The Mythic Bestiary
Watchers of flaming fire settle into human form beside women on a dark crag, while colossal Nephilim giants tower over a misty plain where men look like grasshoppers
Hebrew BibleApocrypha & EnochTalmud & Midrash

The Nephilim & the Watchers

Sons of Heaven, Giants of the Earth

Art follows Watchers of fire turning to dust (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22); giants beside whom men were as grasshoppers (Numbers 13:33).

Lore Card

Two hundred of them came down at once, and first they swore an oath, so that none of them could turn back. That is how 1 Enoch tells it: they descended on the summit of Mount Hermon in the days of Jared, and the mountain was named for the curse they bound themselves with (1 Enoch 6:6).

The legend

Genesis offers only four verses. The "sons of God" saw that human women were beautiful and took wives. "There were giants in the earth in those days" (KJV): the Nephilim, "mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (Genesis 6:4). Then the Flood comes. Centuries later in Numbers 13:33, Moses' spies return from Canaan saying they saw Nephilim there and felt like grasshoppers beside them.

The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36, from around the 3rd century BCE, with Aramaic fragments found at Qumran) fills in what Genesis leaves out. The angels, called Watchers, are led by Semjaza. They teach charms, enchantments and the cutting of roots (7:1). Azazel teaches men to make swords and breastplates, to work metals, and to paint their eyes (8:1). The women bear giants who consume everything humans have, then turn on the humans themselves (7:2–5). The archangels hear the earth cry out. Raphael is ordered to bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into darkness at Dudael (10:4). Enoch, a scribe, is sent to tell the Watchers that their petition for mercy is refused. When the giants die, their spirits become the evil spirits that haunt the earth (15–16).

Versions

  • Rabbinic echoes: The school of Rabbi Yishmael names two of the fallen Uzza and Azael (Yoma 67b). The Talmud makes the giant kings Sihon and Og sons of Ahijah, son of Shamhazai (Niddah 61a).
  • A rival reading: Many later Jewish and Christian interpreters rejected the angel reading. For them the "sons of God" were powerful men, nobles or judges.

What fantasy gets right / what it misses

Gets right: In these stories the original sin is forbidden knowledge, and their children are hybrids caught between heaven and earth.

Misses: Fantasy's Nephilim are often glamorous winged half-angels. The ancient ones are ravenous giants, and their ghosts become demons. The story is horror, not romance. The Watchers are also not Lucifer's fall from heaven. Theirs is a separate, older story about desire, technology and a world corrupted by what it was taught.

Original Sources

The key verses in the original Hebrew or Aramaic, with an English translation. Fetched from the Sefaria API.

Genesis 6:2 בראשית ו׳:ב׳

The sons of God and the daughters of men

וַיִּרְא֤וּ בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם כִּ֥י טֹבֹ֖ת הֵ֑נָּה וַיִּקְח֤וּ לָהֶם֙ נָשִׁ֔ים מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּחָֽרוּ׃
that the sons of nobles saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose.

JPS 1917 translates בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים as “sons of nobles”, following Rashi and Onkelos; the Hebrew literally reads “sons of God/the gods”.

Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC-BY-SA)English: The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation (JPS 1917) (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗Mechon Mamre (Hebrew + JPS 1917) ↗Chabad.org (with Rashi) ↗

Genesis 6:4 בראשית ו׳:ד׳

The Nephilim were in the earth

הַנְּפִלִ֞ים הָי֣וּ בָאָ֘רֶץ֮ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵם֒ וְגַ֣ם אַֽחֲרֵי־כֵ֗ן אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָבֹ֜אוּ בְּנֵ֤י הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם וְיָלְד֖וּ לָהֶ֑ם הֵ֧מָּה הַגִּבֹּרִ֛ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר מֵעוֹלָ֖ם אַנְשֵׁ֥י הַשֵּֽׁם׃
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of nobles came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC-BY-SA)English: The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation (JPS 1917) (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗Mechon Mamre (Hebrew + JPS 1917) ↗Chabad.org (with Rashi) ↗

Numbers 13:33 במדבר י״ג:ל״ג

The spies see Nephilim: “we were as grasshoppers”

וְשָׁ֣ם רָאִ֗ינוּ אֶת־הַנְּפִילִ֛ים בְּנֵ֥י עֲנָ֖ק מִן־הַנְּפִלִ֑ים וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֙ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶֽם׃
And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’

Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC-BY-SA)English: The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation (JPS 1917) (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗Mechon Mamre (Hebrew + JPS 1917) ↗

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 22:4 פרקי דרבי אליעזר כ״ב:ד׳

The angels who fell from their holy place

רַבִּי אוֹמֵר: רָאוּ הַמַּלְאָכִים שֶׁנָּפְלוּ מִמְּקוֹם קְדֻשָּׁתָן מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶת בְּנוֹת קַיִן מְהַלְּכוֹת גְּלוּיוֹת בָּשָׂר עֶרְוָה וּמְכַחֲלוֹת עֵינֵיהֶן כְּזוֹנוֹת, וְתָעוּ אַחֲרֵיהֶן וַיִּקְחוּ מֵהֶן נָשִׁים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וַיִּרְאוּ בְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם״ וְכוּ'.
Rabbi said: The angels who fell from their holy place in heaven saw the daughters of the generations of Cain walking about naked, with their eyes painted like harlots, and they went astray after them, and took wives from amongst them, as it is said, "And the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose" (Gen. 6:2).

