EMIM ("terrible ones"):
A name applied (Deut. ii. 10) to the original inhabitants of Moab, though the Septuagint reads for it Ομμίν. The name is used (Gen. xiv. 5) to designate also the inhabitants of the plain of Kirjathaim. Here the Septuagint calls them Ομμᾶιοι, but in both passages the Vulgate supports the Hebrew text.
They are described (Deut. l.c.) as the former possessors of the land, and are said to be "a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim, which also were accounted Rephaim" (A. V. "giants").
Kirjathaim, with which they are connected in Gen. l.c., was north of the Arnon, among the towns taken by the tribe of Reuben (Num. xxxii. 37; Josh. xiii. 19; and G. A. Smith, "Historical Geography of the Holy Land," pp. 567, note 1; 568, note 1). It is now called "Ḳureyat."
The name "Emim" was probably given in consequence of the terror inspired by these better-nourished inhabitants, who, to the underfed, undersized men of the desert, seemed giants.
