Deuteronomy 1:28

1:28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage ¹  by describing people who are more numerous ²  and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven ³  itself! Moreover, they said they saw ⁴  Anakites ⁵  there.”

Deuteronomy 9:1

Theological Justification of the Conquest

9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ⁶ 

Daniel 4:11

4:11 The tree grew large and strong.

Its top reached far into the sky;

it could be seen ⁷  from the borders of all the land. ⁸ 

Daniel 4:22

4:22 it is you, ⁹  O king! For you have become great and strong. Your greatness is such that it reaches to heaven, and your authority to the ends of the earth.

¹ tn Heb “have caused our hearts to melt.”

² tn Heb “greater.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “stronger,” NAB, NIV, NRSV; “bigger,” NASB).

³ tn Or “as the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

⁴ tn Heb “we have seen.”

⁵ tn Heb “the sons of the Anakim.”

⁶ tn Heb “fortified to the heavens” (so NRSV); NLT “cities with walls that reach to the sky.” This is hyperbole.

⁷ tn Aram “its sight.” So also v. 17.

⁸ tn Or “to the end of all the earth” (so KJV, ASV); NCV, CEV “from anywhere on earth.”

⁹ sn Much of modern scholarship views this chapter as a distortion of traditions that were originally associated with Nabonidus rather than with Nebuchadnezzar. A Qumran text, the Prayer of Nabonidus, is often cited for parallels to these events.