Deu 2:10-11 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 10. The Emims dwelt therein ] Calmet supposes that these people were destroyed in the war made against them by Chedorlaomer and his allies, . Lot possessed their country after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. They are generally esteemed as giants ; probably they were a hardy, fierce, and terrible people, who lived, like the wandering Arabs, on the plunder of others. This was sufficient to gain them the appellation of giants, or men of prodigious stature. See next verse.

‏ Deuteronomy 2:10-11

Verse 10. The Emims dwelt therein] Calmet supposes that these people were destroyed in the war made against them by Chedorlaomer and his allies, Ge 14:5. Lot possessed their country after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. They are generally esteemed as giants; probably they were a hardy, fierce, and terrible people, who lived, like the wandering Arabs, on the plunder of others. This was sufficient to gain them the appellation of giants, or men of prodigious stature. See next verse.

Verse 11. Which also were accounted giants] This is not a fortunate version. The word is not giants, but Rephaim, the name of a people. It appears that the Emim, the Anakim, and the Rephaim, were probably the same people, called by different names in the different countries where they dwelt; for they appear originally to have been a kind of wandering free-booters, who lived by plunder. (See on the preceding verse.) It must be granted, however, that there were several men of this race of extraordinary stature. And hence all gigantic men have been called Rephaim. (See on Ge 6:4, and Ge 14:5.) But we well know that fear and public report have often added whole cubits to men's height. It was under this influence that the spies acted, when they brought the disheartening report mentioned Nu 13:33.