Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 2:10
(The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses recounts the LORD’s command to avoid Moab while describing the territory’s former inhabitants before Israel’s entry into Canaan.
The words — The text records that the Emites dwelt there formerly (לְפָנִים, le./fa.Nim) as a great and numerous people, and their stature is described as lofty (וָרָם, va./Ram) like the Anakites.
The thread — The passage identifies the Emites as Rephaim, paralleling earlier references to the Rephaites in Genesis 14:5 and the Anakites in Numbers 13:22 and Deuteronomy 2:11.
Why it lands — The text notes the former inhabitants’ size and number to establish that the land was already occupied before Israel’s arrival.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
Cross-references
- Genesis 14:5 In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
- Numbers 13:22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 2:11 Like the Anakites, they were also regarded as Rephaim, though the Moabites called them Emites.