17 August 2009

God the giant killer

After God kills off the old soldiers in his early retirement program and before the new, youthful army begins to kill again for him, he brags a bit about some of his past killings. He is especially proud of knocking off an entire race of giants, the Zamzummim.
That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead. Deuteronomy 2:20-21
There were a few other groups that God also killed that I don't think I've accounted for yet: the Horim, Avim, and the Caphtorim.
As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead. Deuteronomy 2:22-23
The Bible doesn't say how many were in these groups. So I'll just guess 5,000 for the lot of them.

God's next killing: God hardens King Sihon's heart so he can kill him and all of his people

6 comments:

busterggi said...

I wonder what it took to be considered a kingdom in that area at that time. There were more 'great' kingdoms in the Levant back then than there are Dunkin Donuts in Connecticut today.

I suspect the greatness was greatly exaggerated.

Matthew Blanchette said...

Zamzummim? Horim? Avim? Caphtorim? Sounds more like the Bible translators wanted to throw some silly names in for the sake of a joke...

By the way, the name of the other giant people mentioned, the Anakims, apparently inspired George Lucas to name the new main character of his Star Wars series "Anakin" Skywalker. Neat little tidbit.

Scotlyn said...

Steve - I love this series... and your ability to stay focussed on the everlasting detail. When you finally come to the end of God's killings, would you consider a series on biblical prophecies and their potential interpretations? What's all the beast with ten head about, for example?

PersonalFailure said...

How tall does one have to be to qualify as a "giant" in the Bronze Age? I'm guessing my massive 5'1.5"ness would have made me impressively large.

Steve Wells said...

PersonalFailure,
I'm not sure what height qualified a person to be a giant back in the day. But Dt.3:11 says that King Og (one of the last of the giants) had a bed that was by 4 cubits (13.5 by 6 feet). So I suppose he must have been at least 12 feet tall (or maybe he just liked really big beds).

Scotlyn,
I'm glad you like the God's Killings series. And your idea about a prophecy series is a good one, but I don't know if I'll ever have the time. I feel bad about neglecting the Quran and Book of Mormon. Maybe some skeptics out there would like to help with a series of guest posts.

SEEKING_ANSWERS said...

PF, They did say it was a wilderness so I'm guessing they went in circles for 38 years.... who knows, I'm probably was a maze then