Was there a Canaanite Giant whose name was ‘Four’? Or is this another case of a colonial conquest that exaggerates and abuses the names, legends and legacies of the occupied and dispossessed native people?
The giants of Canaan and the names of their leaders are likely fragments of mostly forgotten oral traditions that have something to do with the story that among the original dwellers of the holy land were three famous giants plus one - the fourth, who is named in some cases as their father. The myth may be code for great ancient people conquered and erased, but not entirely - the giants are collective holders of a quad-like archetype of ancient ancestors, defeated, but somehow remembered - larger than life.
Remember the giants’ first mention? They were the star attraction of the thumbs-down report of the 12 spies sent by Moses to scout out the future homeland. Were these giants real or hyperbole? In that narrative, back in the Book of Wilderness, 10 of the 12 spies, representing the tribes of Israel, described the giants to the terrified nation as gruesome, suggesting to leave those big beings alone - and head back to Egypt instead. But the other 2 spies, Joshua and Caleb, tossed practical and ethical concerns aside, called for faith and the fearless conquest of Canaan.
40 years later, Joshua is in charge. He and his old buddy Caleb are the only ones to survive the Sinai wilderness, and by the time we get to this chapter, are dividing up the conquered land among their people.
Guess who’s back? The Canaanite giants ---four of them, or three? Or maybe at least one really big one? A few versions co-exist -- show up, at least in name, alive and menacing, still a threat.
Caleb, 85 years old and still a warrior, approaches Joshua with a reminder of their glory days of espionage, 45 years prior. It’s a surprising narrative combining a personal relationship we’ve heard nothing of till now, and a choice to place this moment of settlement in the framework of a promise made a generation ago + strategic needs yet unmet. “I'm as strong today as I was all those years ago,” Caleb boasts - and asks Joshua to let him lead the war on the southern city of Hebron, where the giants still live, behind strong walls. In return, Caleb wants that region to be his.
The deal is struck. The war is won. The fate of the giants is unclear, but:
Thus Hebron became the portion of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, as it still is, because he was loyal to Adonai the God of Israel.—The name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba - the City of Four [Arba] , Arba was the greatest among the Giants. And the land had rest from war.
The City of Four - Arba - may have once been called that because of a giant named Four, of whom we don’t know much. In later references the names of three other giants are mentioned - possibly his sons. The ancient knowledge is preserved for some reason but the new name of the city will stick - Hebron. It will be important for King David’s lineage and connected to the story of Abraham and his link to the land. Caleb is from the tribe of Judah - David’s tribe — and this will become the Judean territory. But notice here that Caleb is also identified as belonging to the Kenizzites - and that’s really interesting. Perhaps, as scholars claim, the ‘conquest’ of Hebron by Caleb and his identity as possibly a man of Judah -or of another local Canaanite tribe that became an ally with Israel - is complicated layers of retelling.
The messy conflicting versions about giants, and Caleb’s multi-origins hint at what is always the case with Colonial takeovers - past glories and giants, older myths, survive in fragments, politically constructed, with the past and ruins glorified or appropriated and then claimed. The City of Four is today a far-right Jewish suburb of Hebron - one of the most tragic hotspots of hostilities between Abraham’s children who surround his tomb with very little love. Rabbinic tradition claims that it’s been called City of Four because of the four couples buried along with Abraham and Sarah in Hebron - Adam and Eve, Isaac and Rebeccah, Jacob and Leah.
Ancestors and giants still hide or are hidden in Hebron, as they did back when Caleb took over and made this city his new home - according to this chapter anyway. The verse above ends with the sweeping, maybe aspirational words - ‘and then the land had rest from war.’ Maybe? Caleb’s daughter’s surprising story comes next. And the giants show up.
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Reading this account about Hebron brought me right to Poland in my mind, where people live in the towns just surrounding the ghettos and camps.. I will never forget looking up at the beautiful homes overlooking the ghetto in Krakow. How could people live there? And the smaller homes just outside Aushwitz, Then again, we are living on land that had massacre also. 🤔 hmm
Reading this account about Hebron brought me right to Poland in my mind, where people live in the towns just surrounding the ghettos and camps.. I will never forget looking up at the beautiful homes overlooking the ghetto in Krakow. How could people live there? And the smaller homes just outside Aushwitz, Then again, we are living on land that had massacre also. 🤔 hmm
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Tje0nyqerYacwmYuWPdD0?si=-j3ZUjfIR3iXYkwPqCgviA