Imagine you are reading an ancient book, and suddenly you stumble across a sentence that says there were giants living on the earth. Not giant animals, not giant trees, but giant people, huge men and women who towered over everyone else. If you have ever read the Bible and felt like you accidentally walked into a fantasy novel, you are not alone. The Bible talks about giants in several places, from the book of Genesis all the way to the stories of King David. These are not fairy tales or metaphors. The Bible presents them as real historical figures who lived in real places and fought in real battles.
For a teenager today, the idea of giants can sound like something from a movie or a video game. But the Bible includes these stories for a reason. They are not random or embarrassing. They actually teach us something important about God, about fear, and about facing the impossible. This article will walk you through every mention of giants in the Bible, explain who they were and where they came from, and help you understand why these ancient giant stories still matter for your life right now.
The First Giants, The Nephilim of Genesis
The very first time the Bible mentions giants is in Genesis chapter six verse four. The verse says, there were giants in the earth in those days. The Hebrew word used here is Nephilim. Nobody knows for sure what that word originally meant, but many scholars think it comes from a word that means to fall, so the Nephilim might mean the fallen ones. These giants appeared before the great flood of Noah. The verse says they were the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men. They became mighty men of old, famous heroes.
This verse is mysterious. The Bible does not give a long explanation of who the sons of God were. Some people think they were angels who left their proper place and married human women. Other people think the sons of God were powerful human rulers or descendants of a godly line. Either way, the result was a race of unusually large and powerful people. These giants were part of the reason God decided to send the flood. The world had become violent and corrupt, and these mighty men were part of that corruption.
After the flood, only Noah and his family survived. So the giants should have been wiped out. But the Bible later mentions giants again. That suggests that the same kind of thing happened again after the flood. Certain families or tribes grew to enormous size, and they became known as giants.
The Giants Who Terrified the Israelites
The next major mention of giants happens in the book of Numbers, chapter thirteen. Moses had sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan to check out the land God had promised to give them. The spies came back with a report. They said the land was beautiful and rich, flowing with milk and honey. But then they said this, the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there, the Anakim, who are giants.
Ten of the spies were terrified. They said, we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. That is a powerful image. Grown men, warriors who had seen God part the Red Sea and send plagues on Egypt, looked at these giants and felt like bugs. They were so afraid that they refused to enter the land. They forgot that God was bigger than any giant.
Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb, trusted God. Caleb said, we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. But the people believed the scary report instead of God’s promise. As a result, that entire generation wandered in the wilderness for forty years until they died. Only Joshua and Caleb and the next generation got to enter the promised land. The giants were real, and they were scary, but the people’s lack of faith was a bigger problem than the giants themselves.
Og, King of Bashan, The Giant with a Giant Bed
One of the most interesting giants in the Bible is Og, the king of Bashan. His story appears in Deuteronomy chapter three. When the Israelites finally left the wilderness and began conquering land east of the Jordan River, they faced Og and his army. God told Moses, do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hand. The Israelites defeated Og completely. They killed him and took over his land.
Then the Bible adds a fascinating detail. It says that Og was the last of the Rephaim, which was another word for giants. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long. You can read the exact measurement in Deuteronomy chapter three verse eleven. That means Og was likely over ten feet tall. His bed was huge because he was huge. This was not a legend. The writer of Deuteronomy wanted readers to know that Og was a real historical giant whose giant bed could still be seen in the city of Rabbah.
The Valley of the Giants and Other Giant Tribes
The Bible mentions several groups of giants who lived in different regions. The Anakim lived in the hill country of Canaan. The Emim lived in the land of Moab. The Rephaim lived in Bashan and other areas. The Zamzummim lived in the land of the Ammonites. These were all different tribal names for people who were known for their unusually large size.
In Joshua chapter fifteen verse eight and chapter eighteen verse sixteen, the Bible talks about the Valley of the Giants, sometimes translated as the Valley of Rephaim. This valley was near Jerusalem. It was a place associated with these ancient giant peoples. So giants were not just a rumor from far away. They lived right next to the land where God’s people eventually settled. They were a real, ongoing presence that the Israelites had to deal with.
David and Goliath, The Most Famous Giant Story
The most famous giant in the entire Bible is Goliath of Gath. His story is in First Samuel chapter seventeen. Goliath was a champion of the Philistine army. The Bible says he was over nine feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet and a heavy coat of armor. His spear was so thick that the shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and the iron point weighed fifteen pounds. Every morning and evening for forty days, Goliath came out and taunted the Israelite army. He challenged them to send out a man to fight him one on one. The loser’s army would become slaves to the winner’s army.
