ANAK ā’ năk (עֲנָ֑ק, necklace?). The eponymous hero of the Anakim (see Anak) which was a tribe inhabiting Pal. in pre-Israelite times. Without the article, Anak appears in Numbers 13:33; Deuteronomy 9:2, but with the article in Numbers 13:22, 28; Joshua 15:13, 14; 21:11; and Judges 1:20, which seems to be a collective term equal to the pl. form, the Anakim.

The place of Anak’s origin is either the “city of Arba” (qiryat ’arba^c) Josh 15:13 or Hebron (= Kiriath-arba). This latter interpretation seems to be borne out by Numbers 13:22 where the chiefs of Hebron are said to be Anak’s descendants.

The people of Anak (a Hurrian name?) are the most frequently mentioned of the “giant” or Rephaim class in the Bible. The Anakim give Hebron as their home (Num 13:22, 28, 33; Deut 1:28; Josh 11:21; 14:12; 15:13, 14 and Judg 1:20) and the LXX text calls Hebron the μητρόπολις, G3619, of the Anakim (Josh 14:15; 15:13; 21:11). Deuteronomy 9:1, 2 places them in Cisjordan generally. After Caleb drove them out, they survived in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod of Philistia (Josh 11:22).

So tall and formidable were these sons of Anak that their name and reputation became a byword in Israel: “who can stand before the sons of Anak?” (Deut 9:2); cf. also 1:28, 2:10, 21).

The sons of Anak are prob. referred to in the 19th-18th cent. Execration texts found in Egypt as the Iy-^canaq whose three princes have Sem. names. See Nephilim.

Bibliography ANET. 328; J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical texts of the OT (1959), 79.