BDB lists "ghosts of the dead, shades, spirits" and, as a people, "giants, Rephaim, old tribe of giants".
Deuteronomy uses the second, and counts the Emim, the Anakim and the Zamzummim among the Rephaim.
The Ammonite name for the Rephaim who lived in their land (Deuteronomy 2:20 to 21).
The Rephaim, a group of ancient giants mentioned in several Biblical texts, were also linked to Mount Hermon.
In Ugaritic texts, the Rephaim are mentioned in association with sacred mountains and veneration rituals, further connecting Hermon to supernatural elements and ancestral worship.
For instance, we find in the Phœnician cosmogony that the Titans (Rephaim) derive their origin from the Phœnician gods Agrus and Agrotus.
Rephaim: A race of giants named in several books, such as Deuteronomy, possibly from the time of the early Canaanites and Amorites.
Zamzummim, Emim, Zuzim, Anakim: Other giant peoples of Canaan and the lands east of the Jordan, named alongside the Rephaim (Deuteronomy 2:10-11, 2:20).
In Donnelly's reading, the Phoenician cosmogony gives the Titans (Rephaim) an origin in the gods Agrus and Agrotus, which ties the Phoenicians to the island in the far west where the Greeks placed the Titans.
Deuteronomy 3:2-11 describes the defeat of Og, king of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaim, who is described as an Amorite king.
On his way to punish five rebel cities he defeated the Rephaim, the Zuzim and the Emim, peoples the Bible counts among the giants.
In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim
Rephaim: A people believed to be giants, living in Ashteroth-Karnaim.
The earlier victories over the Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, and Horites demonstrate the might and reach of Chedorlaomer's coalition before they confront the kings of the Dead Sea area.
The page on the Anakim argues that Chedorlaomer fought three groups of giants, notes that the Septuagint renders Rephaim in Genesis 14:5 as "giants", and calls Abraham's victory a defeat of the giant killer.
They name the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the Emims and the Horites, whom Chedorlaomer defeated.
And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 2:11 counts the Anakim among the giants (the Hebrew is Rephaim; see Rephaites), a group often described in ancient texts as giants or mighty warriors.
In his reading, Chedorlaomer fought three groups of giants: the Rephaim (which the Septuagint renders as "giants" in Genesis 14:5), the Zuzim (probably the Zamzummim of Deuteronomy 2:20) and the Emim (Deuteronomy 2:10-11).
The Zuzim are mentioned alongside the Emim, a tribe later identified in the Book of Deuteronomy as the Moabite term for the Rephaim, a race of giants or mighty people in ancient texts.
The Zamzummim were another tribe of the Rephaim who later lived in the region eventually occupied by the Ammonites.
The identification of the Zuzim with the Rephaim, specifically the Zamzummim, and their connection to the Emim reflect the complex ethnographic and cultural landscape of the ancient Near East as depicted in biblical texts.
Ugaritic texts support it, such as the Rephaim Text (KTU 1:20–22).
"Rephaim" is used for the dwellers of the underworld (e.g., Isaiah 14:9–11; 26:13–15).
King Og of Bashan is named as one of the last of the Rephaim.
The Rephaim were sometimes seen as divine or half-divine.
It says the Rephaim were deliberately removed from the biblical texts.
Through it the Rephaim may connect to ideas like the Titans and poltergeists.
Their giant stature parallels biblical Rephaim/Nephilim or African folklore giants.
Related giant clans in the Torah include Rephaim, Emim, and Zamzummim (Deuteronomy 2).