David Ascendant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 7) (43 page)

So in all, we have five giants being killed by David’s men. 1) Benaiah killed an Egyptian giant, 2) Sibbecai killed the giant Sippai [Saph], 3) Elhanan killed the giant Lahmi, brother of Goliath, 4) Jonathan killed an unnamed giant, and 5) Abishai killed Ishbi-benob the giant.

But these are not mere chronicling of random deaths of a few tall bad guys. There is meaning and deliberation behind these facts. There is deliberate intent by the author to link these giants to the Nephilim of Genesis 6 whose diabolical plan was thwarted by God with the Flood.

Firstly, they are all summarized in the same paragraph, indicating a theological purpose behind combining them together. Secondly, except for the Egyptian, they are all Philistines fighting Israel. In Deut. 3:1-11 we read that Joshua killed Og of Bashan, the last of the Rephaim giants. Then in Joshua 11:21-22 we read that Joshua deliberately sought out the Anakim giants in Canaan and cut them off everywhere in the hill country. But then it gives this qualification: “There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain
.”

So, some giants were left by Joshua – in the land of Philistia. The very cities from which came the giants David would fight, including Goliath. It was almost as if God was deliberately keeping the last of the giants in order to finally destroy them through his messianic king. They were the leftover giants from Joshua’s conquest, and they were linked back to the evil Nephilim before the flood (Num. 13:32-33).

And there is strong indication that the giants were trying to kill David specifically as well. Ishbi-benob is said to explicitly have been trying to kill David (2 Sam. 21:16); another one “taunted Israel” (1Chron 20:7), the same phrasing used of Goliath; and of course, Lahmi, Goliath’s brother, would no doubt have revenge against the slayer of his sibling on his mind. But there is still more to this picture.

The English phrase used of the giants in these passages is that they were “descendants of the giants.” It is used three times in 1 Chron. 20 and four times in 2 Sam. 21. The authors go out of their way to stress these warriors as connected to that special group of giants that were theologically tied to the Nephilim of Genesis 6.

This narrative theological thread of giants from the Nephilim of Noah’s day to the Rephaim of David’s time conspires to imply a deliberate summary of climactic conflict between the titan Seed of the Serpent in Canaan and the Seed of Abraham from Eve.

But a closer look at the original Hebrew behind the translation “descendants of the giants” in 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles reveals much more then merely being linked to those oversized warriors left alive by Joshua in Philistia.

Biblical scholar Conrad E. L’Heureux examines this Hebrew phrase,
yalid ha rapha
, that translates as “descendants of the giants.” He explains that the word
rapha
, is the specific word for the Rephaim giants and warriors in the Bible. But the word
yalid
, “never refers to genealogical lineage. Rather, the
yalid
was a person of slave status and dedicated to the deity who was head of the social unit into which he was admitted by a consecration.”
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Because the discoveries of Ugarit shed light on the Rephaim as deified dead giant warriors,
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this religious devotion indicates that the “descendants of the giants” is really more the giant “devotees of Rapha.” L’Heureux concludes that this was probably some kind of reference to an elite fighting force religiously bound to their Rephaim code. What was that code? Was it to hunt down and destroy the Seed of Eve, the messianic king?

He then points out that of the eight times that the Bible speaks of the location of battle called “Valley of the Rephaim,” five of them are in these narratives of the Philistines fighting Israel in that valley. This brings him to suggest that “Valley of the Rephaim” may simply be an anachronism that was used in the stories about where that name came from. They called it Valley of the Rephaim because that valley is where David’s army defeated these Philistine elite fighting forces.

Thus, the origin of my elite corps of giants in
David Ascendant
called the
Yalid ha Rapha
or the “Sons of Rapha,” bound by oath to their own Seed (of the Serpent) to destroy the Seed of Eve, David
.

Were Agag and Saul Giants?

Agag.
In 1 Samuel 15 we read that King Saul defeated the Amalekites, ancient enemies of the Israelites. God tells Saul in verse 15 to “devote to destruction, all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” This was the language of
herem
(devotion to destruction) used for Joshua’s conquest of Canaan’s Nephilim infestation. It was not used for all of Israel’s enemies, only the specific clans that God was focusing on, and those clans all had Nephilim or giants in them.
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While 1 Samuel does not tell us that Agag was a giant, there is some indication that he could have been and that the Amalekites also had giants in their midst.

