They are a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites. But the Lord destroyed the Rephaites ¹  in advance of the Ammonites, ²  so they dispossessed them and settled down in their place.

As for the Avvites ¹  who lived in settlements as far west as Gaza, Caphtorites ²  who came from Crete ³  destroyed them and settled down in their place.)

Then they took ¹  some of the produce of the land and carried it back down to us. They also brought a report to us, saying, “The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good.”

This is exactly what he did for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them so that they could dispossess them and settle in their area to this very day.

So all of you approached me and said, “Let’s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.”

Previously the Horites ¹  lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.) ²