Also known as: Refaim, Lofty men

Category: Giant lineage (angelic–human descent)

Hierarchy & association: Tier 4 (1=Angelic, 2=Fallen, 3=Hybrid, 4=Giant lineage, 5=Human, 6=Other) · Genetic human link: hybrid · Angel association: hybrid_parent.

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One of 7 races of giants catalogued here — a race or lineage, not a named individual. Named individuals are on Named Giants. The Watchers named as their fathers are under Fallen Angels and Grigori / Watchers.

The -im is the ordinary Hebrew masculine plural, the same ending as on Seraphim and Cherubim. Why these seven share it, and how Deuteronomy 2 sorts the post-Flood names, is on Races of Giants.

Hebrew rephaim (רְפָאִים). As a people they are the giant population of the Transjordan, especially Bashan. Og, king of Bashan, is the last of the remnant of the Rephaim (Deuteronomy 3:11; Joshua 12:4; 13:12). His bed of iron was nine cubits by four, “by the cubit of a man,” and it was kept at Rabbah of the Ammonites. The text gives the cubits and does not convert them.

Deuteronomy 2 uses Rephaim as the class name. The Emim, which is Moab’s name, and the Zamzummim, which is Ammon’s name, are both accounted Rephaim, and both tall as the Anakim. The Valley of Rephaim, southwest of Jerusalem, keeps the people-name as a place (Joshua 15:8; 2 Samuel 5:18).

The same consonants name the shades of the dead in Sheol (Isaiah 14:9; 26:14; Psalm 88:10; Job 26:5). Whether that is one word or two that coincided is unresolved. The catalog keeps both and does not collapse them. The lexical note is on Same being, different names.