Emims

The Emims were an ancient race of giants who inhabited the territory east of the Jordan, specifically the region that later became the land of Moab. Described in Deuteronomy 2:10–11 as a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim, they were counted among the Rephaim, the broad biblical category of pre-Israelite giant peoples. Their name in Hebrew (ʾêmîm) is interpreted as the terrible ones or the dreadful ones, reflecting the terror they inspired.

The Moabites displaced the Emims and occupied their territory, just as the Edomites displaced the Horites from Mount Seir. Genesis 14 records them as inhabiting Shaveh-kiriathaim when the eastern coalition kings swept through the region in the time of Abraham, providing the earliest biblical reference to their presence. The note about the Emims functions in Deuteronomy as encouragement to Israel: if God enabled Moab to displace giants, he could surely enable Israel to take Canaan, despite the intimidating reports of large peoples there.