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 (c. 13 feet; 4 meters) in length and four cubits (5 feet 10 inches; c. 1.8 meters) in width. (Deut. 3:11) Goliath of Gath, whom David killed, was six cubits and a span (9 feet 5.75 inches; c. 2.9 meters) in height. Indicative of Goliath’s size and strength was the weight of his armor. His copper coat of mail weighed five thousand shekels (c. 126 pounds; 57 kilograms); the iron blade of his spear weighed 600 shekels (c. 15 pounds; c. 6.8 kilograms).—1 Sam. 17:4-7.

Besides 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 (c. 7.5 pounds; c. 3.4 kilograms) (2 Sam. 21:16); Saph or Sippai (2 Sam. 21:18; 1 Chron. 20:4); Lahmi, Goliath’s brother, “the shaft of whose spear was like the beam of loom workers” (1 Chron. 20:5); and a man of extraordinary size whose fingers and toes were in sixes, totaling twenty-four.—2 Sam. 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.” (Num. 13:33) These men of extraordinary size, called the sons of Anak (meaning “long-necked”), were not actually Nephilim, as reported, but only unusually tall men, for the Nephilim, the offspring of angels and women (Gen. 6:4), perished in the Flood.