Anakim

The Anakim are a people in the Bible, known for their great size and strength.

Names

• Anakim
• Ly Anaq, the people of Anaq (Egyptian Execration texts)
• The Emims are compared with them: Deuteronomy 2:10-11 calls the Emims “tall, as the Anakims”

Notable figures

• Goliath
• Erum
• Abiyamimu
• Akirum

Biblical references and locations

The Anakim are described as descendants of Anak. They lived in the southern part of Canaan, near Hebron, as Genesis and Joshua mention. Joshua 15:13 calls Hebron “the city of Arba the father of Anak.”

Genesis 14:5-6 has been read as placing them in the region later known as Edom and Moab in the time of Abraham. The verses themselves do not name the Anakim. They name the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the Emims and the Horites, whom Chedorlaomer defeated.

Genesis 14:5-6: the peoples Chedorlaomer defeated

Chedorlaomer and his allied kings strike the giant peoples east of the Jordan.

And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness.

Genesis 14:5-6, KJV

Etymology

The name “Anakim” may come from a Hebrew root meaning “necklace” or “neck-chain,” which may point to a distinctive physical or cultural feature.

Deuteronomy 2:11 counts the Anakim among the giants (the Hebrew is Rephaim; see Rephaites), a group often described in ancient texts as giants or mighty warriors.

Deuteronomy 2:10-11: the Emims and the Anakims

Moses describes the Emims of Moab by comparing them with the Anakims.

The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites called them Emims.

Deuteronomy 2:10-11, KJV

Appearance and perception

The Bible, particularly Numbers 13:33, describes the Anakim as formidable and frightening. Their appearance filled the Israelites with fear.

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Numbers 13:33, KJV

Connection to the Nephilim

The Israelites linked the Anakim with the Nephilim, the giants of Genesis 6:4 (where the KJV reads “giants”), which shows how extraordinary their size and strength seemed.

Expulsion by Joshua

According to the book of Joshua, the Anakim were largely driven out of their lands. Some found refuge in the Philistine cities of Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. This has led to the theory that the Philistine giants, including Goliath, were descendants of the Anakim.

There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

Joshua 11:22, KJV

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, refers in Jeremiah 47:5 to the descendants of the Anakim mourning after the destruction of Gaza. (The KJV’s Hebrew-based text reads “the remnant of their valley” at this point.)

The Egyptian Execration texts

The Egyptian Execration texts from the Middle Kingdom name a group called the “ly Anaq,” the people of Anaq, with rulers named Erum, Abiyamimu and Akirum. This may be a historical reference to the Anakim, tying them to real historical people or groups.

Giants in the land

In his article “Giants in the Land” (2019), Zachary Garris reads Genesis 14 in this light. In his reading, Chedorlaomer fought three groups of giants: the Rephaim (which the Septuagint renders as “giants” in Genesis 14:5), the Zuzim (probably the Zamzummim of Deuteronomy 2:20) and the Emim (Deuteronomy 2:10-11). He adds that the Amorites may also have been giants, citing Amos 2:9 and Og, an Amorite king (Deuteronomy 3:8).

Abraham then defeated Chedorlaomer to rescue his nephew Lot (Genesis 14:14-17). These groups, including the Amalekites, the Amorites and the Anakim, were still in the land in Joshua’s time (Numbers 13:29, 33). Garris draws the conclusion that links Abraham’s battle with the later conquest of the giants in the land of Canaan:

Thus Abraham’s victory in Genesis 14 is a foretaste of Joshua’s later victories over the giants in the land of Canaan.

Zachary Garris, “Giants in the Land,” Knowing Scripture (2019)