All the Israelite soldiers were terrified. King Saul, who was the tallest man in Israel, was afraid. Then a teenage boy named David showed up. He was not a soldier. He was a shepherd. He brought food to his brothers in the army. When he heard Goliath’s taunts, he was angry that anyone would defy the living God. David volunteered to fight. He refused the king’s armor because he had not tested it. Instead, he took his shepherd’s staff, his sling, and five smooth stones from a stream.
Goliath laughed at him. He said, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? David answered, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. David ran toward Goliath, put a stone in his sling, and slung it. The stone sank into Goliath’s forehead, and the giant fell face down on the ground. David took Goliath’s own sword and cut off his head. The Philistine army fled, and Israel won a great victory.
This story is not just about a brave kid. It is about faith. David was not bigger or stronger than Goliath. He was smaller and younger. But he trusted God, and God gave him the victory. Every time the Bible mentions giants, this is the pattern. The giants are big and scary. But God is bigger. And when His people trust Him, the giants fall.
Other Giants David’s Men Fought
Goliath was not the only giant. Second Samuel chapter twenty one tells us about four more giants who came from the same region, Gath. One of them was named Ishbibenob. He tried to kill David when David was old and tired. But one of David’s mighty warriors, Abishai, came to help and killed the giant.
Another giant was Saph. He was killed by a warrior named Sibbechai. Another giant was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. That is twenty four fingers and toes total. He also was a descendant of the giants. He was killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s nephew. In total, the Bible records that David and his men killed at least five giants, including Goliath and these four others. All of them were descendants of the giants from Gath. So the giant problem did not end with one stone from a shepherd boy. It took generations of warriors to clear the land of these giant enemies.
What Do Giants Mean Spiritually
The presence of giants in the Bible is not just historical trivia. The Bible uses giants to teach a spiritual lesson. Giants represent the impossible obstacles in our lives. They represent the fears that tower over us and make us feel like grasshoppers. They represent the problems that look too big to solve and the enemies that seem too strong to defeat.
When the ten spies saw the giants, they forgot about God. They only saw the size of the problem. When David saw Goliath, he also saw the giant. But he saw something else too. He saw the living God who had delivered him from a lion and a bear. David knew that the same God who helped him fight wild animals would help him fight a giant. He did not pretend the giant was small. He just knew that his God was bigger.
For a teenager today, the giants might not be ten feet tall with spears. But they are still real. A giant might be a test you are sure you are going to fail. A giant might be a bully at school who makes your life miserable. A giant might be a mental health struggle like depression or anxiety that feels too heavy to carry. A giant might be a family situation that seems hopeless. The Bible does not tell you to pretend those giants do not exist. It tells you to face them with faith. The same God who helped David defeat Goliath is available to help you.
Giants in the New Testament
The New Testament does not talk about physical giants very much. But it does talk about spiritual giants. The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians chapter six about spiritual warfare. He says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world. Those are spiritual giants. They are invisible, but they are just as real as Goliath was. And just like David did not fight Goliath with his own strength, we do not fight spiritual giants with our own strength. We fight with the armor of God, with faith, with prayer, and with the Word of God.
The Book of Revelation also talks about a final giant, a spiritual enemy called the dragon or Satan. But the good news is that Jesus has already defeated him. The stone has already struck the giant’s forehead. The victory is already won. We are just living in the clean up phase.
A Final Letter to the Teenager Facing Your Own Giant
If you are reading this and you feel like a grasshopper facing a giant, take heart. You are in good company. The Israelites felt that way. David felt that way too when he was just a kid with a sling. But David did not run. He ran toward the giant. That is the secret of faith. Faith does not run away. Faith runs toward the problem because faith knows that God is already there.
You might not have a stone and a sling. But you have prayer. You have the Bible. You have trusted adults who can help you. You have a church family. And you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. The giants in your life are real. Do not pretend they are not there. But do not worship them either. Do not let them be bigger in your mind than God is. The same God who crushed the Nephilim, defeated Og, and brought down Goliath is on your side. And if God is for you, who can stand against you?
So go ahead. Pick up your five smooth stones. They might be prayer, Scripture, wise counsel, courage, and community. And run toward your giant. Not in your own strength, but in the name of the Lord Almighty. The giant will fall. They always do.