Repha'im

רפאים


Genesis 14:5 and 15:20 tell of the battle in the Vale of Sidim, which may be the same as Sedom (Sodom), though one has a Seen (ש) and the other a Samech (ס). The invading army, led by Kedarlaomer, defeated the Rephayim in Ashterot Karnayim.

Like the Anakim (ענקים) and Nephilim (נפילים) mentioned elsewhere, like the Zuzim (זוזים) of Ham (הָם) and the Eymim (אימים) of Shaveh, the Rephayim were a race of giants (for which read aboriginals or ancient natives); they lived beyond the river Yarden (Jordan), at Ashterot Karnayim, which Deuteronomy 1:5 places in Mo-Av.

It was here that Mosheh defeated Og, king of Bashan, in the tenth month of the fortieth year of the wilderness journey (Deuteronomy 1:4), at Edrei in Bashan to be precise, which is described as being in Ashterot, suggesting that the latter may have been the name for the region and not just the shrine or town. In fact, Bashan rather than Mo-Av was the name of the land in which Ashterot Karnayim was situated - at least, in the epoch of Mosheh.

Yehoshu'a (cf Joshua 13:6 ff), gave it to nine tribes and half-Menasheh to share - an odd thing to do, unless to preserve its religious significance for everyone; see also Deuteronomy 3:11/20.

Isaiah 17:5 describes the Reph'im as rich in grain.

Deuteronomy 2:11 states that the Eymim were a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, and that, like the Anakim, they were also regarded as Reph'im, though the Beney Mo-Av call them Emim.

The root is Rapha (רפא) which means "weak" or "feeble"; a surprising name for what were considered giants. Interestingly, Gesenius suggests they were Manes (prnounced Man-es), the shades of the dead living in Hades, void of blood and animal life (nephesh/נפש) and therefore weak and languid like the sick (cf Isaiah 14:9-11) but not devoid of mental faculties such as memory, all of which is born out by the texts, which use Rephayim to mean precisely that (Isaiah 14:9 and 26:14; Psalm 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:16).

But all this is late Yisra-Eli philosophy under Hellenistic influence, and the Rephayim as giants reflect a much older cosmology. It seems implausible that a people described as "a race of giants" at the beginning of a sentence should be called "weak" and "feeble" at the end of it. Roph'e (רופא) from the same root, means "healer" - because he makes the weak and feeble strong again; this is where we should look for the meaning of Repha'im in the Genesis and Deuteronomy references to the people, and understand that the word acquired a new meaning later on - actually, precisely the same change that transformed the giant water spirits ("Luchorpán") of the Celtic world into dwarf-like Leprachauns.

Several other characters in the Tanach bear names connected to the same root:

1 Chronicles 26:7 has a Repha-El (רְפָאֵל) who is counted among the porters of the Ark of the Covenant. But Rapha-El, of course, is the Yisra-Eli god of healing, usually treated as an "angel", the Asclepius of the region, for which see Graves et al (should he then be Rapha-El - רפאאל?).

Rapha (רפה): probably the eponymous ancestor of the Rephayim, is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 8:37, while 9:43 has a variant, Rephayah (רפיה), which may be a late corruption of Repha-Yah.

The name may actually mean "hero" or "champion", and if so we are in the very ancient realm of the sacred king who surrogates the god on Earth and who, like the thaumaturgical French kings, has the power to confer healing by merely touching his garments. A kind of shaman-king, chosen by wrestling-match, as Ya'akov was at Penu-El - the Herakles/Shimshon/Cuchulain stories.

See also 1 Chronicles 4:12 for Beit Rapha (בֵּית רָפָא), and 8:2 for Rapha (רָפָא), a son of Bin-Yamin.

Numbers 13:9 has Palti (פַּלְטִ֖י), a son of Raphu (רפוא) in the tribe of Bin-Yamin, as one of the 12 spies; presumably this Raphu is a variation on the Rapha above.

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