(9) And the Eternal said to me: Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war. For I will not give you any of their land as a possession; I have assigned Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.— (10) It was formerly inhabited by the Emim, a people great and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites.
(17) the Eternal spoke to me, saying: (18) You are now passing through the territory of Moab, through Ar. (19) You will then be close to the Ammonites; do not harass them or start a fight with them. For I will not give any part of the land of the Ammonites to you as a possession; I have assigned it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.— (20) It, too, is counted as Rephaim country. It was formerly inhabited by Rephaim, whom the Ammonites call Zamzummim, (21) a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites. The Eternal wiped them out, so that [the Ammonites] dispossessed them and settled in their place, (22) as God did for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, when God wiped out the Horites before them, so that they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as is still the case. (23) So, too, with the Avvim who dwelt in villages in the vicinity of Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, wiped them out and settled in their place.—
The word Emim (אימים) is derived from the Hebrew word Eima (אימה) which means terror or fear (in Modern Hebrew ‘Seret Eima’ {סרט אימה} means a horror film) and can teach us about how the ancient Moabites’ perspective on the Rephaim...
Zamzummim (זמזומים) comes from the Hebrew word Zimzum (זמזום) which means ‘buzz’ or ‘hum’ and describes the characteristic noise they produced which is strongly associated with the ancient belief of the noise the spirits of the dead generated, as can be found in the Book of Isaiah:
“And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19)
Another captivating explanation for this name is based on the unique morphology of the Hebrew word Zimzum -which is an onomatopoeia – a word that phonetically imitates the source of the sound that it describes.
When one thinks about it also the English translation of this word ‘buzzing’ also imitates the production of the sound it is describing. In other words, the sound of the Rephaim’s language sounded to the Ammonites as buzzing and is similar to what happened with the ancient Greeks who called the primitive tribes of Europe “barbarians” – because of the sound of their language.
The Last of the Rephaim: Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel
by Prof. Brian Doak
The fate of these aboriginal inhabitants forms part of the pattern of possession and exile in which Israel partakes; but it is also the case that the Moabites and Ammonites, at least, defeated giants to inhabit their own lands. Israel’s gigantomachy, like its exodus and its reception of land, is part of a regional pattern involving many people - and, apparently, many giants.
Of Demigods and the Deluge: Toward an Interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4’
by Ronald Hendel
The function of the Nephilim-Rephaim in all of these traditions is constant - they exist in order to be wiped out: by the flood, by Moses, by David, and others.
(ז) הַנְּפִלִים הָיוּ בָאָרֶץ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם (בראשית ו, ד), שִׁבְעָה שֵׁמוֹת נִקְרְאוּ לָהֶם, אֵימִים, רְפָאִים, גִּבּוֹרִים, זַמְזֻמִּים, עֲנָקִים, עַוִּים, נְפִלִים. אֵימִים, שֶׁכָּל מִי שֶׁרָאָה אוֹתָן הָיְתָה אֵימָתָן נוֹפֶלֶת עָלָיו. רְפָאִים, שֶׁכָּל מִי שֶׁרָאָה אוֹתָן הָיָה לִבּוֹ רָפֶה כְּשַׁעֲוָה. גִּבּוֹרִים, רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כַּהֲנָא בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן אָמַר מֹחַ קוּלִיתוֹ שֶׁל אֶחָד מֵהֶם הָיְתָה נִמְדֶדֶת י"ח אַמָּה. זַמְזֻמִּים, אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹסֵי בַּר חֲנִינָא מְנַטְרוֹמִין מְגִיסְטֵי מִלְחָמָה. עֲנָקִים, רַבָּנָן וְרַבִּי אַחָא, רַבָּנָן אָמְרוּ שֶׁהָיוּ מַרְבִּים עֲנָקִים עַל גַּבֵּי עֲנָקִים [פרוש תכשיטיז], רַבִּי אַחָא אָמַר שֶׁהָיוּ עוֹנְקִים גַּלְגַּל חַמָּה, וְאוֹמְרִים הוֹרֵד לָנוּ גְשָׁמִים. עַוִּים, שֶׁצָּדוּ אֶת הָעוֹלָם וְשֶׁהֻצְדוּ מִן הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁגָּרְמוּ לָעוֹלָם שֶׁיִּצּוֹד, הֵיךְ מַה דְּאַתְּ אָמַר (יחזקאל כא, לב): עַוָּה עַוָּה עַוָּה אֲשִׂימֶנָּה. אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בְּרַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן שֶׁהָיוּ בְּקִיאִים בַּעֲפָרוֹת כִּנְחָשִׁים. בְּגָלִילָא צָוְחִין לְחִוְיָא אִוְיָא. נְפִלִים, שֶׁהִפִּילוּ אֶת הָעוֹלָם, וְשֶׁנָּפְלוּ מִן הָעוֹלָם וְשֶׁמִּלְּאוּ אֶת הָעוֹלָם נְפָלִים בַּזְנוּת שֶׁלָּהֶם...
‘The Nephilim were in the earth... the same were the Giborim that were of old.’ (Gen 6:4).
They were called by seven names: Nephilim, Emim, Rephaim, Giborim, Zamzumim, Anakim and Avim (See also Deut 2:10, 20, 23).
Emim signifies that their dread (emah) fell upon all.
Rephaim, that all who saw them melted (nirpeh) like wax.
Giborim, R. Abba said in R. Yohanan’s name: The marrow of each one’s thigh bone was eighteen cubits long.
Zamzumim: R. Yosi b. R. Hanina said: They were the greatest of all masters of the arts of war (zamam, to devise).
Anakim: The rabbis explained it as signifying that they were loaded with chains (anakim) upon chains. R. Aha said: Their necks reached (onkim) the globe of the sun and they demanded: ‘Send us down rain’.
Avim denotes that they cast the world into ruins, were driven from the world in ruin and caused the world to be ruined, as it says ‘A ruin, a ruin, a ruin (avah, avah, avah) will I make it’ (Ezekiel 21:32). R. Leazar b. R. Shimon said: It signifies that they were as expert in the knowledge of different kinds of earth as a serpent, for in the Galilee a serpent is called ‘Aviah’.
Nephilim denotes that they hurled (hippilu) the world down, themselves fell (naflu) from the world and filled the world with stillbirths (nephilim) through their licentiousness...
Monster Culture (Seven Theses)
by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
This refusal to participate in the classificatory "order of things" is true of monsters generally: they are disturbing hybrids whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration. And so the monster is dangerous, a form suspended between forms that threatens to smash distinctions...
Full of rebuke to traditional methods of organizing knowledge and human experience, the geography of the monster is an imperiling expanse, and therefore always a contested cultural space...
By revealing that difference is arbitrary and potentially free-floating, mutable rather than essential, the monster threatens to destroy not just individual members of a society, but the very cultural apparatus through which individuality is constituted and allowed...