Hebrew word · H2104
זוּזִים
hazuzim
Zuzim
A people named only here. They are widely identified with the Zamzummim of Deut 2:20, the Ammonite name for the Rephaim who once held Ammonite territory. The two names may be variant forms of one name.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
People descended from Zuz(?), only mentioned at Gen.14.5
§ Zuzim = "roving creatures"
an ancient people of uncertain origin, perhaps, inhabitants of ancient Ammon east of the Jordan
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Genesis 14:5
- Range of meaning
A people named only here. They are widely identified with the Zamzummim of Deut 2:20, the Ammonite name for the Rephaim who once held Ammonite territory. The two names may be variant forms of one name.
- Against the English
BSB/NIV 'Zuzites'; KJV 'Zuzims'; others 'Zuzim'. The Greek translation turned the word into 'strong nations', apparently reading it as a description rather than a name.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Genesis Apocryphon has 'Zumzammim who were in Ammon'. That shows that by around the 1st century BC, Jewish interpreters equated the Zuzim with the Zamzummim and Ham with Ammon. Modern geography usually puts Ham at Tell Ham in northern Gilead.
Where it appears
Genesis · 1
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Genesis 14:5 הַזּוּזִ֖ים the Zuzites
In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
Here: This people is named only here. They are probably the same as the Zamzummim, the name the Ammonites used for the Rephaim in their own territory (Deut 2:20).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.