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Who were the Anakim and Rephaim?

Direct

A clear verse states this directly, and no higher-or-equal-authority text overturns it.

The Anakim were a specific people of great physical stature who lived in Canaan's hill country (especially around Hebron), descended from a figure named Anak. The Rephaim were a broader category of pre-Israelite peoples of extraordinary size who inhabited Canaan and Transjordan under various local names, the Emim in Moab, the Zamzummim in Ammon, and Og of Bashan being the last named survivor. Both groups are directly attested in the narrative texts as formidable, large-statured peoples who were progressively displaced or destroyed before and during Israel's conquest.

Multiple independent narrative texts directly describe both peoples by name, location, physical characteristics, and fate, with Yahweh's own oracle in Amos 2:9 confirming the extraordinary stature of the pre-conquest inhabitants.

Key texts:
Genesis 6:4Tier 5 · Other
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
Genesis 14:5Tier 5 · Other
“In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim,”
Genesis 15:20Tier 5 · Other
“the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,”

…and 14 more verses weighed in the full analysis.

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