Genesis 14:5 names them as the inhabitants of Shaveh Kiryatayim (שָׁוֵה קריתים) who were defeated in the War of the Kings.
The name means "the valley of the villages" and is thought by some scholars to be modern Kureyat (if you follow this link, go to the section on Numbers 32:34), 10 miles east of the Dead Sea - but note that this is outside Kena'an and inside Edom.
Christians may be interested to learn this meaning, because Judas Iscariot is really Yehudah Ish Ha Kerayot, or "Yehudah, a man from the villages", or possibly "Yehudah, a man from Kureyat".
Deuteronomy 2:11 describes them as one of the aboriginal peoples of the wilderness of Mo-Av, "giants" like the Anakim (עֲנָקִים), "also regarded as Repha'im" (רְפָאִים).
The root means "terrors", though Jeremiah 50:38 makes them into idols; see Exodus 15:16, Deuteronomy 32:25 and Job 33:7.
We are clearly in the realm of the Harpies, or perhaps a variation on the Lilim! Suggestions of the origins of the Christian depiction of the angels in the illustration, but the Eymim were not Harpies; rather, a form of giants. For the information, the Tanach has seven different types of giant, all of them regarded as the earliest native inhabitants of the land: Repha'im (רְפָאִים), Giborim (גבורים), Zamzumim (זמזמים), Anakim (עֲנָקִים), Avim (עַוִּים), Nephilim (נפלים) and these, the Eymim (אימים).
The title of this page is "Emim, Eymim", suggesting two different subjects. Clearly this is the case, with one subject being the inhabitants of a valley, the others of a mythological fantasy. Which is correctly pronounced Emim, and which Eymim, is beyond the capacity of this writer to determine.
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