Rephaim
Section Reference from the Book of Nimrod: Rephaim
From Bereshit Rabbah we are given an etymology for the term Repha’im “Refa’im – as anyone who saw them, his heart would become soft [rafeh] like wax.”1 Hard to know exactly what the sages meant, but usually the term ‘heart’ is a double encoding of the term ‘understanding’ meaning the conscious processing of truth, or wisdom. Potentially, the softening refers to a leading toward heathenry while the wax is an inversion of the concept, viewing man as the flame of a candle, melting man and bringing him lower through the physical ‘body’ of the wax rather than upwards as the flame - the ‘ish’. This definition would align completely with all our previous understandings of both Nephilim, and Giants, as individuals who mislead man's heart through his bodily desires and idolatry.
From the Radak we could pull some more etymological information from an alternative term similar to Rephaim: “Le-ha-rafa (להרפא). My master, my father, of blessed memory (Sefer Ha-Galuy entry רף), writes that this noun refers not to a female but to a male: it is akin to Refa’im—[a people] consisting of giants (Deut 2:11)—the singular of which is Rafa. When the text says le-ha-rafa, it is as though it had said la-‘anaq (=to the giant), with the hei functioning to make it definite. In two places in this context, rafa is spelled with an alef (vv. 6, 8), whereas in the book of Samuel it is spelled with a hei (2 Samuel 21:20); for the letters alef, hei, vav, and yod interchange.”2 We can already see that Radak connects the terms Anak and Rapha as nearly identical, interchangeable terms for giants, but implies that Rapha is more of a grouping of giants rather than a specific giant group.
This interchange between letters could help us analyze the alternative forms of Rapha: “רפא” and “רפה”. The first root has more of an indication of “healing the souls of the afterlife”, with the afterlife here being the concept of “Sheol”.3 The latter root is more of a ‘weakness’, or a powerlessness to affect the world of the living either due to their lack of status or loss of life.4 Both of these follow the Hebrew terminology, and line up with the earlier definition given from Bereshit Rabbah for a “softness like wax”.
Alternatively we could analyze this etymology relative to other near eastern languages. In Akkadian we have the term ‘rabu’ which is a prince possibly showing their lesser status than the Nephilim who were not princes, but full leaders such as Nimrod.5 Regardless it is clear in Akkadian they have defined physical status as real beings, not mythological. Another language closely related to Hebrew is Ugaritic where we find the term ‘rpum’ which denotes a semi-deified deceased ancestor.6 These ancestors come from within Ugaritic sources such as the ‘Rephaim Text’7 where this imagery as lost ancestors in the underworld would fully align with the previously understood etymologies.
This Ugaritic cognate is critical to understanding who the rephaim might be, with scholars such as Lewis concluding a link to the dead, or dead royalty.8 In Lewis’s detailed study of Ugaritic ritual funerary texts he concludes within Ugarit’s cult of the dead there were beings called ‘rapi-uma’ translated to something like ‘the long dead’ as well as the malak-uma, more recently dead kings.9 This would not only give us evidence for Rephaim culturally in the near east, but shows how they were actual figures from the past and not just some mythological ancestor.
We can find evidence for this theory all across the Torah where the term Rephaim in later eras is translated completely differently from a “group of people” and operates as a proper term for something related to the dead. “Gehinnom from beneath quaked for you, toward your arrival; it aroused for you the giants, all the chiefs of the earth; it caused all the kings of the nations to rise from their thrones.”10 “The dead shall not live, slackers shall not rise; therefore, You visited [upon them] and You destroyed them; You have put an end to any memory of them.”11 “Will You perform a wonder for the dead? Will the shades rise and thank You forever?”12 “But he does not know that shades are there; her guests are in the depths of the grave.”13 All of these references to shades, the dead, and even lost royalty seem to all hint at the same concept of once powerful leaders who are now weak, possibly dead and in the underworld.
Excerpt from the Tur HaArokh on Rephaim
“as well as the Avites who dwelled as far south as Gaza.” Nachmanides explains that all these details are provided by Moses to show that although the Caphtorim are not part of the 7 Canaanite nations G’d promised the descendants of Avraham, seeing that they had settled in the coastal plain only after having expelled the Avites, a Canaanite tribe, when the Israelites later on occupied those lands this was quite legal. Further more, in Genesis 26,3 G’d confirmed the fact that the land of the Philistines was included in the Holy Land, as Yitzchok was in the land of the Philistines at the time when G’d promised him ”these lands.”
