Bible Word of the Day
Anak, Anakites (Race of Giant, Occupied Southern Palestine near Hebron)
Meaning
These people were of the race of the giants. They are descendants of Anak. They were known for their height and the occupied the Judean hill country. When Moses first sent out the twelve spies to survey the land and the people who lived there. Ten of the spies returned and reported there were giants in the land and persuaded the people not to enter the land. These were those giants reported back to Moses. These were the same giants that Caleb and Joshua removed from the land after the Israelites settled the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership. The spies called these people the Nephilim.
The name Nephilim means “fallen ones” and many Bible scholars consider these giants or Nephilim as the offspring between fallen angels and human women. In many places around the world today, large, giant human skeletons have been found. The Anakites were related to the Rephaites and originally inhabited the area of Moab and Ammon. However, by the time of the conquest of Palestine by the Israelites under Joshua the Anakites were completely destroyed from the hill country. Some still remained in the area of Gaza and intermingled with the Philistines.
“The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. That was also regarded as a land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place.” (Book of Deuteronomy 2:10,20-21)
“There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Book of Numbers 13:33)