Man's Wickedness Was
Great in the Earth
Beresheet 5: 32 - 6: 8 reads, "5:32Noach was five hundred years old, and Noach became the father of Shem, Cham, and Yefet.
6:1It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 6:2that the Mighty One's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose. 6:3Yahweh said, 'My spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years.' 6:4The Nefilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the Mighty One's sons came to men's daughters. They bore children to them. The same were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
6:5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6:6Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. 6:7Yahweh said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.' 6:8But Noach found favor in Yahweh's eyes."
Who Were the Mighty One's
Sons?
Beresheet 6: 1 notes that daughters were born to MEN.
Beresheet 6: 2 makes a DISTINCTION between men and the Mighty One's sons. For the daughters are described as "men's daughters" and NOT as the Mighty One's daughters. Thus there is indeed a distinction between "men" and "the Mighty One's sons".
Who are these Mighty One's sons?
It is also noted that these Mighty One's sons took for themselves wives of men's daughters, of all of men's daughters whom they chose! This implies that the women or "men's daughters" whom they had as their wives were not necessarily given to them in marriage. It appears that they forcibly took them as their wives, without these women or "men's daughters" being freely given to them. It therefore appears that this was a time when forced marriages took place. It therefore appears that this was a time when women became wives of those they were not freely given to!
Yahweh Imposed a Time
Limit on Man's Existence on Earth
Beresheet 6: 3 notes Yahweh saying that his spirit would not dwell with man forever, BECAUSE man is flesh. Implying that if man was not flesh but was composed of some other substance it might indeed be possible for his spirit to dwell with man forever!
It should also be recalled that it is the spirit in man that Yahweh places in him, in flesh, that gives man, flesh, life. Without this spirit in him man, flesh, has no life. Therefore when Yahweh was saying that his spirit would not dwell with man forever he was simply stating that a time was coming when his spirit would no longer dwell in man. And he decreed this time, for he said that his days would be one hundred and twenty years. Therefore, in one hundred and twenty years after he decreed this, his spirit in man would cease to dwell in man, and man would thereby die upon his spirit ceasing to dwell in him!
Distinction
Between the Progeny of Men and the Progeny of the Mighty One's Sons
It should be noted from Beresheet 6: 4 that the children that "men's daughters" bore to "the Mighty One's sons" were the Nefilim. It should also be noted from Beresheet 6: 1 that the children that "men's daughters" bore to men were both sons and daughters, even as Beresheet 5: 30 shows. It should therefore be clear that "men's daughters" could indeed bear children to both "men" and "the Mighty One's sons". It should indeed be clear that women can indeed bear children to both men and the Mighty One's sons!
It should again be noticed that men are DISTINGUISHED from the Mighty One's sons. For the progeny of men, the children women bear to men, are sons and daughters. But the progeny of the Mighty One's sons, the children women bear to the Mighty One's sons, are the Nefilim, mighty men, men of renown! It should therefore be clear that the Mighty One's sons are NOT human beings, but a separate species of persons who can take women as wives, mate with them, and produce the Nefilim as their progeny!
Again it is asked, who are the Mighty One's sons? And where did they come from?
It should also be noted that the Nefilim were MEN! Only that they were men with special characteristics, characteristics that ordinary men do not have. For the Nefilim were mighty men, men of renown. In other words, the Nefilim had power far superior to that possessed by ordinary men, and it is as a result of this power that they became renowned!
It should also be noted that the Nefilim were on the earth "in those days, and also after that". Implying that the Mighty One's sons forcibly took men's daughters as their wives not just in those days, but also after those days.
Every Imagination
of Man's Thoughts Was Continually Evil
Beresheet 6: 5 notes that man's wickedness was very great on the earth. In fact, so great was man's wickedness that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil, and continually evil! This great wickedness grieved Yahweh in his heart, causing him to feel sorry for having created man on the face of the earth. Yahweh therefore decreed that he would indeed destroy wicked man from the earth, together with all flesh on the surface of the earth. In other words, man's wickedness did not lead to just his own destruction, but also to that of all other flesh on the surface of the earth.
