Hebrew Nominal Form

The Hebrew root of “Nephilim” in Gen 6:4a and Num 13:33 could be:

1. נָפַל (naphal), meaning “to fall”; “Nephilim” could be a “passive adjectival formation” of the Hebrew verb נָפַל (naphal) meaning the “fallen ones” (compare Hendel, “Of Demigods and the Deluge,” 22; Owens, Analytical Key to the Old Testament, 23; Kraeling, “The Significance and Origin of Genesis 6:1–4,” 203). The term “Nephilim” places emphasis not on the state of “what these individuals had been in their lives, but on the state in which they now were” (i.e., warriors fallen at the hand of Yahweh; Kraeling, “The Significance and Origin of Genesis 6:1–4,” 203; compare Ezek 32). “Fallen ones” can refer to:

• the angels who fell from heaven;

• humanity’s moral fall in Eden and prior to the flood;

• hostile warriors who “fall upon” the unsuspecting;

• those who have “fallen” in battle (compare also Ezek 32:20–27 see Koehler and Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 709);

• the response of those who beheld these fearsome beings—that is, people who fell before them in fear while exhibiting a fallen countenance (Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses, 244).

2. נֵפֶל (nephel), meaning “miscarriage”; “Nephilim” may have its origins in the word נֵפֶל (nephel, “miscarriage”), suggesting that these beings were odd-looking individuals who had survived pre-term delivery (compare Job 3:16; Psa 58:8[Eng]; Eccl 6:3; see Koehler and Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 709; Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26, 336). Coxon suggests that the term may refer to the ghosts or spirits of the miscarriages, something that would have been “ill-omened” in the ancient world (Coxon, “Nephilim,” 619). Genesis Rabbah 26.1B.K, records that “they [i.e. the Nephilim] threw the world down, and they fell from the world, and they filled the world up with abortions on account of their licentiousness” (italics Neusner’s, compare Neusner, The Components of the Rabbinic Documents, 30)—all three italicized words derived from the Hebrew root נפל (npl).

3. פָּלָא (pala'), meaning “extraordinary”; “Nephilim” may be from the Hebrew passive form of the verb פָּלָא (pala') meaning “extraordinary” (as in “extraordinary men”; compare van Broekhoven, “Nephilim,” 519). This option has little textual support.