Hang on, because we’re going to examine some prophecies of the destruction of the rebellious sons of God that have been hiding in plain sight for more than two thousand years.
First, some background. We need to take a step back for a quick look at the origin of the word nephilim, the giants created by the angels who sinned in the Genesis 6 incident.
Dr. Michael S. Heiser, author of the highly recommended books The Unseen Realm and Reversing Hermon, makes a good case for the derivation of the word “Nephilim” from an Aramaic noun, naphil(a), which means “giant.”[1] It’s similar to the Hebrew word naphal, “to fall,” which has led many scholars to the conclusion that nephilim means “fallen ones.”
While they certainly were that, Heiser points out that the rules of Hebrew would make the plural form nephulim, while “those who fall away” would be nophelim.[2] In other words, “Nephilim” is based on an Aramaic word that’s been “Hebrew-ized” with the -im plural suffix replacing the Aramaic -in.[3]
The point is this: A similar cross-pollination of Hebrew and Aramaic might reveal a more intriguing reading of the end of Isaiah 14, the famous chapter condemning the king of Babylon by comparing him to the divine rebel from Eden:
May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named!
Isaiah 14:20b–21 (ESV)
Prepare slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.
Here’s the key: the Hebrew word for “city” is ‘iyr. In Aramaic, the very same word means “Watcher.” The connection between the two is that cities in the ancient world were generally surrounded by walls and guarded by—you guessed it—watchmen.[4] The plural forms are ʿiyrim and ʿiyrin in Hebrew and Aramaic respectively. Thanks to Dr. Heiser, we have a good example of an Aramaic word that was imported into the Bible and then “corrected” with the -implural suffix, which transformed Aramaic naphil(a) into the Bible’s nephilim.
While you wouldn’t want to live in a world covered with cities full of evildoers, urban centers are not inherently evil. The verse doesn’t make a lot of sense on its face.
However, in the full context of the chapter, it’s possible that another reading fits better. English translators, lacking the worldview of the Hebrew prophets, missed it by assuming that every instance of ‘iyr in the Old Testament must mean “city” (except in Daniel 4, where the context makes it impossible to read ‘iyr as anything but a supernatural entity).
You can see how substituting “Watchers” for “cities” changes the passage in an important way:
Prepare slaughter for his sons
Isaiah 14:21 (ESV, modified)
because of the guilt of their fathers
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with [Watchers].
A similar prophecy was uttered by the prophet-for-prophet, Balaam:
[A] star shall come out of Jacob,
Numbers 24:17b, 19 (ESV)
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; […]
And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities [Watchers]!
Derek stumbled onto this new reading of Isaiah 14 while researching his 2018 book, Last Clash of the Titans. At the time, we understood the passages cited above as the prophesied destruction of “Lucifer” and the Rephaim (i.e., the Nephilim). The cities/Watchers swap opens another dimension of understanding for Balaam’s prophecy in Numbers 24, too.
Obviously, we can’t substitute “Watchers” for every occurrence of “cities” in the old testament. Most of the time, ʿiyrim means “cities.” But in the passages above, translating the word as “Watchers” fits the context better.
Isaiah apparently intended to record God’s judgment against the offspring of the rebel angels on Hermon, the Watchers, and their progeny, the Nephilim. In the context of Isaiah 14, this reading isn’t much of a stretch, but it isn’t the only place in Isaiah where a Watchers-for-cities swap makes sense.[5]
Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;
Isaiah 33:7–9 (ESV)
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
The highways lie waste;
the traveler ceases.
Covenants are broken;
cities are despised;
there is no regard for man.
The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
The word rendered “heroes” in verse 7 is the Hebrew ‘er’el. Elsewhere in the Bible, ‘er’el is transliterated into English as “Ariel,” which means “lion of God.” While we don’t want to follow unbiblical notions too far, later Jewish tradition was that the Arielites were angels.[6] The “ariels” in verse 7 are paralleled by “envoys,” which in Hebrew is malakim (“messengers”), which often refers to the lowest class of angel. So, reading “ariels” as “angelic beings” here actually fits.
The context of Isaiah 33 is a warning to Assyria, the neighborhood bully in the Near East in the eighth century BC. God had used them to chastise the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, but a reckoning was in Assyria’s future. A surface level reading of the verses fits the political situation of that time; the Assyrian army was marching toward Jerusalem and the envoys sent to Egypt by King Hezekiah had returned to report that no help was coming. Considering that Assyria had steamrolled every other nation in the region, one can imagine the warriors of Judah, its “heroes,” weeping at the prospect of a futile battle that would almost certainly end in death, followed by the destruction of everyone and everything they loved.
But a deeper analysis of the verses reveals a prophecy of God’s retribution against Assyria.
Ah, you destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed,
you traitor,
whom none has betrayed!When you have ceased to destroy,
Isaiah 33:1 (ESV)
you will be destroyed;
and when you have finished betraying,
they will betray you.
Of course, the Bible records the fulfillment of this promise when the Assyrians camped outside the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed, but not by human hands.[7] Fittingly, the context of the chapter suggests that the ariels, the “heroes” of verse 7, were more than human. Besides pairing the ariels with the malakim of peace, the references to Lebanon, Bashan, home of the kingdom of Og and Mount Hermon, and Carmel, a mountain known as a holy site for centuries before Isaiah,[8] suggest that Isaiah 33 is either a lament for a supernatural event that had just occurred or dread of something that was about to.
That, of course, makes the substitution of Watchers for cities not only plausible, but logical:
The highways lie waste;
the traveler ceases.
Covenants are broken;
[Watchers] are despised;
there is no regard for man. (Isaiah 33:8, ESV, modified)
There is something else to note in that verse: A “traveler” in this context may well be someone on a journey, but it’s also a word used by Amorites for the spirits of the divinized dead kings of old, the Rephaim.[9]
And that points us back to another aspect of end-times prophecy that’s often overlooked—the return of the Nephilim.
[1] Dr. Michael S. Heiser, “The Nephilim.” SitchinIsWrong.com(http://www.sitchiniswrong.com/nephilim/nephilim.htm), retrieved 4/16/18.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] “ʿiyr.“ Blue Letter Bible (https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5892), retrieved 1/30/19.
[5] Dr. Michael S. Heiser, The Divine Council in Late Canonical and Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature. Doctoral dissertation (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2004), 227–228.
[6] S. Münger, “Ariel.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd extensively rev. ed.) (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 89.
[7] 2 Kings 18:13–19:37.
[8] M. J. Mulder, “Carmel.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd extensively rev. ed.) (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 182–183.
[9] Ugaritic text KTU 1.22. Nicolas Wyatt, Religious texts from Ugarit (2nd ed.) (London; New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), 322.