Rephaite

In the Hebrew Bible, as well as non-Jewish ancient texts from the region, the Northwest Semitic term Rephaite or Repha'im (cf. the plural word in rəfāʾīm; Phoenician: ) refers either to a people of greater-than-average height and stature in Deuteronomy 2:10-11, or departed spirits in the Jewish afterlife, Sheol as written in the following scriptures: Isaiah 26:14; Psalms 88:11, and Proverbs 9:18, as well as Isaiah 14:9. There are two main groups of etymological hypotheses explaining the origins of the biblical term, Repha'im. The first group proposes that this is a native Hebrew language term, which could be derived either from the root רפא or רפה. The first root, רפא, conveys the meaning of healing, as in of the souls and these souls living in the Jewish afterlife Sheol for which they're waiting for the final judgement dictated by the Jewish God, Elohim. The second root, רפה, means being weak, powerless as in those souls within Sheol are weak in the sense that they hold no physical power as in the living world, and their status is wiped. All things of the living that gives the living power is thus moot in the land of the dead, Sheol, and its inhabitants are thus again powerless and weak, having to be submissive to the Jewish God, Elohim. The second group of etymological hypotheses treat the word rephaim as a loanword from some other ancient Semitic language. Among the proposals is the Akkadian rabu, a prince, but this explanation enjoys rather limited popularity. Far more support has been gained by the hypothesis which derives the Hebrew from the Ugaritic which denotes the semi-deified deceased ancestors who are mentioned in such sources as the so-called Rephaim Text (KTU 1:20–22). Despite the inconsistency between these possible meanings and that modern translations clearly distinguish between Rephaites as one of the tribes (e.g. Book of Genesis 14:5; 15:18–21; Book of Deuteronomy 2:11–20) and rephaim as the inhabitants of the underworld (e.g. Book of Isaiah 14:9–11; 26:13–15), the same word is used in the original text.