Deuteronomy 2:10-11

2:10 (The Emites ¹  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; ²  the Moabites call them Emites.

Deuteronomy 9:27

9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people.

Deuteronomy 9:29

9:29 They are your people, your valued property, ³  whom you brought out with great strength and power. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 17:13

17:13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not be so presumptuous again.

Deuteronomy 27:21

27:21 ‘Cursed is the one who commits bestiality.’ ⁵  Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 32:9

32:9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people,

Jacob is his special possession. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 33:6

Blessing on Reuben

33:6 May Reuben live and not die,

and may his people multiply. ⁷ 

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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 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.

³ tn Heb “your inheritance.” See note at v. 26.

⁴ tn Heb “an outstretched arm.”

⁵ tn Heb “lies with any animal” (so NASB, NRSV). “To lie with” is a Hebrew euphemism for having sexual relations with someone (or in this case, some animal).

⁶ tc Heb “the portion of his inheritance.” The LXX and Smr add “Israel” and BHS suggests the reconstruction: “The Lord’s allotment is Jacob, the portion of his inheritance is Israel” (cf. NAB). While providing good parallelism, it destroys a fine chiastic structure: “allotment” (a), “his people” (b), “Jacob (b’), and “inheritance” (a’).

⁷ tn Heb “and [not] may his men be few” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV).