A people group who lived in pre-conquest Canaan. The Rephaim were a race of giants.
About Rephaim
The word Rephaim also describes a group of very tall and strong people who lived in the land of Canaan during Abraham’s time. Along with other ancient groups like the Zuzim, Emim, and Horites, they were defeated by Kedorlaomer and his allies (Genesis 14:5). They were one of nine nations living in Palestine at the time when the Lord promised to give the land to the descendants of Abraham (15:20).
Other nations had different names for them. The Moabites called them the Emim, and the Ammonites called them the Zamzummim. These groups were as large and tall as the Anakim, another group of giants (Deuteronomy 2:11, 20).
Og, king of Bashan, was the last known Rephaim king. The Israelites defeated him under Moses’s leadership and took his land (Deuteronomy 3:11; Joshua 12:4; 13:12). Some of the giants who fought with the Philistines may have come from the Rephaim (2 Samuel 21; 1 Chronicles 20).
See also Giants.
Key References
During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.
Like the Anakites, they were also regarded as Rephaim, though the Moabites called them Emites.
(That too was regarded as the land of the Rephaim, who used to live there, though the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.
All Scripture References (10)
Genesis (2)
In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
Deuteronomy (4)
Like the Anakites, they were also regarded as Rephaim, though the Moabites called them Emites.
(That too was regarded as the land of the Rephaim, who used to live there, though the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.
(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og. (The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.)
Joshua (3)
And Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
the whole kingdom of Og in Bashan, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei and had remained as a remnant of the Rephaim. Moses had struck them down and dispossessed them,
Joshua answered them, “If you have so many people that the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go to the forest and clear for yourself an area in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim.”
1 Chronicles (1)
Some time later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued.