Deuteronomy 2:10

2:10 (The Emites ¹  used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites.

Deuteronomy 2:21

2:21 They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites ²  in advance of the Ammonites, ³  so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.

Deuteronomy 9:14

9:14 Stand aside ⁴  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ⁵  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

Deuteronomy 26:5

26:5 Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering ⁶  Aramean ⁷  was my ancestor, ⁸  and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, ⁹  but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people.

¹ 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).

² tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Rephaites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the Ammonites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “leave me alone.”

⁴ tn Heb “from under heaven.”

⁴ tn Though the Hebrew term אָבַד (’avad) generally means “to perish” or the like (HALOT 2-3 s.v.; BDB 1-2 s.v.; cf. KJV “a Syrian ready to perish”), a meaning “to go astray” or “to be lost” is also attested. The ambivalence in the Hebrew text is reflected in the versions where LXX Vaticanus reads ἀπέβαλεν (apebalen, “lose”) for a possibly metathesized reading found in Alexandrinus, Ambrosianus, ἀπέλαβεν (apelaben, “receive”); others attest κατέλειπεν (kateleipen, “leave, abandon”). “Wandering” seems to suit best the contrast with the sedentary life Israel would enjoy in Canaan (v. 9) and is the meaning followed by many English versions.

⁵ sn A wandering Aramean. This is a reference to Jacob whose mother Rebekah was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26) and who himself lived in Aram for at least twenty years (Gen 31:41-42).

⁶ tn Heb “father.”

⁷ tn Heb “sojourned there few in number.” The words “with a household” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.