Parashat HaShavua 5785: Devarim

(18) This day you shall cross the border of Moab at Ar, (19) And you shall approach opposite the children of Ammon; you shall not distress them and you shall not provoke them, for I shall not give any of the land of the children of Ammon to you as an inheritance, for to the children of Lot have I given it as an inheritance. (20) It, too, is considered the land of the Rephaim; the Rephaim dwelled in it previously, and the Ammonites called them Zamzumim. (21) A great and populous people, and tall as giants, and the LORD destroyed them before them, and they drove them out and dwelled in their place, (22) just as He did for the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, that He destroyed the Horite out and dwelled in their place until this day.

(1) ZAMZUMMIM. A foreign term which was Hebraized. Compare, ha-achashdarpenim (the satraps) (Esth. 8:9).

(11) For only Og, king of the Bashan, was left of the remaining Rephaim -- behold! His bed was an iron bed, in Rabbah of the children of Ammon -- nine cubits was its length and four cubits its width, by the cubit of that man. (12) And we possessed that land at the time; from Aroer, which is by Arnon Brook, and half of the mountain of Gilead and its cities did I give to the Reubenite and the Gadite. (13) The rest of the Gilead and the entire Bashan, the kingdom of Og, did I give to half the tribe of Manasseh, the entire region of the Argov of the entire Bashan, that is called the land of Rephaim.

It is taught that Abba Shaul says the following, and some say that Rabbi Yoḥanan said it: I used to be a gravedigger. Once I ran after a deer, and I entered the thighbone of a corpse; andI ran after the deer for three parasangs, and although I did not reach the deer, the thighbone did not end. When I came back and related this to the Sages, they said to me: It wasof Og, king of Bashan.

(2) What Scripture says about Og, “Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead, nine cubits its length,” etc. (Deut.), does not belong to this class of [hyperbolic] figures, for the bedstead is never exactly, of the same dimensions as the person using it; it is not like a dress that fits round the body; it is always greater than the person that sleeps therein; as a rule, is it by a third longer. If, therefore, the bed of Og was nine cubits in length, he must, according to this proportion, have been six cubits high, or a little more. The words, “by the cubit of a man,” mean, by the measure of an ordinary man, and not by the measure of Og; for men have the limbs in a certain proportion. Scripture thus tells us that Og was double as long as an ordinary person, or a little less. This is undoubtedly an exceptional height among men, but not quite impossible.

(1) Now, when King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim (2) made war on King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar, (3) all the latter joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, now the Dead Sea. (4) Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. (5) In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim at Shaveh-kiriathaim, (6) and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness.

(1) כי רק עוג מלך הבשן נשאר מיתר הרפאים, “for only Og, the King of Bashan remained from the remnant of the Refa-im;” Nachmanides feels that the message of the verse is that in spite of the fact that at that time, Og was the King of Bashan, his origin had been among the Refa-im. In order to suitably impress the reader with the physical dimensions of these Refa-im, of whom Og was typical, the Torah describes the size and raw material that his bed was made of. Any wooden bedstead would have collapsed under his tremendous weight. He lived in a city called Rabbah, which became his capital after the Ammonites had destroyed the Refa-im including his capital city, he was the only one who had escaped at that time. The purpose of telling us all this is that the Ammonites must have been a very powerful people if they had succeeded in defeating a race of giants of the dimensions of Og. The Israelites are reminded of the historical testimony of the achievements of the Ammonites down to their own period.

(18) On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram: “To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates— (19) the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, (20) the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, (21) the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

“The Kenites, the Kenizites, and the Kadmonites” (Genesis 15:19).
“The Ḥitites, the Perizites, and the Refa’im” (Genesis 15:20).
“The Emorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Yevusites” (Genesis 15:21).
Rabbi Ḥelbo in the name of Rabbi Abba in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: It entered the mind of the Holy One blessed be He to bequeath to Israel the land of ten peoples, [including] “the Kenites, the Kenizites, and the Kadmonites,” but He gave them only seven. “The Ḥitites, the Perizites, and the Refa’im, the Emorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Yevusites” – there you have seven. Why did He give them [just] seven?
Which are the three that were not given to them? Rabbi says: Arabia, the Shalmaite, and the Nabatean. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: Damascus, Asia Minor, and Apamea. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov said: Asia Minor, Thrace, and Carthage. The Rabbis say: “Edom, Moav, and the foremost of the children of Ammon” (Daniel 11:41). These are the three that were not given them in this world. Edom, as it is stated: “For I will not give you even the tread of a foot from their land, because I have given Mount Se’ir as an inheritance to Esau” (Deuteronomy 2:5). Regarding Moav, it is written: “Do not besiege Moav, and do not provoke war with them, [as I will not give you from his land]” (Deuteronomy 2:9). The Kenizite is from Esau. The Kenite and Kadmonite are from Ammon and Moav. But in the messianic era they will revert to the people of Israel, in fulfillment of the statement of the Holy One blessed be He. But for now, He gave them seven, as it is stated: “Seven nations greater and mightier than you” (Deuteronomy 7:1).

(5) In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer came together with the kings that were with him and they defeated The Mighty Ones in Ashteros Karnayim, The Powerful Ones in Ham, the The Ones Who Incite Fear at Shaveh Kiryasayim

THE REPHAIM. Their appearance was so terrifying that whoever saw them died and was considered to be one of the Rephaim, one of the dead.

(9) Sheol below was astir

To greet your coming—

Rousing for you the shades [Rephaim]

Of all earth’s chieftains,

Raising from their thrones

All the kings of nations.

רְפָאִים: The giants lying there.

TEICHASHEIV’ (ACCOUNTED).
Thus the land of Rephaim was very large, and from it, Moab and Ammon took their lands. The balance remained for the Rephaim themselves, for Og, who dwelled in Ashtaroth, was of them, as is stated, and they smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim. And in the Book of Joshua it is written, and cut down a space for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim. Therefore, Scripture says of the border of Moab and Ammon that it is “accounted to the Rephaim.” The Moabites and the Ammonites were the ones that changed to other names: Emim and Zamzummim.