daughters of men alone have differed from
the ordinary stature of man? I have no other answer than that the text
says nothing of stature in this place. In Numbers 13, 33 it is said:
"There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants:
and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their
sight." There hugeness of body is shown, but not here; therefore they
may be called giants for some other reason than massive stature.

122. To give my opinion of the word, I hold it is to be taken neither
in the sense of the neuter nor of the passive, but of the active,
inasmuch as the word "_naphal_" is often used in the sense of the
active, though it does not belong to the third conjugation, in which
almost all transitive verbs are found. Thus in Joshua 11, 7: "So
Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the
waters of Merom suddenly, and fell upon them." If the verb is
construed as neuter, as if Joshua and his men had fallen before the
enemies, history will object; for the meaning is that they fell upon
the enemies and suddenly overpowered them.

123. Therefore, this passage and other, similar ones prompt me to
understand "_nephilim_" to designate not bulk of body, but tyranny and
oppression, inasmuch as they domineered by force, making no account of
law and honor, but merely indulging their pleasure and desire.
Rightful rulers the Scripture calls shepherds and princes, but those
who rule by wrong and violence are rightly called "_Nephilim_,"
because they fall and prey upon those beneath them.

Thus in Psalm 10: "He croucheth and humbleth himself and _Venaphal Baa
Zumaf Helkaim_ (falls with his strong ones upon the poor)". The Holy
Spirit speaks there of the reign of the Antichrist, whom he describes
as raging so furiously as to crush what he can, and, at all events, to
bend what he cannot crush, so that afterward he may suppress with all
his strength what has been bent. For _baazuma_ can be indifferently
rendered by "with his strength," or "with his strong ones." This
power, he says, he uses only against those who are _Hilkaim_, that is
the poor, such as have previously been in some state of affliction.
Others who excel in power, he worships so as to draw them over to his
side.

124. Accordingly I interpret "giants" in this passage not as men of
huge stature, as in Numbers 13, 33, but as violent and oppressive; as
the poets depict the Cyclopeans, who fear neither God nor men, bu