Rephaite

"...Who can stand before the Sons of Anak?"

- Deuteronomy 9:2

The Rephaims/Rephaites where a race of giants who dwelled in the land of Canaan (modern Israel) in the ancient world. The word "Rephaim" itself means both "Giant" and "Ghost/dweller of the underworld". This race was divided into three tribes: The Anakim, Emim, and Zamzummim (Deuteronomy chapter 2). These beings where feared by Israel, at one time being identified with the Promordial Nephilim Giants of old (Numbers 13:33, compare to Genesis 6:1-4). Egyptian execration texts from the middle kingdom period (1850 BC) mention the Anakites in particular (called "Iy'anaq"), and a 13th century Egyptian papyrus document, Anastasi I, mentions giant Shasu Bedouin warriors (shasu a general term for nomadic tribes in the region) 6'10 to 8'7 who would walay people on the road near Megiddo (aka Armageddon). Ancient artwork from both Egypt, Megiddo and Syria likewise depict beings that where possibly Rephaims. Archeologists working in the Transjordan region have found some unusually large skeletons from the OT time periods, including two female skeletons about 7 feet tall found at Tell-es-sa'idiyeh in the ancient region of Bashan (syria), where the Bible says once contained the kingdom of Og, a rephaim whose bed measured 13 and a half feet long by six feet wide, thus indicating a man possibly 11 feet tall and 1200 lbs!