Name changes by people who had supplanted others were historically quite frequent, and Bereshit Rabbah 26,7 mentions in particular that the Chivi, as we mentioned a name analogous to נחש, snake, was so- called as these people were experts in what roots were safe to eat and which not, something extremely important to snakes which had been condemned by G’d to eat עפר, things growing directly in the earth. Moreover, in certain parts of the galil the word עוי was used interchangeably with chivi. Moses concludes by informing us that at that time all these lands were occupied by the Chivi, part of which used to belong to the descendants of Esau. Bereshit Rabbah identifies the Avim with the Refa-im, speaking also about the gift promised by G’d to Avraham, seeing that no mention is made by Moses here of the Chivi, it is logical that the Refa-im replace that tribe in Moses’ recital here. This also seems to be born out when Moses in Deut. 7,1 speaks of seven nations G’d will fling out of the land and replace them with the Israelites, and six of the seven are identical with the names mentioned by G’d when He promised the land to the Israelites, the seventh, the Chivi, not having been included in the list in Genesis 15,19-21 where the Refa-im, apparently is meant to be identical with the Chivi. If not that, the “Chivi” might be either one of the three other tribes mentioned in that promise and none of the others, i.e. the Keyni, K’nizi, or Kadmoni. Our sages claim that Israel never inherited the lands of the three last mentioned tribes, and that this will be fulfilled only after the coming of the Messiah. If that is factual, there can be no question but that the “Chivi” is identical with the Refa-im in the promise to Avraham in chapter 15 of Genesis. The latter (Chivi) was the 6th of the sons of Canaan. (Genesis 10,17) His father had called him “Chivi.” However in the days of Avraham, over 200 years later, his descendants were known as Refa-im. Personally, I feel that Chivi was a nickname, based on his familiarity with the various plants and their roots, as I mentioned earlier. The word רפאים is also used in Scripture as describing things buried underground, as we know from Job 26,5 הרפאים יחוללו מתחת מים ושוכניהם, “are dead things formed beneath the water and the inhabitants thereof?” Or, Isaiah 26,19 וארץ רפאים תפיל, “you make the land cast out the dead.” The children of the Chivi increased drastically, and when the Canaanites eventually took possession of the land now known as the land of Canaan, the family of the Chivi grabbed a major share of that land. All these names describe in one way or another the sixth son of Canaan, Chivi. Since at the time of Avraham the tribe was known as Refa-im, G’d referred to that tribe by the name known to Avraham. Moses, here, refers to it by its original name. Some of these lands had been known as the land of the Chorim, etc. At any rate, at the time of Moses the lands formerly belonging to the Refa-im had already been parceled out to other tribes/nations and their names had been changed. Seeing that some of the lands promised to Avraham were not included in the lands that Israel was about to invade and conquer, Moses had to identify which lands were still forbidden to the Israelites to invade. Hence we have the references to the Eymim, the Bney Ammon, etc. On the other hand, lands that on the face of it had no connection to the Canaanites, such as the regions occupied by the Philistines, or the Caphtorim, were mentioned in order that we know that the people dwelling in them had themselves been interlopers.”14
Bereshit Rabbah 26:7
Radak on I Chronicles 20:6:3
Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver and Charles A. Briggs C.A., A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1907/2013) [BDB], (CD-ROM), 9242.
Kohler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner. 2002. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill [HALOT]. (CD-ROM), 8014.
Lewis, Theodore J. 1999. "Dead." In Dictionary of Deities and Demons, pp. 223–231.
Rouillard-Bonraisin, Hedwige. 1999. "Rephaim." In Dictionary of Deities and Demons, pp. 692–700.
KTU 1:20–22
KAI 13.7-8, 14.8, 177.1; CTA 6.6.46-52, CTA 20-22 = KTU 1.161.
T. J. Lewis (professor of Hebrew Bible at Johns Hopkins University), Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel and Ugarit (Scholars Press, 1989)
Isaiah 14:9
Isaiah 26:14
Psalms 88:11
Psalms 9:18
Tur HaArokh, Deuteronomy 2:23:1