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Mysterious World Giants in the Earth Part 1D

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Phase three of the war between YHWH and the rebels, which began soon after Noah and his family left the ark, ca. 10,000 b.c., did not come to fruition until the time of Abraham, ca. 2000 b.c. Though some commentators believe that http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/1999/Autumn/Sphinx04/" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Nimrod, one of the descendants of Ham, http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=GEN+10:8-12&;language=english&version=NIV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>(Gen. 10:8-12) was a giant, giants do not make a significant appearance in the Bible again until http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=GEN+14&;language=english&version=NIV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Genesis 14, during the time of Abraham's sojourn in Canaan. Genesis 14 describes a major regional conflict between the king of Elam and five of his vassals who lived in the land of Canaan, a war in which Abraham played a small part. Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, had gathered together three of his allies and gone to war with this confederation of five Canaanite kings who had refused to pay tribute any longer:

¹And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; ²That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. ³All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. ⁴Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. ⁵And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, ⁶And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness. ⁷And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar. ⁸And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim; ⁹With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five. ¹⁰And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain. ¹¹And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=GEN+14:1-11&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Genesis 14:1-11)

Though the theme of the passage is a familiar one, war, some of the participants in that war were not. Though the war was initially supposed to be against the five kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar, instead of taking these kings head-on, the Elamites and their allies instead began their attack far to the northeast, in the region of Bashan, and then worked their way down the east side of the Jordan, systematically destroying a heretofore unknown group of peoples called the Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, and Horim. They then turned to attack the Amalekites and Amorites, finally heading towards their initial target, the five kings of the five cities of the plain in southern Canaan. Hamilton explains,

The names of other peoples whom the Elamites and their allies subdued — Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, Horim, Amalekites, Amorites — would indicate that the uprising of the five southern kinglets was but one part of a massive effort to resist continued Mesopotamian control in Transjordan. The invading kings repress such attempted revolts in grandiose and unmitigated style. Nobody can stand before them, even though the defeated Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim are themselves imposing threats, people of giant stature. (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=DEUT+2:10-12&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Deut. 2:10-12, http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=DEUT+2:20-23&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>20-23)http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref20" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁰

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The distribution of Rephaim and Gibborim-type giant subclasses in Canaan, ca. 2000 b.c. Though the distribution of the various giant classes and exact territorial limits are unknown, general areas of inhabitation can be derived from http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=GEN+14&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Genesis 14 and http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=DEUT+2-3&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Deuteronomy 2-3. The Rephaim dominated most of south, central and northern Palestine, but the Zuzim dominated the region south of the Rephaim capitol Ashteroth Karnaim, with the Emim east of the Dead Sea and the Horim south of the Emim and east of the Vale of Siddim. Moses also mentions the "Avvim" that were centered around Gaza, southwest of Palestine, but there is no record of an Elamite attack on the Avvim. Chedorlaomer first attacked Ashteroth-Karnaim, the stronghold of the Rephaim, then proceeded to defeat the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim at Shaveh-Kiriathaim, and the Horim in their mountain strongholds scattered throughout Seir. They then subdued the Amalekites just south of Palestine, defeated the Amorite armies in Hazazon-Tamar, and destroyed the confederation of the five kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar at the Vale of Siddim, south of the Dead Sea. Having thus subdued the entire country, the Elamites then plundered all of the five cities in succession, taking away a very large amount of booty. Click http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Content/Images/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/Map-ElamiteConquest-Large.jpg" target=_blank rel=nofollow>here to view a larger image.

But why did they make the strategic decision of attacking these unknown peoples before approaching their main target? DeLoach explains, "Somehow, perhaps from spies, Chedorlaomer learned of the miliary alliance that the five cities had made with the giants who occupied Bashan, Gilead, and Edom. He thus chose not to strike the first blow at Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, or Bela, but moved instead to cut off help from their Rephaim neighbors".http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref21" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²¹ The giants were powerful warriors, and had to be divided and conquered, as a combined army of giants and men would have sorely pressed even the superb Elamite forces. If they had attacked the five kings directly, they would have been surrounded on all sides by armies of giants, which might have led to their complete annihilation. Instead, they wisely pursued a "divide and conquer" strategy, starting with the Rephaim in the north, and working their way down to the Horim in the south:

Sweeping down the valley, his army quickly laid siege to Ashteroth Karnaim. This chief city of the Rephaim lay in the district of Bashan, about six miles northwest of Edrei. These giants worshipped Astarte, the goddess of the crested moon. They were greatly decimated. Continuing along what the ancients called the King's Highway, a trade route that ran the entire length of the Trans-jordanian plateau to the Gulf of Aqabah, Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings next fell upon the enormous Zamzummim people of Ham. Some archaeologists identify this city with modern Ham, which is located in eastern Gilead, about four miles south of Irbid. After this, the kings from Elam and Mesopotamia attacked and cut off the terrible Emim giants at nearby Shaveh Kiriathaim. These people, described as "great and many and tall", occupied the land that the Moabites later took.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref22" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²²

