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repaim
רפאימ
'repaim' is based on the root word 'repa' which seems to imply healing.
Much confusion has arisen, seemingly because a similar sounding word conflates two different roots; 'repa' and 'repeh', mistakenly confusing “the dead” with “the giants”
The root word has nothing to do with large size or giantism.
Contextually, 'repaim' is typically interpreted to mean “the dead” or is sometimes translated “the departed spirits”. This interpretation appears to fit the contextual usage in the 8 instances of the word:
- Job26:5 - The Dead shook in the place The Mayim
- Psalms88:10 - Shall for the dead will You work wonders lo the dead arise [and] praise You Selah
- Proverbs2:18 - For leads down to death her house and to the dead her paths
- Proverbs9:18 - But not he does know that the dead [are] there in the depths of sheol
- Proverbs21:16 - A man who wanders from the way of understanding in the assembly of the dead will rest
- Isaiah14:9 - sheol from beneath is excited to meet [you] at your coming it stirs up the dead all the chief ones of the earth it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations
- Isaiah26:14 - [They are] dead not they will live [They are] deceased not they will rise therefore You have punished and destroyed them and made to perish All memory
- Isaiah26:19 - Shall live Your dead [Together with] my dead body they shall arise Awake and sing you who dwell in dust for the dew of herbs your dew [is like] and the earth the dead shall cast out
However, the word is clearly based on the root repa (7496), which appears to mean “deformed” rather than “dead”.
- so we will need to re-examine the cases listed above.
- Also get other words for death, including “the shadow of death” of Psalms 23.
As a rather interesting twist, there is a related word irepa (7495) whose meaning is “healing”.
- examine a couple of these cases, particularly “the Valley Of The Deformed”
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LexID 97496