Deuteronomy 2:11

11 They were reckoned also [as] Rephaim as the Anakites [were]; but the Moabites called them Emim.

Deuteronomy 2:11 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 2:11

Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims
Because of their bulky size and tall stature; or,

``the Rephaim were they accounted, even they as the Anakims;''

they were reckoned Rephaim, a name for giants in early times, even as the Anakims were; see ( Genesis 14:5 )

but the Moabites called them Emims;
to distinguish them from the Rephaim; so that it seems this name of Emims was not originally their name, but they are called so by a prolepsis, or anticipation, in ( Genesis 14:5 ) since they had it from the Moabites, a people of a later date.

Deuteronomy 2:11 In-Context

9 And Yahweh said to me, 'You shall not attack Moab, and you shall not engage in war with them, for I will not give you any of his land [as] a possession; I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot [as] a possession.'

10 (The Emim previously lived in it, a people large, numerous, and tall, like the Anakites.

11 They were reckoned also [as] Rephaim as the Anakites [were]; but the Moabites called them Emim.

12 The Horites previously lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them {from among themselves}, as Israel did with respect to the land of their possession that Yahweh gave to them.)

13 So [now] arise and cross over the wadi of Zered yourselves; and [so] we crossed the wadi of Zered.