Deuteronomy 2:11

11 Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call 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 the Lord said to me: "Do not harass Moab or engage them in battle, for I will not give you any of its land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot."
10 (The Emim—a large and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim—had formerly inhabited it.
11 Like the Anakim, they are usually reckoned as Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim.
12 Moreover, the Horim had formerly inhabited Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, destroying them and settling in their place, as Israel has done in the land that the Lord gave them as a possession.)
13 "Now then, proceed to cross over the Wadi Zered." So we crossed over the Wadi Zered.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.