Genesis 14:5 - Exposition

And in (or during) the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote (because of actual or probable rebellion) the Rephaims . Γίγαντας ( LXX .) , a tribe of gigantic stature (from an Arabic root, to be high), the iron bed of whose last king, Og, measured nine yards in length and four in breadth ( Deuteronomy 3:11 ); forming a portion of the aboriginal inhabitants of Palestine prior to the invasion of the Canaanites, though existing as a remnant as late as the conquest ( Genesis 2:20 ; Genesis 3:11 , Genesis 3:13 ). In Ashteroth Karnaim . Literally, Ashteroth of the Two Horns ; so called either from its situation between two horn-shaped hills (Jewish interpreters), or because of the horned cattle with which it abounded (Hillery), or in honor of the goddess Ashtaroth, Astarte, or Venus, whose image was such as to suggest the idea of a horned figure ( A Lapide, Gesenius, Kalisch); identified by some with the capital of Og (Keil), but by others distinguished from it (Wetstein); of uncertain site, though claimed to sin-rive in the ruins of Tell Ashtereh, near the ancient Edrei (Ritter); in those of Afineh , eight miles from Buzrah (Porter); in the modern village Mesarib (Burckhardt); or in El Kurnem or Ophein in Ledsha (Robinson). And the Zuzims . Probably the Zamzummims between the Arnon and the Jabbok ( Deuteronomy 2:20 ). In Ham . "Possibly the ancient name of Rabba of the Ammonites ( Deuteronomy 3:11 ), the remains being still preserved in the ruins of Amman" (Keil). And the Emims . Fearful and terrible men, the primitive inhabitants of Moab ( Deuteronomy 2:10 , Deuteronomy 2:11 ); called also Rephaims, as being of colossal stature. In Shaveh Kiriathaim. Literally, the plain of Kiriatkaim, or the plain of the two cities, situated in the district afterwards assigned to Reuben ( Numbers 32:37 ); identified with Coraiatha, the modern Koerriath or Kereyat , ten miles west of Medebah (Eusebias, Jerome, Kalisch), which, however, rather corresponds with Kerioth, in Jeremiah 48:24 (Keil).