Hebrew: Pirke DeRabbi Eliezer, Sefaria Vocalized Edition (Public Domain)English: Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, trans. Rabbi Gerald Friedlander, London, 1916 (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗

Yoma 67b:7 יומא ס״ז ב:ז׳

Uza and Azael

תָּנָא דְּבֵי רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל: ״עֲזָאזֵל״ — שֶׁמְּכַפֵּר עַל מַעֲשֵׂה עוּזָּא וְעַזָּאֵל.
The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Azazel is so called because it atones for the actions of Uzza and Azael. These are the names of “sons of God” who sinned with “daughters of men” (Genesis 6:2) and thereby caused the world to sin during the generation of the Flood.

Hebrew: William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic (CC-BY-NC)English: William Davidson Edition - English (CC-BY-NC)

Sefaria ↗

1 Enoch 6:1-3; 7:2

The Watchers and the giants (Book of Enoch)

No Hebrew or Aramaic original survives in the Jewish canon. English only.

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them … And Semjâzâ, who was their leader … And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells.

Not part of the Jewish canon, and no Hebrew text survives (Aramaic fragments at Qumran; full text in Ge'ez). English only.

English: R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (1917) (Public Domain)

Sacred-texts (ch. 6) ↗ch. 7 ↗

Interpretations

Classic commentators and translators on the same passages.

Rashi on Genesis 6:2:1 רש"י על בראשית ו׳:ב׳:א׳

Rashi: sons of princes and judges, or angels

בני האלהים. בְּנֵי הַשָּׂרִים וְהַשּׁוֹפְטִים. דָּבָר אַחֵר בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים, הֵם הַשָּׂרִים הַהוֹלְכִים בִּשְׁלִיחוּתוֹ שֶׁל מָקוֹם, אַף הֵם הָיוּ מִתְעָרְבִים בָּהֶם; כָּל אֱלֹהִים שֶׁבַּמִּקְרָא לְשׁוֹן מָרוּת, וְזֶה יוֹכִיחַ וְאַתָּה תִּהְיֶה לּוֹ לֵאלֹהִים (שמות ד'), רְאֵה נְתַתִּיךָ אֱלֹהִים (שם ז'):
בני האלהים THE SONS OF ELOHIM — The sons of princes and rulers (Genesis Rabbah 26:15). Another explanation of בני האלהים is that these were princely angels who came as messengers from God: they, too, intermingled with them (the daughters of men). Wherever the word אלהים occurs in the Scriptures it signifies authority, and the following passages prove this: (Exodus 4:16) “and thou shalt be his (אלהים) master”, and (Exodus 7:1) “See, I have made the (אלהים) a master.”

Hebrew: Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934 (Public Domain)English: Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934 (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗

Rashi on Genesis 6:4:1 רש"י על בראשית ו׳:ד׳:א׳

Rashi: they fell and felled the world; giants

הנפלים. עַל שֵׁם שֶׁנָּפְלוּ וְהִפִּילוּ אֶת הָעוֹלָם, וּבְלָשׁוֹן עִבְרִית לְשׁוֹן עֲנָקִים הוּא:
הנפילים THE GIANTS — Thy were called נפילים because they fell (נפלו) and caused the downfall of (הפילו) the world (Genesis Rabbah 26:7).

Hebrew: Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934 (Public Domain)English: Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934 (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗

Onkelos Genesis 6:2 תרגום אונקלוס על בראשית ו׳:ב׳

Targum Onkelos: “sons of the great ones”

וַחֲזוֹ בְנֵי רַבְרְבַיָּא יָת בְּנַת אֱנָשָׁא אֲרֵי שַׁפִּירָן אִנוּן וּנְסִיבוּ לְהוֹן נְשִׁין מִכֹּל דִּי אִתְרְעִיאוּ:
The sons of the rulers saw that the daughters of man were fair and they took for themselves wives from whomever they chose [wanted].

Hebrew: Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 (CC-BY-NC)English: Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation] (CC-BY-NC)

Sefaria ↗

Targum Jonathan on Genesis 6:4 תרגום יונתן על בראשית ו׳:ד׳

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Shamhazai and Uzziel fell from heaven

שַׁמְחַזָאֵי וְעוּזִיאֵל הִינוּן נְפִילִין מִן שְׁמַיָא וַהֲווֹ בְּאַרְעָא בְּיוֹמַיָא הָאִינוּן …
Schamchazai and Uzziel, who fell from heaven, were on the earth in those days; …

Hebrew: Targum Jonathan on Genesis (Public Domain)English: The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862 (Public Domain)

Sefaria ↗

Texts & licenses
  • Miqra according to the Masorah: CC-BY-SA
  • The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation (JPS 1917): Public Domain
  • Pirke DeRabbi Eliezer, Sefaria Vocalized Edition: Public Domain
  • Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, trans. Rabbi Gerald Friedlander, London, 1916: Public Domain
  • William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic: CC-BY-NC
  • William Davidson Edition - English: CC-BY-NC
  • R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (1917): Public Domain
  • Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934: Public Domain
  • Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009: CC-BY-NC
  • Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]: CC-BY-NC
  • Targum Jonathan on Genesis: Public Domain
  • The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862: Public Domain

The William Davidson Talmud (Koren/Steinsaltz) is © Koren Publishers, CC-BY-NC, courtesy of Sefaria. Its English weaves Rabbi Steinsaltz's explanatory additions into the literal translation. JPS 1917 and the Charles Enoch are public domain. Mechon Mamre and Chabad.org are linked for reference only; their texts are not reproduced.

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