Deuteronomy 1:28

1:28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage ¹  by describing people who are more numerous ²  and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven ³  itself! Moreover, they said they saw ⁴  Anakites ⁵  there.”

Deuteronomy 2:10-11

2:10 (The Emites ⁶  used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. 2:11 These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites; ⁷  the Moabites call them Emites.

Deuteronomy 2:21

2:21 They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites ⁸  in advance of the Ammonites, ⁹  so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.

Deuteronomy 3:5

3:5 All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; ¹⁰  in addition there were a great many open villages. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 9:1-2

Theological Justification of the Conquest

9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ¹²  9:2 They include the Anakites, ¹³  a numerous ¹⁴  and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?”

¹ tn Heb “have caused our hearts to melt.”

² tn Heb “greater.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “stronger,” NAB, NIV, NRSV; “bigger,” NASB).

³ tn Or “as the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

⁴ tn Heb “we have seen.”

⁵ tn Heb “the sons of the Anakim.”

⁶ sn Emites. These giant people, like the Anakites (Deut 1:28), were also known as Rephaites (v. 11). They appear elsewhere in the narrative of the invasion of the kings of the east where they are said to have lived around Shaveh Kiriathaim, perhaps 9 to 11 mi (15 to 18 km) east of the north end of the Dead Sea (Gen 14:5).

⁷ sn Rephaites. The earliest reference to this infamous giant race is, again, in the story of the invasion of the eastern kings (Gen 14:5). They lived around Ashteroth Karnaim, probably modern Tell Ashtarah (cf. Deut 1:4), in the Bashan plateau east of the Sea of Galilee. Og, king of Bashan, was a Rephaite (Deut 3:11; Josh 12:4; 13:12). Other texts speak of them or their kinfolk in both Transjordan (Deut 2:20; 3:13) and Canaan (Josh 11:21-22; 14:12, 15; 15:13-14; Judg 1:20; 1 Sam 17:4; 1 Chr 20:4-8). They also appear in extra-biblical literature, especially in connection with the city state of Ugarit. See C. L’Heureux, “Ugaritic and Biblical Rephaim,” HTR 67 (1974): 265-74.

⁸ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Rephaites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Ammonites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Or “high walls and barred gates” (NLT); Heb “high walls, gates, and bars.” Since “bars” could be understood to mean “saloons,” the qualifying adjective “locking” has been supplied in the translation.

¹¹ tn The Hebrew term פְּרָזִי (pÿraziy) refers to rural areas, at the most “unwalled villages” (KJV, NASB “unwalled towns”).

¹² tn Heb “fortified to the heavens” (so NRSV); NLT “cities with walls that reach to the sky.” This is hyperbole.

¹³ sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.

¹⁴ tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).