| Word | American Tract Society - Definition |
| REPHAIM | The Hebrew word is used in two distinct significations. 1. REPHAIM is used to comprehend all the gigantic races of the Canaanites, of whom there were several families. There were Rephaim beyond Jordan, at Ashtaroth Karnaim, in the time of Abraham, Ge 14:5; also some in the time of Moses. Og king of Bashan was of the Rephaim. In the time of Joshua, some of their descendants dwelt in the land of Canaan, Jos 12:4 17:15, and we hear of them in David's time, in the city of Gath, 1Ch 20:4-6. The giant Goliath and others were the remains of the Rephaim, or of the kindred family of Anakim. Their magnitude and strength are often spoken of in Scripture. They appear to have excelled in violence and crime, and hence are monuments of divine justice. 2. REPHAIM, the shades or spirits of the departed, dwelling in Sheol or Hades, generally rendered in our version, "the dead" ("dead things," Job 26:5); Ps 88:10; Pr 2:18; 21:16, etc. THE VALLEY OF THE REPHAIM, OR GIANTS, was famous in Joshua's time, Jos 15:8 17:15 18:16, and in the time of David, who here defeated the Philistines, 2Sa 5:18,22 1Ch 11:6 14:9. It was a broad and fertile valley, Isa 17:5, beginning near the valley of Hinnom, and extending several miles south-west from Jerusalem, when it contracted to a narrow passage leading off towards the Mediterranean. It was in Judah, but near the border of Benjamin. |