Giants (Nephilim)

In the visionary accounts preserved within the Enochian tradition, these colossal offspring emerge as direct consequences of the Watchers' descent and illicit unions with human women, an event detailed in the Book of Enoch chapters 6 and 7. The angels, led by Semjaza and Azazel, bind themselves by oath on Mount Hermon before taking wives and producing a hybrid race whose unnatural origins violate the boundaries established at creation. This transgression sets in motion a cascade of disorder that the texts portray not merely as moral failing but as a profound corruption of the natural and divine order, one that demands heavenly intervention. The writings emphasize their immense size and insatiable appetites, which lead them to devour human provisions, oppress the people, and even consume one another amid escalating violence. The Book of Enoch chapter 7 recounts how these beings filled the earth with blood and lawlessness, while Jubilees 5 describes their role in amplifying iniquity to the point that the earth itself cries out for relief. Such depictions frame them as embodiments of unchecked chaos, their very existence serving as the catalyst for the Flood narrative and underscoring the necessity of cosmic judgment to restore balance. Within these apocryphal traditions, their story also highlights the limits of angelic authority and the enduring consequences of crossing sacred boundaries. The archangels' intercession in Enoch chapter 9 and the subsequent divine decree in chapter 10 reveal how these figures become instruments of revelation, exposing the need for a renewed creation. Their presence thus invites readers to reflect on themes of hybridity, rebellion, and purification that resonate throughout the Enochian corpus and related texts like Jubilees.

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Symbolizes: Corruption and Violence from Forbidden Union

Key Chapters

The Book of Enoch 7 The Giants and Their Consumption 1 min read The Book of Jubilees 5 The Fall of the Angels and the Deluge Foretold 7 min read

Key Passages

Birth of the Giants

The Book of Enoch 7:1-6

A¹nd all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants.

² And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: ³ Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, ⁴ The giants turned against them and devoured mankind. ⁵ And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. ⁶ Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

In Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees 5:1-2

A¹nd it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants. And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walks on the earth -all of them corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men

² (was) thus evil continually. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, and all flesh had corrupted its orders, and all that were upon the earth had wrought all manner of evil before His eyes. And He said that He would destroy man and all flesh upon the face of the earth 5,6 which He had created. But Noah found grace before the eyes of the Lord. And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept) separate. And against their sons went forth a command from before His face that they should be smitten with the sword, and be removed from under heaven. And He said 'My spirit shall not always abide on man; for they also are flesh and their days shall be one hundred and twenty years'. And He sent His sword into their midst that each should slay his neighbour, and they began to slay each other till they all fell by the sword and were destroyed from the earth. And their fathers were witnesses (of their destruction), and after this they were bound in the depths of the earth for ever, until the day of the great condemnation, when judgment is executed on all those who have corrupted their ways and their works before the Lord. And He destroyed all from their places, and there was not left one of them whom

Did You Know?

Their violence and cannibalism symbolize total moral collapse.

They are destroyed before the Flood as part of cleansing the earth.

Their height of 3,000 ells makes them catastrophically large — consuming all human food production.

After physical death, their spirits become demons that plague humanity until the final judgment.

They represent the ultimate boundary violation — mixing heavenly and earthly in forbidden ways.