Their history goes all the way back to Genesis 14 and the Giant Wars in the days of Abraham. In that passage, Chedorlaomer leads his alliance of four Mesopotamian kings to wipe out specific giant clans in Canaan. The list of giant clans they take out are the Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, Horites and Amorites. In
Abraham Allegiant
I explained this campaign and how Abraham fit in with it. But for our purposes now, suffice it to say that mentioned within that list of giant clans is one more people group: The Amalekites
.

Though it is not stated explicitly that the Amalekites were a giant clan, it is implied by its inclusion in the list of all the other giant clans. In the Zohar, a 13th century Jewish mystical text, there is a clear reference to the Amalekites as giants among the Nephilim, Anakim, and Rephaim.
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The Arabs also have legends about Ad, the son of Amalek, being a giant.
[11]

Some scholars think that this Genesis 14 reference is just an anachronism in the Bible text, and that the Amalekites did not come in history until later. Genesis 36:12 states that Amalek came later as a son of Esau, father of the Edomites, a tribe that Israel was commanded by God
not
to fight (Deut. 2:4-6). But there is a problem here. When the Israelites encounter the Amalekites in the desert during the Exodus, God says, “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven…The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex. 17:15-16). After Israel had taken the Promised Land for an inheritance, God told them again, “You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget” (Deut. 25:19). Again, the holy war language used against the Nephilim in Canaan.

So either Genesis 36 is an anachronism and a contradiction or there are two separate lines of Amalekites, one from Esau and one from this earlier giant clan in Abraham’s time. Balaam’s prophecy, just before the conquest of the Promised Land, seems to blend both clans into one.  It indicates that “Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction” (Num. 24:20), thus favoring the earlier Genesis 14 existence. But it also links Amalek to Edom, the favored nation of Seir in verse 18, favoring the Esau lineage. The problem is that the prophecy from God himself then declares that Edom shall be dispossessed by Israel. Why would God change his mind and dispossess the tribe he was protecting? Maybe there was some kind of mixing of two Amalekite clans into one under the name of Amalek. And that people group had giants
.
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Saul.
One more literary reference hints at Agag being a giant. In Balaam’s prophecy just quoted, Israel is predicted to overcome her enemies in Canaan.

Numbers 24:6–8 (NASB95)

6
[Israel is planted]
like cedars
beside the waters.
7
“Water will flow from his buckets, And
his seed
will be
by many waters, And
his king shall be higher than Agag
, And his kingdom shall be exalted… He
will devour the nations
who are
his adversaries, And will
crush their bones
in pieces
.

This Scripture uses the language of the giants in an ironic application to Israel. The cedar tree, used in reference to the giants of Canaan (Amos 2:9), is now used of Israel; the nations of giants that “devoured its inhabitants” (Num. 13:32), would be devoured (same Hebrew word) by Israel instead. Like a giant, Israel would crush the bones of his enemies. The seed motif is brought up that reminds us of the Seed of Eve versus the Seed of the Serpent (Gen. 3:15). And then we read that Israel’s king shall be “higher than Agag
.”

This reference to height is an obvious metaphor for glory and exaltation of David’s house. But of course it also hints at Agag’s own stature being a defining trait. An interesting textual gloss appears in some of the Septuagint manuscripts that render Agag as “Gog” or “Og.”
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We’ve seen Og before: The last of the Rephaim giants in the Transjordan during Israel’s approach to Canaan.

Another literary linkage seems to be occurring in the Biblical text. 1 Samuel goes out of its way to point out that Saul was “taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward” (1 Sam. 9:2; 10:23). This would make him at least 6 1/2 to 7 feet tall. Could he have been of Nephilim seed? Verse 2 also says, “There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he.” It was customary to describe kings in glorious language as exemplary physical and spiritual specimens to justify their royalty.
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This description of Saul is used to make a point later that God does not look upon the outward appearance like man does, but upon the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). However, as Bible commentator Bergen points out, it is not a coincidence that “Saul is the only Israelite specifically noted in the Bible as being tall; elsewhere it was only Israel’s enemies [the giants] whose height was noted (cf. Num. 13:33; Deut. 1:28; 2:10; 9:2; 1 Sam. 17:4). Israel had asked for a king ‘like all the other nations’ (8:20), and the Lord was giving them the desires of their heart, even down to the physical details
!”
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