In the Hebrew Bible, as well as non-Jewish ancient texts from the region, the Northwest Semitic term Rephaite or Repha'im (cf. the plural word in Hebrew: רְפָאִים, romanized: rəfāʾīm; Phoenician: 𐤓𐤐𐤀𐤌 rpʼm)[1] refers either to a people of greater-than-average height and stature in Deuteronomy 2:10-11, or departed spirits in the Jewish afterlife, Sheol as written in the following scriptures: Isaiah 26:14; Psalms 88:10, and Proverbs 9:18, as well as Isaiah 14:9.[2]
There are two main groups of etymological hypotheses explaining the origins of the biblical term, Repha'im. The first group proposes that this is a native Hebrew language term, which could be derived either from the root רפא or רפה. The first root, רפא, conveys the meaning of healing, as in the healing of souls living in the Jewish afterlife, Sheol, where they await the final judgement dictated by the Jewish God, Elohim. The second root, רפה, denotes being weak or powerless; souls within Sheol are weak in the sense that they hold no physical power or status as they did in the living world. Because all things that give the living power are moot in the land of the dead, its inhabitants are thus powerless and weak and must be submissive to Elohim.[3][4][5] The second group of etymological hypotheses treat the word rephaim as a loanword from some other ancient Semitic language. Among the proposals is the Akkadian rabu, a prince, but this explanation enjoys rather limited popularity. Far more support has been gained by the hypothesis which derives the Hebrew refaim from the Ugaritic rpum which denotes the semi-deified deceased ancestors who are mentioned in such sources as the so-called Rephaim Text (KTU 1:20–22).[6][7] Despite the inconsistency between these possible meanings and that modern translations clearly distinguish between Rephaites as one of the tribes (e.g. Book of Genesis 14:5; 15:18–21; Book of Deuteronomy 2:11–20) and rephaim as the inhabitants of the underworld (e.g. Book of Isaiah 14:9–11; 26:13–15), the same word is used in the original text.[8]
In the Hebrew Bible, "Rephaites" or "Repha'im" describe an ancient race of giants in Canaan, from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Many locations were also named after them. According to Genesis 14:5, King Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked and defeated the Rephaites at Ashteroth-Karnaim. Rephaites are also mentioned at Genesis 15:20; Deuteronomy 2:10–21, 3:11; the Book of Joshua (Joshua 12:4, 13:12, 15:8, 17:15, 18:16); the Books of Samuel (2 Samuel 5:18–22, 23:13); and the Books of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 11:15, 14:9 and 20:4).
In the biblical narrative, the Israelites were instructed to exterminate the previous inhabitants of the "promised land", i.e. Canaan, which include various named peoples, including some unusually tall/large individuals. Several passages in the Book of Joshua, and also Deuteronomy 3:11, suggest that Og, the King of Bashan, was one of the last survivors of the Rephaim, and that his bed was 9 cubits long in ordinary cubits. (An ordinary cubit is the length of a man's forearm according to the New American Standard Bible, or approximately 18 in (460 mm), which differs from a royal cubit. This makes the bed over 13 ft 00 in (3.96 m) long, even longer if the cubit was based on a giant's forearm). Anak, according to Deuteronomy 2:11, was also a Rephaite.
The Rephaites were called the "Emim" by the Moabites in Deuteronomy 2:11whilst the Ammonites called them the "Zamzummim" in Deuteronomy 2:18–21.
Repha'im have also been considered the residents of the Netherworld (Sheol in the Hebrew Bible) in more recent scholarship. Possible examples of this usage appear as "shades", "spirits", or "dead" in various translations of the Bible. See: Isa 14:9, 26:14, 26:19; Ps 88:10; Prov 2:18, 9:18, 21:16; Job 26:5, and possibly 2 Chron 16:12, where Repha'im may be read as "dead ancestors" or "weakeners", as opposed to Rophe'im, "doctors". The Heb. root רפא means "heal", and thus the masculine plural nominalized form of this root may indicate that these "deceased ancestors" could be invoked for ritual purposes that would benefit the living.[9][10][11]
Various ancient Northwest Semitic texts are also replete with references to terms evidently cognate with Rephaim as the dead or dead kings.[12] Lewis (1989)[13] undertakes a detailed study of several enigmatic funerary ritual texts from the ancient coastal city of Ugarit. Lewis concludes that the "Ugaritic Funerary Text"[14] provides important evidence for understanding Ugarit's cult of the dead, wherein beings called rapi'uma, the long dead, and malakuma, recently dead kings, were invoked in a funeral liturgy, presented with food/drink offerings, and asked to provide blessings for the reign of the current king. The many references to repha'im in the Hebrew Bible in contexts involving Sheol and dead spirits strongly suggests that many ancient Israelites imagined the spirits of the dead as playing an active and important role in securing blessings, healing, or other benefits in the lives of the living.[15] In 2021, a new theory regarding the identity of the Rephaim was published by J. Yogev, which suggests that the Rephaim were systematically eradicated from biblical texts as an agenda to eliminate their memory according to monotheistic belief systems in biblical times.[16]
The divine status of the Rephaim is evident from "The Rephaim," where they are called "gods" and "divine ones," but also from the end of "Baal" in Stories from Ancient Canaan:
Sun rules the Rephaim, Sun rules the divine ones: Your company are the gods, see, the dead are your company.[17]