Arcana Coelestia # 583
583. 'The Nephilim' were called 'mighty' on account of their self-love. This too is clear from many passages in the Word where such people are called 'mighty', as in Jeremiah,
The mighty ones of Babel have ceased fighting; they are seated in their strongholds; their might is deserting them, they have become like women. Jeremiah 51:30.
Here also 'the mighty ones of Babel' stands for those who are eaten up with self-love. In the same prophet,
A sword against the liars, and they will go mad. A sword against her mighty ones, and they will be thrown into confusion. Jeremiah 50:36.
In the same prophet,
I have seen it. They have been thrown into confusion and are turning backward. Their mighty ones have been crushed and have surely fled, and they have not looked back - terror all around! The swift will not flee away, nor the mighty one escape. Mount your horses, and drive your chariots madly on; let the mighty ones go forth - Cush, Put, the Ludim. Jeremiah 46:5-6, 9.
This refers to persuasion resulting from reasonings. In the same prophet,
How do you say, We are mighty, and men of strength for war? Moab has been laid waste. Jeremiah 48:14-15.
In the same prophet,
The city has been taken and its strongholds, possession has been taken of it. The heart of the mighty ones of Moab on that day will be like the heart of a woman in labour. Jeremiah 48:41.
Chapter 49:22 similarly speaks of 'the heart of the mighty ones of Edom'. In the same prophet,
Jehovah has redeemed Jacob, and has reclaimed him from the hand of one mightier than himself. Jeremiah 31:11.
Here a different [Hebrew] expression is used for 'mighty'. The fact that the Anakim, who descended from the Nephilim, were spoken of as 'mighty ones' is clear in Moses,
You are crossing the Jordan today, going to dispossess nations greater and more numerous than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, Who will stand before the sons of Anak? Deuteronomy 9:1-2.
Genesis 6
1
It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
2
that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.
3
Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."
4
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6
Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
7
Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
8
But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.
9
This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
10
Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12
God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13
God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14
Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
15
This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship will be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16
You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
17
I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
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But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
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Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
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Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive.
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Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them."
22
Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.
