Genesis 6:4

Summary

The verse states that the Nephilim (H5303) existed on earth in those days, including a period afterward, when the "sons of God" had children with the "daughters of humankind." The resulting offspring are identified as the gibborim (H1368), described as anshei ha-shem ("men of the name/renown", H0582 + H8034), figures said to be me-'olam ("from long ago", H5769J).

Key words

• ha-Nefilim ("the Nephilim", H5303) — definite, masculine plural gentilic noun; functions as the grammatical subject of the first clause.
• hayu ("they were", H1961) — qal perfect, third person plural; marks a completed state of existence, not an ongoing process.
• yavo'u ("they went/came", H0935G) — qal imperfect, third person plural; despite following a perfect-tense main clause, this imperfect form describes the recurring or continuing action within the asher ("that/who", H0834A) clause.
• yaldu ("they bore children", H3205) — qal perfect with narrative vav (H9001), continuing the sequence of action after the asher clause.
• gibborim ("mighty [men]", H1368) — definite, masculine plural noun; functions as the predicate identifying who "they" (hemmah, H1992) were.

What the text says

The verse opens with a nominal-type statement using hayu (H1961, qal perfect) placing the Nephilim (H5303) "on the earth" (ba-aretz, H0776G) "in those days" (ba-yamim ha-hem, H3117G + H1992). The phrase ve-gam acharei-khen ("and also after that", H1571 + H0310A) extends this temporal frame beyond "those days," using the adverb khen (H3651C) to mark a secondary time reference.

The relative clause introduced by asher (H0834A) uses yavo'u (H0935G), a qal imperfect, to describe the action of the "sons of God" (bene ha-Elohim, H1121I + H0430G) going in "to the daughters of humankind" (bnot ha-adam, H1323G + H0120G). The switch to imperfect within a relative clause following a perfect main verb is a grammatical feature that some translations render as ongoing or repeated action ("were entering") while others treat it as a single reported event ("entered"). The narrative continues with ve-yaldu (H3205), a perfect verb carrying a vav that links it sequentially to what precedes, describing the bearing of children "to them" (lahem, H9038 suffix on H9005).

The final clause restates the subject with the emphatic pronoun hemmah ("they", H1992) and identifies them as ha-gibborim (H1368), further qualified by a second asher clause: "who [were] from olam" (H5769J, "long ago") — anshei ha-shem, "men of the name" (H0582 + H8034), a construct phrase literally naming them "men of renown/name."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-Nefilim (H5303) as γίγαντες ("giants"), a term also used later in the verse for ha-gibborim (H1368), collapsing two distinct Hebrew words into one Greek term. The Vulgate follows this with Gigantes for the first term and potentes ("powerful ones") for gibborim, distinguishing the two groups differently than the Hebrew's separate vocabulary (Nefilim vs. gibborim). The Hebrew asher yavo'u clause, syntactically subordinate, is restructured in the Vulgate as a temporal clause ("postquam... ingressi sunt"), and in the SBLIBRE Spanish translation the Nephilim are explicitly equated with "the children that the sons of God had," an identification not made explicit in the Hebrew syntax itself.