The mysterious Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim and Horim were, in fact, giants. Giants were again on Earth in the time of Abraham, and YHWH was waging war upon them once more, using the Elamites — like Abraham, descendants of Shem — to destroy them. These mysterious giant races are described in much more detail than the Nephilim and Gibborim of the antediluvian world were, and are even given race-specific names, as follows:

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homo artificialis rephi
The Rephaim were the next generation of giants, the "new Nephilim", and were of Amorite descent. The fallen angels had chosen one of the line of Canaan, Amor, to use as the line through which they would once again begin to genetically modify mankind towards the creation of a new race of supermen. However, whereas nephilim, the term used to describe the half-divine, half-human demigods of the antediluvian world, straightforwardly translates into "those who came down", the exact meaning of the term rephaim is not as clear, as the term is used for a variety of purposes, both in the Bible and in related texts. L'Heureux gives an excellent summary of the state of the debate in his excellent monograph, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089130326X/mysteriousworldb" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Rank among the Canaanite Gods: El, Ba'al and the Rephaim:

The relevant data are the following: the occurrence of 1) rephaim, meaning the shades of the dead; the occurrence of 2) rephaim, referring to a gigantic race which inhabited parts of Palestine and Jordan before Israelite times; references to yelidiy ha-raphah (with variants) who are usually understood as descendants of Raphah, who would be the ancestor of the Rephaim; a geographical name, "Valley of the Rephaim;" personal names containing the element rapha or raphah,. In addition to the above, there are related matters which might be relevant: references to the Anaqim who, like Rephaim, were thought to be a prehistoric race of gigantic stature; appearing only twice are the Emim, apparently a special designation for the Rephaim of the territory later occupied by the Moabites; similarly the Zamzummim are the Rephaim of the Ammonite area; finally, the word Nephilim is also used for the giants of old.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref23" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²³

In the Ras Shamra texts found in the Canaanite city-state of Ugarit, the Rephaim are described as being simultaneously divine beings, human beings, cultic functionaries of the Amorite god Ba'al, mighty warriors, riders of chariots, and healers, or "ones who are healed". Some scholars also believe that that they were part of an aristocracy. The Amorites, who worshiped the god Ba'al, also believed that Ba'al was gigantic in stature: "Ba'lu the Saviour, was extremely tall. An Ugaritic myth tells us that when another god tried to sit on the throne of Ba'lu 'his feet did not reach the foot-stool, his head did not reach the top of the back.'"http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref24" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁴

Ba'al was the Amorite/Canaanite war, storm and fertility god, whom they believed made his presence known in, among other things, the yearly rains that came and made the fields bring forth their bounty each year. When the rains ended at the end of the rainy season, it was thought that Ba'al had died and gone down to the underworld, not to return again until the rainy season in the following year. During the intervening time, he remained in the underworld, among the spirits of the dead. The Rephaim were believed by the Amorites to be Ba'als acolytes, accompanying him both in the storm and into his journey into the underworld after the rains ceased. As a result, "since these minor deities follow Ba'al in his descent to the underworld, they later became identified with the shades of the dead, as in Biblical Hebrew and in Phoenician."http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref25" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁵ L'Heureux points out that, since greater gods in the Canaanite pantheon are described with the singular term rapha, then the term rephaim most likely refers to an assembly of lesser gods. This concept compares favorably with the Hebrew conception of elohim which most believe is meant to indicate an assembly of divine beings, or angels, in contrast to the singular El, which is used exclusively of YHWH, the head of the divine assembly. In short, Rapha is to rephaim as El is to elohim.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref26" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁶

However, unlike the heavenly deities of the court of YHWH, the court of Ba'al is instead an assembly of underworld deities, what the Israelites would have considered demonic spirits, or fallen angels. The Amorites worshiped these underworld deities as the departed spirits of their ancestors, and their funerary rituals were also acts of worship that included such activities as extreme drunkenness, riotous acts, cannibalism and worse.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref27" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁷ The spirits of the dead that were most worshiped were those of ancient kings and heroes: "within the framework of the Baalistic cult sacrificial meals with the spirits of the dead took place ... the ghosts are called metim "dead" or shedim "genii". One of the more interesting features of the text is that the rephaim seem to be a special class of spirits: kings, heroes, warriors, rulers."http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref28" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁸ Concerning the meaning of rapha and how it fits into the concept of underworld deity, Gray believes that the basic meaning of rapha is "to heal" or, more likely, to be healed.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref29" target=_blank rel=nofollow>²⁹ However, since it has to do with the dead rephaim, and since these dead rephaim are, along with Ba'al, resurrected at the beginning of each rainy season, I suggest that the Rephaim are not merely healed but, along with Ba'al, resurrected, and the fertility of the land resurrected with them. Thus the basic concept behind the word rephaim is "those who have been resurrected".

