Deuteronomy 2:11

2:11 The Rephaites lived near Ashteroth-karnaim (Gen 14:5; perhaps modern Tell Ashtarah), due east of the Sea of Galilee (see Deut 1:4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. Which also were accounted giants] This is not a fortunate version. The word is not giants, but רפאים Rephaim, the name of a people. It appears that the Emim, the Anakim, and the Rephaim, were probably the same people, called by different names in the different countries where they dwelt; for they appear originally to have been a kind of wandering free-booters, who lived by plunder. (See on the preceding verse.) It must be granted, however, that there were several men of this race of extraordinary stature. And hence all gigantic men have been called Rephaim. (See on Ge 6:4, and Ge 14:5.) But we well know that fear and public report have often added whole cubits to men's height. It was under this influence that the spies acted, when they brought the disheartening report mentioned Nu 13:33.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Rephaim … Anakim] See on Deu_1:28.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims,.... Because of their bulky size and tall stature; or,"the Rephaim were they accounted, even they as the Anakims;''they were reckoned Rephaim, a name for giants in early times, even as the Anakims were; see Gen 14:5.

but the Moabites called them Emims; to distinguish them from the Rephaim; so that it seems this name of Emims was not originally their name, but they are called so by a prolepsis, or anticipation, in Gen 14:5 since they had it from the Moabites, a people of a later date.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Giants. Hebrew Raphaim, which Grotius thinks is a word retained from the primitive language. It sometimes denotes giants, and those who groan in hell, on account of the great iniquity of the Raphaim, Job. xxvi. 5. Og was one of their descendants, and inhabited the same country, which they had occupied in the days of Abraham, chap. iii. 2. (Calmet) --- They lost much of their power in the war of Sodom. Some of them fled into the land of the Philistines, and established themselves there, 1 Kings xxi. 16. As these gigantic nations had been overthrown, as well as the Horrhites, when God formerly gave their territories to Moad and to Esau, (Haydock) so the Hebrews may be assured, that nothing will be able to resist their power, while He is with them. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

רפאים יחשבו וגו׳ THEY [ALSO] ARE ACCOUNTED REPHAIM, [AS THE ANAKIM] — As Rephaim are those Emim accounted, even as the Anakim — who are also termed Rephaim because the hands of everyone who beheld them became weak (רפה) (cf. Genesis Rabbah 26:7).

אמים — so called because the dread (אימה) of them lay upon the people. — So, too, (v. 12) the Horim dwelt formerly in Seir and I gave them over unto the children of Esau. (Genesis Rabbah 26:7)

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.