1 Samuel 10:23

10:23 So they ran and brought him from there. When he took his position among the people, he stood head and shoulders above them all.

1 Samuel 17:4

17:4 Then a champion ¹  came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. ² 

Bilangan 13:33

13:33 We even saw the Nephilim ³  there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves ⁴  and to them.” ⁵ 

[17:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the man of the space between the two [armies].” See v. 23.

[17:4]  ² tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.

[13:33]  ³ tc The Greek version uses gigantes (“giants”) to translate “the Nephilim,” but it does not retain the clause “the sons of Anak are from the Nephilim.”

[13:33]  sn The Nephilim are the legendary giants of antiquity. They are first discussed in Gen 6:4. This forms part of the pessimism of the spies’ report.

[13:33]  ⁴ tn Heb “in our eyes.”

[13:33]  ⁵ tn Heb “in their eyes.”