Lives of Scripture

Ahiman was one of three brothers -- with Sheshai and Talmai -- descended from Anak, living in and around Hebron when the twelve spies scouted the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:22). Seeing Ahiman and his brothers among the land's imposing inhabitants contributed to the ten spies' fearful, unbelieving report that convinced Israel the land could not be taken (13:28, 31-33), a rebellion that cost that entire generation forty years of wandering. Caleb alone, along with Joshua, urged Israel to trust God's promise despite the Anakim's size. Decades later, that faith was vindicated: after Israel entered the land, Caleb specifically requested Hebron as his inheritance because of his wholehearted trust in the LORD years before, and Scripture records that "Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak: Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak" (Joshua 15:14; compare Judges 1:10). Ahiman's presence in the text bookends a larger story about fear versus faith -- the same giant who once made an entire nation shrink back in unbelief was ultimately driven out by one man who had refused to let fear have the last word.