Deuteronomy 2:8

"And we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And Jehovah said unto me, Vex not Moab neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give thee of his land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. (The Emim dwelt therein aforetime, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim: these also are accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. The Horites also dwelt in Seir aforetime, but the children of Esau succeeded them; and they destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead, as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which Jehovah gave unto them). Now rise up, and get you over the brook Zered."

Moses here gave another example of a nation (Moab) to whom God had given land as a possession, noting also that God would not allow Israel to take any possession that God had not given to Israel. Here is another example of what was mentioned above relative to the statement in Deuteronomy 2:5. Moses also enhanced this reference to God as the sovereign of all the earth (Acts 17:26) by throwing in the statement in Deuteronomy 2:10-12. The mighty race of the Rephaim had preceded Moab in that territory, but when they proved themselves no longer worthy of God's blessing, the Moabites were empowered by God to drive them out "as Israel" had already driven out the Trans-jordanian peoples to make room for the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh.

Now, who on earth could possibly have known about this bit of history except Moses? Some editor, "long after the conquest?"[12] Ridiculous! Nobody but Moses in the whole world of that entire millennium was as QUALIFIED as Moses to have added a historical note like this. He was the adopted son of Pharaoh, a presumptive heir to the throne of Egypt, and adequately skilled in the knowledge that a world ruler was expected to have. What is the excuse for making such portions of this chapter "a later addition?" As Davies put it, the words "as Israel betray the writer as living long after the conquest."[13] Here again it is blind ignorance that produces such a critical denial. The mention of "as Israel" here "doubtless refers to the conquest of Trans-jordan,"[14] a conquest already completed for the settlement of the tribes that chose to live east of Jordan. Alexander likewise saw the truth of this explanation, saying, "It must refer to the conquest of the land east of Jordan."[15] This is another of countless examples of the way Bible critics base what they call "a contradiction," or "an anachronism" upon one of their false interpretations of the text.

"The Moabites called them Emim ..." "This word Emim means the terrible ones."[16] The very meaning of this word thus gives a definite clue as to why God threw them out of the land in order to give it to the Moabites. Both this and the other examples of such a thing found in Deuteronomy 2:20-23 were very probably intended by Moses to provide a warning to Israel that when they should at last enter Canaan, their tenure there would depend upon the kind of people they would be. The Rephaim and the Anakim of this passage "were an ancient race of large stature dwelling in an extensive area around the Dead Sea."[17] They appear to have been a race of marauding plunderers, preying upon the peoples around them. "It appears that the Anakim, the Rephaim, and the Emim are merely several names for the same people."[12] Other Biblical references to these people are found in Genesis 11:27,28; 19:30:38.

"The Horites also dwelt in Seir aforetime ..." The Horites were "cave-dwellers."[19] Like the Emim, these people also are mentioned in Genesis (Genesis 14:5,6). It is Moses, therefore, who possessed the information about these people that led to his illustrative mention of them here.

"Rise up, and get you over the brook Zered ..." "These words connect with Deuteronomy 2:9, and form the conclusion of what God said to Moses."[20]