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applied to these sons of God, can be seen by referring to Isa. 14: 12 "How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" The Nephilim are mentioned twice
in Numb. 13: in the report of the spies, and their statements are too circumstantial to
allow of spiritualizing:
"We came unto the land . . . . . and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be
strong that dwell in the land . . . . . we saw the children of Anak there . . . . . there we saw
the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our sight as
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" (Numb. 13: 27-33).
Thirty-eight years after, when Israel were about to enter the land or promise, Moses
spoke of the opposition that awaited them, but reminded them that the Moabites and the
Ammonites had dispossessed a people `tall as the Anakim' which also were accounted
giants (Deut. 2: 10, 11). The bedstead of Og, king of Bashan, which measured nine
cubits long, was in Rabbath at the time of Moses' writing (Deut. 3: 11). Dr. Porter, says
of these giants Cities of Bashan:
"The rude architecture and simple structure of the houses, the immense blocks of
roughly hewn basaltic stone of which they are built, seemingly hard and durable as iron,
the prodigious thickness of the walls, the colossal stone doors, which turn not by hinges,
but on stone pivots, and some of which are eighteen inches in thickness . . . . . all indicate
their being reared by the hands and for the habitation of a race of great strength than
ours--a mighty nation of giants" (Giant cities of Bashan).
In the days of David, men of giant stature were found among the Philistines, of whom
Goliath of Gath is a well known example. The passages where `giants' are mentioned in
the O.T. other than Gen. 6: and Numb. 12: employ the words gibbor (Job 16: 14), and
rephaim (Deut. 2: 11, 20; 3: 11; I Chron. 20: 8, etc.). The word is used sometimes as
the name of a people, as in Gen. 14: 5 `smote the Rephaims', but even so the
association in that same passage with the `Zuzims' and the `Emims' reveal that the
`giants' of Deut. 2: 11 are before us. In eight occurrences of the word rephaim, the
identity of this people is hidden under the translation `the dead' or `deceased'. One of the
proofs that this people are not the legitimate sons or seed of Adam, that they were never
weakened as being `In Adam', is that they are to have no resurrection.
In the day of Israel's restoration, the song that will be sung in the land of Judah looks
back to the evil domination of the Rephaim:
"Others lords beside Thee have had dominion over us . . . . . they are the Rephaim,
they shall not rise; therefore hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their
memory to perish" (Isa. 26: 13, 14).
In contrast with these Rephaims that have no resurrection, the song continues "Thy
dead shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the
Rephaim" (Isa. 26: 19).
One great objection to the idea that the sons of God were angels, is that it does not
seem possible to think of marriage and children in their connection. First we have the