Deuteronomy 2:10
in Deuteronomy 2(The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
(The Emim dwelt therein aforetime, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim:
KJV
The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;
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This verse in Deuteronomy 2
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThe Emims dwelt there in time past,.... We read of them as early as the times of Chedorlaomer, Gen 14:5 when their dwelling was in Kirjathaim, a city which Sihon king of the Amorites took from the Moabites, and which being taken from him, was with others given to the tribe of Reuben, Num 32:37. These are by some thought to be the same with the Yemim which Anah found and met with in the wilderness, and defeated, which we render "mules", Gen 36:
This site's exposition
The Emites used to live there
on Deuteronomy 2:10-11
The Anakim are the measure of size this passage keeps reaching for. That measure is the report of the spies at Numbers 13:33, which 1:28 has already quoted back at Israel. So the excursus answers the fear that cost the last generation its land.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), righteous Lot, who kept his integrity in Sodom. Note, Children often fare the better in this world for the piety of their ancestors: the seed of the upright, though they degenerate, yet are blessed with temporal good things. Because the land they were possessed of was what God had given them, and he did not design it for Israel.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The Emims - Men terrible for stature and strength, as their very name imparts, whose expulsion by the Moabites is here noted as a great encouragement to the Israelites, for whose sake he would much more drive out the wicked and accursed Canaanites.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
The Emims dwelt therein - Calmet supposes that these people were destroyed in the war made against them by Chedorlaomer and his allies, Gen 14:5. Lot possessed their country after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are generally esteemed as giants; probably they were a hardy, fierce, and terrible people, who lived, like the wandering Arabs, on the plunder of others. This was sufficient to gain them the appellation of giants, or men of prodigious stature. See next verse, Deu 2:11 (note).
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
They had won it by their arms from the original inhabitants, the Emims, a race, terrible, as their name imports, for physical power and stature (Ge 14:5), in like manner as the Edomites had obtained their settlement by the overthrow of the original occupiers of Seir, the Horims (Ge 14:6), who were troglodytes, or dwellers in caves.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For the Emims, Horims, and Anakims, see the marginal references. These verses are either parenthetical or the insertion of a later hand.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
THE EMIM ABODE THEREIN FORMERLY etc. “You [Moses] might think that this is the land of the Rephaim which I gave to Abraham. Genesis:20.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
The Eimim originally lived there—a people great and numerous and powerful like the Anokim [ giants ].
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָאֵמִ֥ים | haemim | the Emites | H368 → | |
| לְפָנִ֖ים | lefanim | <to> before | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| יָ֣שְׁבוּ | yashevu | they dwelt | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| בָ֑הּ | vah | in it | ||
| עַ֣ם | ʾam | a people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| גָּד֥וֹל | gadol | great | H1419 → | 526 times |
| וְרַ֛ב | verav | and numerous | H7227 → | 454 times |
| וָרָ֖ם | varam | and lofty | H7311 → | 190 times |
| כָּעֲנָקִֽים׃ | kaanakim | like the Anakites | H6062 → | 9 times |
הָאֵמִ֥יםthe Emites
haemimH368 →
לְפָנִ֖ים<to> before
lefanimH6440 →2123 times
יָ֣שְׁבוּthey dwelt
yashevuH3427 →1079 times
בָ֑הּin it
vah
עַ֣םa people
ʾamH5971 →1873 times
גָּד֥וֹלgreat
gadolH1419 →526 times
וְרַ֛בand numerous
veravH7227 →454 times
וָרָ֖םand lofty
varamH7311 →190 times
כָּעֲנָקִֽים׃like the Anakites
kaanakimH6062 →9 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Numbers 13:22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
it leads to
- Psalms 78:43
when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.
- Psalms 78:12
He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
- Joshua 15:13–14
According to the LORD’s command to him, Joshua gave Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion among the sons of Judah—Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron. (Arba was the forefather of Anak.)
- Isaiah 19:11
The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”?
- Psalms 78:43
Through
Genesis 14:5In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
it leads to
- Genesis 15:20
Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
- Deuteronomy 2:10–11
(The Emites used to live there, a people great and many, as tall as the Anakites.
- Deuteronomy 1:4
This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and then at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.
- Deuteronomy 3:11
(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
- Genesis 15:20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies12
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.