Hebrew word · H7496

רְפָאִים

refa'im

shade

(1) The shades: the weakened dead in Sheol, the underworld (Isa 14:9; 26:14; Ps 88:10; Prov 2:18; 9:18). (2) An ancient people remembered as giants (Deut 2:11, 20; 3:11). At Ugarit, the rpum were honoured dead ancestors, especially dead kings, who were invoked in ritual.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

ghosts of the dead, shades, spirits

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 Isaiah 26:19

Range of meaning

(1) The shades: the weakened dead in Sheol, the underworld (Isa 14:9; 26:14; Ps 88:10; Prov 2:18; 9:18). (2) An ancient people remembered as giants (Deut 2:11, 20; 3:11). At Ugarit, the rpum were honoured dead ancestors, especially dead kings, who were invoked in ritual.

Against the English

KJV has 'the dead'. WEB and NASB have 'departed spirits'. ESV and BSB have 'the dead' or 'her dead'. YLT keeps it as a name, 'Rephaim'. 'Departed spirits' can sound like ghosts wandering free, but the shades were pictured as weak and confined below.

How it drifted

English has no exact word for the Israelite idea of the dead as shadowy, powerless remnants in the underworld. 'Spirits' or 'souls' bring in the idea of a soul surviving on its own.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 14:9–10 shows the shades rising from their thrones in Sheol to greet the fallen king of Babylon: 'you too have become weak like us'. Ugaritic texts such as KTU 1.161 call on the royal rpum. The Vulgate has terram gigantum, 'the land of the giants'.

From the study of Proverbs 2:18

Range of meaning

(1) The shades: the dead as they exist in Sheol, faint and powerless, yet still able to be addressed in poetry (Isa 14:9–10; 26:14, 19; Ps 88:10 [Heb 11]; Job 26:5; Prov 9:18; 21:16). (2) A homonym (H7497), Rephaim, is the name of an ancient giant people (Gen 14:5; Deut 2:11, 20; 3:11, Og 'of the remnant of the Rephaim'). The two are probably connected in tradition: the great dead of old.

Against the English

KJV and NASB 'the dead' is accurate but flat, and loses the specific underworld term. BSB and WEB 'departed spirits' and NIV 'spirits of the dead' suggest spirit-beings. YLT simply transliterates 'Rephaim', which keeps the strangeness but explains nothing.

How it drifted

English 'spirits' tends to bring in later ideas of a soul that lives on fully conscious, or of ghosts. In Israel's older picture the Rephaim are weakened remnants in the dark of Sheol: 'you too have become weak as we are' (Isa 14:10).

Used elsewhere in the period

Ugaritic texts (KTU 1.20–22; the royal funerary liturgy KTU 1.161) speak of the rpum, the honoured dead ancestors of the royal line, invoked at funerals. Phoenician royal tomb inscriptions (Tabnit, KAI 13; Eshmunazar, KAI 14) curse a tomb-robber with having 'no resting-place with the Rephaim'. The Septuagint here renders the word 'the earthborn' (giants).

From the study of Psalm 88:10

Range of meaning

(1) The dead in Sheol, the underworld: 'shades', thin and weakened shadows of the living (Isa 14:9–10; 26:14, 19; Job 26:5; Prov 2:18; 9:18; 21:16; Ps 88:10). (2) The name of an ancient people remembered as giants, the Rephaim (Gen 14:5; Deut 2:11, 20; 3:11, Og 'the last of the Rephaim'). The two senses are probably linked: the legendary heroes of old became a byword for the mighty dead.

Against the English

KJV flattens it to 'the dead', so the second line just repeats the first. BSB, WEB and NASB say 'departed spirits', ESV 'the departed', YLT keeps 'Rephaim'. 'Departed spirits' is close, but it can suggest conscious souls living a full life elsewhere. The Hebrew picture is weaker and dimmer than that.

How it drifted

Later Jewish and Christian ideas of an immortal soul, and of the righteous dead praising God in heaven, have made 'spirits' sound active and alive. Hebrew rephaim stresses how faint and cut off the dead are.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ugaritic texts (Late Bronze Age Syria) speak of the rpum, deified royal ancestors called on in funeral rites (e.g. the royal funeral liturgy KTU 1.161). Phoenician tomb inscriptions (Tabnit, KAI 13; Eshmunazar, KAI 14) curse grave-robbers: 'may you have no resting-place with the rpʾm.' Isaiah 14:9 pictures the rephaim rousing themselves to greet the dead king of Babylon. Isaiah 26:14 reads 'the dead (metim) will not live, the shades (rephaim) will not rise (yaqumu)', the same pair of words and the same verb as Ps 88:10.

Similar words

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 26:5 הָרְפָאִ֥ים the shades

    The dead tremble—those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 88:10 רְ֝פָאִ֗ים [the] shades

    Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You? Selah

    Here: The dead in the underworld, pictured as faint, weak shadows of the people they were. Israel's neighbours used the same word for honoured, even god-like, dead ancestors. Here they are powerless.

Proverbs · 3

  1. Proverbs 2:18 רְ֝פָאִ֗ים [the] shades

    For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

    Here: The shadowy inhabitants of Sheol, the realm of the dead. It is an old, eerie word with Canaanite roots (Ugaritic rpum, Phoenician rpʾm). Her paths end among ghosts and not among the living.

  2. Proverbs 9:18 רְפָאִ֣ים [the] shades

    But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

  3. Proverbs 21:16 רְפָאִ֣ים [the] shades

    The man who strays from the path of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.

    Here: The shadowy, weakened dead living in Sheol, the world of the dead. The word also carried an older aura of the mighty dead of ancient times. To 'join the Rephaim' means to be dead and gone.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 14:9 רְפָאִים֙ shades

    Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

  2. Isaiah 26:14 רְפָאִ֖ים shades

    The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them; You have wiped out all memory of them.

    Here: The shadowy dead of the underworld. Across the wider Canaanite world the word had a royal colour: it named the dead kings and great ancestors who were honoured and called on in rituals. Fallen tyrants are now only Rephaim.

  3. Isaiah 26:19 רְפָאִ֥ים [the] shades

    Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.

    Here: 'The shades', the weak, shadowy dead in Sheol (the underworld). The same word appears in v.14 for those who will not rise.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.