Anak, Anakim, sons of Anak

(tall of stature) (Deut. 1:28; Num. 13:23, and elsewhere) — the name of a race of giants, or tall-statured people, first mentioned in the book of Numbers (13:22). They were descended from Arba, who appears to have been one of the leaders of the ancient settlers of southern Palestine, where he became so powerful that the most ancient city of Hebron was called by his name (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 21:11). Anak’s descendants were divided into three tribes, from Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak (Num. 13:22).

Together with the tall Amorites who dwelt in the hill country and were subject to Anak, they struck great fear by their appearance into the spies sent by Joshua to survey the Promised Land. “There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak,” said the spies, “and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:33). For this reason the Israelites at that time refused to go up against them; but when, afterward, contrary to the will of God, they went up into the hill country against them, they were utterly defeated (14:45).

From their later history, however, we see that the Israelites’ victory over the Amorites of northern Palestine emboldened them to exterminate this fearsome people completely (Josh. 11:21). Joshua struck them so decisively that, in the words of the sacred writer, “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” (11:21, 22). And indeed, in later times individual descendants of theirs are found scattered among various Philistine cities, as we see in the person of Goliath and in the persons of the gigantic warriors, descendants of the Rephaim, named in 2 Samuel (21:15–22).