person · also Anakim
Anak
עֲנָק
Anak was the ancestor of the Anakim, a race of giants who inhabited Canaan before the Israelite conquest.
- verses
- 16
- first named
- Numbers 13:22
- last named
- Joshua 21:11
- period
- Egypt and Wilderness
- role
- Man
Description
Who was Anak?
Anak was the progenitor of the Anakim, a race of giants who lived in Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest. The Anakim were known for their great height and strength, which struck fear into the hearts of the Israelite spies who were sent to scout out the land. The spies reported that the descendants of Anak were among the inhabitants of Canaan, comparing them to the Nephilim, another race of giants.
During the conquest of Canaan under Joshua's leadership, the Israelites fought against the Anakim and gradually drove them out of the land. Caleb, one of the faithful spies, was given Hebron as his inheritance, which was formerly known as Kiriath-arba and was associated with Anak. Caleb successfully expelled the descendants of Anak from Hebron.
The Anakim were also mentioned as having lived in the land of Moab and Edom, where they were known as Emim and Rephaim, respectively. These giant peoples were gradually displaced or destroyed by the Israelites and the surrounding nations. The memory of the Anakim and their formidable presence in Canaan served as a reminder of God's faithfulness in giving the land to His people, despite the challenges they faced.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 11 are drawn. All 11 are listed below.
Ancestor of
Child of
- ArbaregistryJoshua 21:11
Father of
- AhimanregistryJoshua 15:14
- SheshairegistryJoshua 15:14
- TalmairegistryJoshua 15:14
Stands in the same events as
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
The pattern
Where Anak is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
16 verses across 4 of 66 books; 62 write the name nowhere. Named in Numbers (3), Deuteronomy (5), Joshua (7) and Judges (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 16, across 4 books. The name is written 18 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- Numbers 13Anak’s descendants are found dwelling in Hebron and are named among the great danger.
- Deuteronomy 9Anak's descendants are remembered as strong and tall, the sort of people who make a city wall seem modest.
- Joshua 11The Anakim were eliminated from the hill country, though some survived in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.
- Joshua 15Anak was named as the forefather of the three sons whom Caleb drove out.
Sources