In the Hebrew Bible, as well as non-Jewish ancient texts from the region, the Northwest Semitic term Rephaite refers either to a people of greater-than-average height and stature or departed spirits in the Jewish afterlife, Sheol.
Etymology
There are two main groups of etymological hypotheses explaining the origins of the biblical rephaim. 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 and is realized in words such as Hebrew rofe or refuah. The second root, רפה, means being weak, powerless. The second group of etymological hypotheses treat the wordrephaim as a loanword from some other ancient Semitic language. Among the proposals is the Akkadianrabu, 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 Ugariticrpum which denotes the semi-deified deceased ancestors who are mentioned in such sources as the so called Rephaim Text. Despite the clash between these hypotheses and although the modern translations clearly distinguish between Rephaites as one of the tribes and rephaim as the inhabitants of the underworld, the same word is used in the original text. The use of rephaim in the Hebrew Bible suggests that behind the biblical narrative were the legends of some ancient indigenous peoples, who inhabited the valleys of the land of Canaan which was subject to the gradual Hebrew conquest.
In the Hebrew Bible, "Rephaites" or "Rephaim" can describe an ancient race of giants in Iron AgeIsrael, or the places where these individuals were thought to have lived. According to, King Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked and defeated the Rephaites at Ashteroth-Karnaim. Rephaites are also mentioned at ;, ; the Book of Joshua ; the Books of Samuel ; and the Books of Chronicles. 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, 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.. Anak, according to, was a Rephaite. The area of Moab at Ar, before the time of Moses, was also considered the land of the Rephaites. notes that the Ammonites called the Rephaites "Zamzummim". In, the Moabites referred to them as the "Emim".
Long dead ancestors
Rephaim have also been considered the residents of the Netherworld in more recent scholarship. Possible examples of this usage appear as "shades", "spirits" or "dead" in various translations of the Bible. See:,, ; ; ,, ; , and possibly, where we may read Repha'im 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. Various ancient Northwest Semitic texts are also replete with references to terms evidently cognate with Rephaim as the dead or dead kings. Lewis undertakes a detailed study of several enigmatic funerary ritual texts from the ancient coastal city ofUgarit. Lewis concludes that the “Ugaritic Funerary Text” 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. "The link between Titan and poltergeist may very well be adduced from the verb stem, raphah, which means to sink or relax"
