Arba (biblical figure)

Arba () was a man mentioned in the

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Isra ...

. In , he is called the "greatest man among the Anakites." Joshua 15:13 says that Arba was the father of

Anak Anak (; he, , homophone to a word for "giant, long neck, necklace"; ) is a figure in the Hebrew Bible. His descendants are mentioned in narratives concerning the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. According to the Book of Numbers, Anak was a ...

. The Anakites (Hebrew

Anakim Anakim ( ''ʿĂnāqīm'') are mentioned in the Bible as a race of giants, descended from Anak. According to the Old Testament, the Anakim lived in the southern part of the land of Canaan, near Hebron (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 15:13). states that they in ...

) are described in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

s. Little is known of his genealogy except that Joshua 15:13 describes him as the father of Anak, while the following verse refers to

Sheshai Sheshai () was a clan of Anakim living in Hebron named for a son of Anak in the Bible (Numbers 13:22). The clans were driven out of the city by Caleb (Joshua 15:14) and the Tribe of Judah (Judges 1:10). The two brothers of Sheshai were Ahiman and ...

Ahiman Ahiman () is the name of two persons in the Bible: * One of the three giant sons of Anak (the other two being Sheshai and Talmai) whom Caleb and the The Twelve Spies, Israelite spies saw in Mount Hebron (Book of Numbers 13:22) when they went in to ...

, and

Talmai Talmai (; he, wikt:תלמי, תלמי 'my furrows') is a name in the Hebrew Bible, Bible referring to a number of minor people. Its Aramaic version was associated with the Greek Ptolemy (name), Ptolemy (see that article for the list of correspondi ...

as "sons of Anak." According to Joshua,

Caleb Caleb (), sometimes transliterated as Kaleb ( he, כָּלֵב, ''Kalev'', ; Tiberian vocalization: Kālēḇ; Hebrew Academy: Kalev), is a figure who appears in the Hebrew Bible as a representative of the Tribe of Judah during the Israelites' ...

drove these three out of his portion of the land of

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

. The Bible also states that the city of

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...

was in ancient times known to be called ''Kirjath-Arba'' or "Kiriath Arba" ("city of Arba"; after Arba). A modern-day

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...

does exist east of Hebron named

Kiryat Arba :''This article is mainly about the modern Israeli settlement, not the biblical town'' Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba ( he, קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע, , Town of the Four) is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the south ...

. Book of Joshua Hebrew Bible people Rephaites Anakim {{Tanakh-stub