This implies that of all flesh on the surface of the earth the one whose conduct really matters is man's. For when man conducts his affairs in a particular manner, effects arise that affect not just man, but all flesh on the earth's surface. Man is therefore seen to be pre-eminent among all flesh, even as he was given dominion over all flesh on the earth at the time of his creation, as Beresheet 1: 28 shows.
But amidst all this wickedness, one man found favour in Yahweh's eyes - Noach. In other words, while all other men were greatly wicked, one man was not. Therefore, whereas all other man did not find favour with Yahweh, Noach indeed found favour with him. Noach must therefore have been righteous before Yahweh, and not greatly wicked as the other men were.
Characteristics
of the Nefilim
Bemidbar (Numbers) 13: 25-33 reads, "13:25They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. 13:26They went and came to Moshe, and to Aharon, and to all the congregation of the children of Yisra'el, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 13:27They told him, and said, 'We came to the land where you sent us; and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 13:28However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, and very great. And moreover we saw the children of `Anak there. 13:29`Amalek dwells in the land of the South. And the Chittite, and the Yevusi, and the Amori, dwell in the hill-country; and the Kana`ani dwells by the sea, and along by the side of the Yarden.' 13:30Kalev stilled the people before Moshe, and said, 'Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.' 13:31But the men who went up with him said, 'We aren't able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.' 13:32They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Yisra'el, saying, 'The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up the inhabitants of it; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. 13:33There we saw the Nefilim, the sons of `Anak, who come of the Nefilim. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."
We here have another description of the Nefilim, the mighty men of old, the men of renown. This was several centuries after the days of Noach, when the Nefilim were also on the earth. One of the ancestors of the Nefilim the Yisraelite spies saw was called Anak, for these Nefilim they saw were Anak's children.
The Nefilim were men of great stature. So huge they were that the Yisraelite spies described themselves as grasshoppers in their sight. The Nefilim were GIANTS!
Devarim 1: 25-28 reads, "1:25They took of the fruit of the land in their
hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, 'It is a
good land which Yahweh our Mighty One gives to us.' 1:26Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled
against the commandment of Yahweh your Mighty One. 1:27And you murmured in your tents, and said, 'Because
Yahweh hated us, he has brought us forth out of the
The Nefilim Resided in
Different Locations on the Earth
Devarim 2: 9-12 reads, " 2:9Yahweh
said to me, 'Don't bother Mo'av, neither contend with them in battle; for I will
not give you of his land for a possession; because I have given `Ar to the
children of
Devarim 2: 16-23 reads, " 2:16So
it happened, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the
people, 2:17that Yahweh spoke to me,
saying, 2:18'You are this day to
pass over `Ar, the border of Mo'av. 2:19And
when you come near over against the children of `Ammon, don't bother them, nor
contend with them; for I will not give you of the land of the children of
`Ammon for a possession; because I have given it to the children of
Why Yahweh Destroyed
the Nefilim
Devarim 9: 1-5 reads, "9:1Hear, Yisra'el: you are to pass over the Yarden this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, 9:2a people great and tall, the sons of the `Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, 'Who can stand before the sons of `Anak?' 9:3Know therefore this day, that Yahweh your Mighty One is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you. So shall you drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. 9:4Don't speak in your heart, after that Yahweh your Mighty One has thrust them out from before you, saying, 'For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh does drive them out from before you. 9:5Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land. But for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your Mighty One does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya`akov."
It should therefore be clear that the reason the Nefilim, among whom were the sons of the Anakim, perished from the earth was because Yahweh the Mighty One DESTROYED THEM! And he destroyed them not only before Yisrael, but also before other peoples, such as Moav, Esav, Ammon and Kaftor. He destroyed them because they were WICKED! The seed of the Mighty One's sons, the Nefilim, the sons of the Anakim, turned out to be wicked!
[<<<Previous] [Contents] [Next>>>]
Return to Servants of Yahweh Site Contents page
© 1998, Isaac Aluochier, All rights reserved.
Published by Servants of Yahweh,