(The Emim dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakim.
This verse is a short historical footnote. Moses drops it into the middle of his speech: long before Moab held that land, a giant race called the Emim lived there. Why pause the story to say so, and what did Israel — standing on the edge of a land full of giants — need to learn from it?
Verses 10 to 12 break the flow of Moses' words. He is telling Israel not to meddle with Moab. He breaks off, then picks the instruction up again in verse 13. Commentators mark these three verses off from the rest:
Deuteronomy 2:10-12 and Deuteronomy 2:20-23 should be read as parentheses: they are valuable historical notes.
These notes are not filler. One writer explains what they are worth, and where he thinks they came from:
These accounts of the country are vivid records of great value. They matter as history — the surest we have — and they show God's ways, and men's ways, in the settling of the earth: violence, war, and so on… My impression is that these passages are a divine prophetic addition. I do not think they are there just to encourage the Israelites, though they would do that by showing the ways of God… But they showed important history — these giant races, their pride, their removals, and their destruction when God so willed.
The same writer adds that there is no difficulty at all in supposing Moses wrote it himself.
The verse names a people most readers have never heard of. Scripture mentions them in only a few places:
A people, described as "great and many, and tall as the Anakim," who lived on the east of the Dead Sea. Chedorlaomer and his allied kings struck them down. Their land later passed to the Moabites, who called the people EMIM, that is, 'terrible.'
The next verse calls them Rephaim. That is the Hebrew word behind "giants," and its root carries the same idea as their nickname:
rapha means 'a fearful one.' In the plural, with the article, it works as a proper name: the REPHAIM, or sons of Raphah. They were a race of giants who lived beyond the Jordan, and Og the giant king of Bashan came from them… At times the term Rephaim applies to any people in Canaan who were very tall.
Moses picks one comparison: the Anakim. A generation earlier, Israel had looked at those giants and left God out of the sum:
Not a word about God. He is entirely shut out. If they had thought of Him — if they had set the giants beside Him — it would have made no difference at all whether they were grasshoppers or men. But in fact their shameful unbelief reduced the God of Israel to the level of a grasshopper.
Here is the sting of the footnote. Moab had already driven out giants as great as the ones Israel feared.
Verse 10 notes that the Emim had held that land before. They were giants, as great and as many as the Anakim. The Moabites drove them out. So could Israel not drive out the people of Canaan, when they had the Lord with them?
Another writer adds a limit. Israel could not use this history as a reason to attack Ammon:
But this was no reason to expect the LORD to destroy the Ammonites now. Both cases were powerful reasons not to dread the Canaanite nations, which were doomed to destruction.
Behind every change of owner in this chapter stands one hand.
The lands spoken of here had long ago been in the hands of giants. But God purposed to give their territories to the children of Esau and Lot, and so He destroyed these giants. For who or what can stand in the way of God's purposes?
The same rule works both ways. It keeps Israel out of Moab's land, and it secures Canaan for Israel.
This tells us that holding a territory first does not give a people an unquestionable right to it. God had decreed that Edom was to have Seir, and the Moabites the land of Moab. In the same way He has decreed that Israel is to have the land of Canaan. Whoever fights against this will not prosper.
- Aside — Verses 10 to 12 pause Moses' speech. They are valuable historical notes, and they show God's ways in the settling of the earth.
- Terrible — The Moabites named the Emim for the dread they caused. The linked word Rephaim means "a fearful one."
- Comparison — Moses measures them against the Anakim. Those giants once made Israel feel like grasshoppers.
- Argument — If Moab could drive out giants like these, then Israel, with the Lord, had no reason to fear Canaan.
- Owner — The land changed hands because God gives it, not because anyone held it first. Nothing can stand in the way of His purpose.
They also are reckoned as giants like the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim.
Moses breaks off his travel record to say who once lived in Moab: giants known by two names, Rephaim and Emim. The aside looks minor, but it strikes at Israel's fear of the giants in Canaan.
Verses 10 to 12 break the flow of the story. One writer reads them as a parenthesis, and rates what they record highly.
Verses 10-12 and 20-23 are both clearly parenthetical... These accounts of the country are vivid notes of great value. As history they are the surest we have. They also show God's ways and men's ways in peopling the earth: violence, war, and so on.
The verse gives two names for the same people, and measures them against a third giant race, the Anakim. One name is what the Moabites used, and it describes the effect these people had.
A people, described as "great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim," who lived on the east of the Dead Sea. Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him struck them down. Their land later passed to the Moabites, who called the people EMIM, that is, 'terrible.'
The other name, Rephaim, is the wider term. One writer explains what that name says about them.
The valley of Rephaim means "those who dissolve" people with terror. These giant races are the enemies of God's people. They overthrow you by the mere sight of them. They are pictures of the enemy's power — monsters, and, so to speak, superhuman.
The note is not history for its own sake. It aims straight at Israel's fear of Canaan.
Verse 10 notes that the Emim had held that land before. They were giants as great and as many as the Anakim. The Moabites drove them out. Could Israel not drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, when they had the Lord with them?
A few verses on, Moses tells the same kind of story about Ammon. One writer sets the two cases side by side.
Giants had lived there in times past, and the Ammonites called them Zamzummim. They were a people great, many, and tall, like the Anakim. But Jehovah destroyed them before the Ammonites, who took their place and lived there. This was no reason to expect Jehovah to destroy the Ammonites now. Both cases were powerful reasons not to dread the Canaanite races, who faced certain destruction.
The verse says the Moabites named them. One writer says who removed them, and why.
The lands mentioned here had been in the hands of giants long ago. But God purposed to hand their territories over to the children of Esau and Lot, and so He destroyed these giants. Who or what can stand in the way of what God has planned?
The same writer draws a general rule from it.
Being first in a territory does not give a people undisputed rights to it. God had decreed that Edom was to have Seir, and that the Moabites were to have the land of Moab. In the same way He has decreed that Israel is to have the land of Canaan.
Moab came from Lot, and God had fixed a place for them. One writer asks what use such a people served.
We find, too, that Lot's children have their use. They have been the means of destroying certain giants, the Emim and the Zamzummim, out of the lands those giants occupied. It is nothing new for God to overrule the growth of one evil for the destruction of another, so that the world may be at least more bearable for those who live in it. People who have no intention of serving God are in this way forced to serve Him.
- Bracket. Verses 10-12 stand apart from the story. They record how peoples spread over the earth, and God's ways in it.
- Terror. Emim means "terrible." Rephaim means "those who dissolve" people with terror — enemies who beat you by sight alone.
- Precedent. Moab drove out giants the size of the Anakim. Israel had the Lord with them, so why fear Canaan?
- Decree. No one holds land by right of arriving first. God assigned every border, and He removed whoever stood in the way.
- Overruling. God even used Lot's descendants, whom Israel could not touch, to destroy an evil greater than themselves.