9 m; 9.5 ft) in height. Indicative of Goliath’s size and strength was the weight of his armor. His copper coat of mail weighed 5,000 shekels (57 kg; 126 lb); the iron blade of his spear weighed 600 shekels (6.8 kg; 15 lb).​—1Sa 17:4-7.

Besides Og and Goliath, there were other unusually large men of the Rephaim, among them being Ishbi-benob, the weight of whose spear was 300 shekels of copper (3.4 kg; 7.5 lb) (2Sa 21:16); Saph, or Sippai (2Sa 21:18; 1Ch 20:4); Lahmi, Goliath’s brother, “the shaft of whose spear was like the beam of loom workers” (1Ch 20:5); and a man of extraordinary size whose fingers and toes were in sixes, totaling 24 (2Sa 21:20).

The faithless spies reported to the Israelites that in Canaan they “saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who are from the Nephilim; so that we became in our own eyes like grasshoppers, and the same way we became in their eyes.” (Nu 13:33) These men of extraordinary size, called the sons of Anak (probably meaning “Long-Necked [that is, of tall stature]”), were not actually Nephilim, as reported, but were only unusually tall men, for the Nephilim, the offspring of angels and women (Ge 6:4), perished in the Flood.