The rephaim deities of the Ugaritic texts, then, were seen as the resurrected spirits of ancient warrior kings. But resurrected into what? And how does this apply to the Rephaim giants? The Rephaim were seen by the Amorites as both divine and human, as human incarnations of the divine rephaim, just as the Amorite king was considered to be the incarnation of their state god, Ba'al.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref30" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³⁰ These "Rephaim of Earth" were believed to be the earthly incarnations of the divine (or fallen) Rephaim of the underworld. Moreover, since these were the spirits of ancient warriors, kings and heroes from ancient times, it was probable, since the Rephaim giants were specifically noted by Moses as being the return of the antediluvian Nephilim, that the Rephaim were in fact the reincarnations of the demonic spirits of the Nephilim giants who had been destroyed in the Flood. Thus, inherent in the very name "Rephaim" was the confirmation that the Rephaim were indeed the return of the Nephilim. As such, we have given them their own scientific classification to identify the Rephaim as the next generation that succeeded the Nephilim breed of giants: homo artificialis rephi.

In sum, then, according to the Bible and related texts, the Rephaim were a giant, human/divine hybrid race that formed an aristocratic warrior class known for their use of http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Canaan/Warfare.html" target=_blank rel=nofollow>chariots in battle, a "master race" of giant warrior-kings that were worshiped as the reincarnated spirits of the giant antediluvian god-kings, the Nephilim.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref31" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³¹ They served the Amorite king who was considered the incarnation of the Amorite high god Ba'al, who was also gigantic in stature, probably larger than the rest. This king likely ruled from Ashteroth-Karnaim, in the region of Bashan, in northeastern Canaan. These giant god-kings ruled over a mass of homo sapiens, whom the fallen angels were systematically altering into another class of Gibborim "storm troopers" in order to, once again, attempt to exterminate the "inferior" homo sapiens and rule the world. These Gibborim even had specific names: the Zuzim, the Emim, the Horim, and the Avvim.

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homo artificialis rephaim zuzi
The Zuzim were a Gibborim subclass of the Rephaim, the result of interbreeding between the Rephaim and homo sapiens. The resultant "Zuzim" http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=GEN+14:5&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>(Gen. 14:5) were probably 8-10 feet tall on average, a few feet shorter than the Rephaim, some of whom probably approached 12 feet in height or more. Moses described the Zuzim as "Zamzummims" http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Deut+2:10-11&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Deut. 2:19-21 that had once lived east of the Jordan River. They had been seriously depopulated by Chedorlaomer around 2000 b.c., but had been exterminated by the Ammonites somewhere betweeen 2000-1300 b.c. "Zamzummim" can mean either "murmurers" or "stammerers", and seems to indicate that they may have been involved in some sort of necromantic activity. Pope explains, "The designation Zamzummim is probably to be related to Arabic zamzam which is used onomatopoetically of buzzing or humming noise but also for a troop of people, both senses being appropriate to the dead, the not-so-silent majority who chirp, mutter and whisper from the dust (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Isaiah+8:19&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Isaiah 8:19, http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Isaiah+29:4&;language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on" target=_blank rel=nofollow>29:4).http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref32" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³² L'Heureux links the name zamzummim to the Hebrew zamam, "to murmur".http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref33" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³³ Graves and Patai in http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0844665533/mysteriousworldb" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis translate zamzummim as "achievers", probably in the sense that they were exceptionally strong and athletic, but do not give the provenance of this translation.http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref34" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³⁴ DeLoach suggests that the translation "stammerers" should be understood as "speakers of a barbarous tongue".http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref35" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³⁵ However, we believe the necromantic concept is best here because, as we have seen, the Rephaim considered themselves to be the reincarnated spirits of ancient heroes. Moreover, the Amorites were known for their worship of the dead,http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref36" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³⁶ even speaking to them in "peeps" and "mutters". Therefore, the name "Zuzim" or "Zamzummim" should be understood as "mutterers" in the sense of communicating with the dead. Interestingly, some have proposed that the term "Zamzummim" should be understood as "Ham-Zuzim", i.e., "the Zuzim from Ham", their capitol city. Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary also has the cryptic entry, "Zamzummims, projects of crimes; enormous crimes".http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Spring/Giants/#Ref37" target=_blank rel=nofollow>³⁷

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